You seem to have a poor understanding of the point of recycling. Yes, it does save landfill space, but the biggest benefit is that for every bit recycled, we don't have to mine, refine, and transport from the source deposit the steel, plastic, or aluminum or glass it takes to make another one. For example, it takes far less energy to melt down an aluminum can and turn it into something else than it does to (destructively) strip mine the bauxite, transport the ore, and then refine it into aluminum. The additional bonus is the reduction in mining and dumping.

As for rinsing, I usually don't rinse with the exception maybe of tomato paste cans or other containers that really get gunky. I haven't had any problems with smell or pests. I take my recyclables to the drop-off in my town pretty frequently. And no, I don't waste any gas doing it because I just wait until I'm going that way anyway.

And you can use the same water to rinse multiple cans. It doesn't have to be spotless. If you're still all that worried about saving water, you can probably find other areas of your water use that can be cut back to save the amount that you use in rinsing.

but the biggest benefit is that for every bit recycled, we don't have to mine, refine, and transport from the source deposit the steel, plastic, or aluminum or glass it takes to make another one. For example, it takes far less energy to melt down an aluminum can and turn it into something else than it does to (destructively) strip mine the bauxite, transport the ore, and then refine it into aluminum. The additional bonus is the reduction in mining and dumping.

Sounds like you would like to see thousands more jobless. I think we need to worry about overpopulation and running out of food and water before we terminate all those jobs.

Your original argument for wasting resources was a complete failure, so now you switch to something else just as illogical. The paragraph you quoted had nothing to do with jobs-- it was about energy use, not labor. The two are not intrinsically linked. The recycling industry needs humans to collect, sort, and sell the material, and guess what? All those jobs are LOCAL, American jobs.
If you're really worried about food and water, maybe you should think about contamination of water and land by strip mining all those non-renewable resources you would have us not recycle. It's hard to grow crops on land laced with heavy metals, irrigating with arsenic contaminated water.

A complete failure?? 2 weeks going unanswered only to get a mediocre answer is a triumph in my book. My original point is still valid for most recyclers. I don't think we should stop recycling just be a little more intelligent about the ways we do it.

I don't think many folks are against recycling or doing things as "green" as possible because in most cases doing things in this manner saves us money.

I keep five gallon buckets around the house to catch rain water for my gardening use. I have one right beside the recycle bin and just use a little rain water to rinse the messy containers out.

I agree with the other poster who is concerned with jobs. This country (USA) needs to get back on track with manufacturing, stop exporting the jobs, and to tap the resources we are so blessed with. We shouldn't need to be drilling a mile deep in the Gulf for oil. We have huge reserves we could safely drill on land if the lefty whacks and the Marxists in power at the moment weren't tying our hands.

Nov is coming. Let's be sure to flush the toilet in D.C.