How to wash an oily "Take out" containers quickly and efficiently without wasting too much liquid dish soap or time and energy?

Question

I eat a lot of take out food from restaurants in my neighborhood area and I get a lot of take out containers after eating those foods. I usually throw them away because I find it very difficult to wash them, especially when the take out food were oily and greasy.

I have tried washing a few of those take out containers, as I find them quite sturdy and of good quality. It is such a waste to throw away such good quality take out containers, when I could at least use them several more times. 

That is if I could clean and wash them properly without the need to wash them several times with dish soap and water. You know, how tedious it gets when I have to wash each take out containers for several times with soap and water, only to find that they are still oily and greasy.

I don't know what material those take out containers are actually made of, but they tend to attract and retain a lot of oil and grease from the food, and makes it revolting to the touch. (I don't like the touch and feeling of grease and oil in my hands at any time).

Answer 1

Just like you, I love doing "Take out" food from restaurants in my neighborhood area too. I also noticed the good quality of the "Take out" containers and wanted to reuse them at least a few times before throwing them out completely.

What I used to do was I would wash the oily greasy container 2 or 3 times with dish washing liquid soap, until I felt the grease was gone. But then there were times, when no matter how many times I washed the same container, the oily greasy just wouldn't go away.

Another trick is to 1st use a sheet of paper towel to "Dry" wipe clean your oily greasy take out containers, even before using the dish washing soap on them. You can use "Wet" paper towel too if you prefer.

Throw away those greasy paper towel after use into your "Organic Waste" bin. Do not throw them into your "Blue" recycling bin because it is oily and greasy, and it will only add to the "trouble" of cleaning the recyclable items, by the workers at the recycling plants. 

Did you know that paper towels are compostable and can be used as the substitute for leaves as "Brown" material when making home compost?

Also i discovered that by adding "Regular liquid [hand] soap" (Purchased from Dollar store) with "Liquid [dish] washing soap", it will create a "Super Strong" liquid that can easily removes 2x as much oil and grease. 

Notice how I emphasized on those two words "Hand" liquid soap and "Dish" liquid soap. They are both different types of liquid soap but when combined, they work wonders.

Use this newly created cocktail of liquid soap and you will be surprised at how good, they can remove those grease from your food containers.