dcwcreations / Shutterstock.com Food Cans Put in Recycling Cart/Bin dcwcreations / Shutterstock.com Scrape or rinse cans out before recycling. Rinse Before Recycling Empty and rinse out steel food cans before recycling them. Ways to Reuse Pencil or Paintbrush Holder Clean out an old food can and use it to store pencils, pens, or paintbrushes. 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