dcwcreations / Shutterstock.com Food Cans Other Recycling dcwcreations / Shutterstock.com Rinse Before Recycling It’s best if you rinse out steel food cans before recycling them, but it’s not mission critical. If you can’t or don’t rinse, the metal will still be purified during the recycling process. Did You Know? Metal Can Be Recycled Again and Again Steel food cans can be recycled over and over again because they don’t lose any of their quality or functionality during the recycling process. Tin Can Recycling in the 1940s