Recycling a "water bottle" with engine oil stain, possible?

If you are determined to return clean plastic for recycling then just wash it, be it dish soap or brake cleaner or whatnot.
I just rinse with water what goes into blue bin, but do a little more to clean what goes back for deposit refund.
In that case you wasting more resources than will be recovered from the bottle.
 
I try to be environmental-friendly as much as I can, leveraing our town's recycling center to dump old oils, filters and containers, as we try all do.

One time, I used an empty water bottle (dried), cut the bottom and used it as a funnel (which actually fit perfectly for our SUV as the fill cap is rather "deep"). This method was convenient as I don't have to clean up, produce another piece of trash (a shop towel with oil stain) and just dump the bottle in our recycling bin.

However, a friend of mine said that this particular bottle CANNOT be recycled and I shouldn't do that. I am taking his advice since I have more than a few funnels with various lengths, and a flexible funnel which is really easy to clean up.

Is this true? I maybe splitting hairs here but I thought NOT wasting / discarding a oil-stained paper towel was "better / less worse" then a water bottle with oil stain (which I thought could be recycled).

Any feedback / insights will be appreciated, as usual!
You are a good person. If I have the same dilemma I put it in the garbage. A guy told me there is a huge storage are in the Pacfic ocean where the plastic bottles go. ;)
 
Here is my routine to help the environment as every little bit counts:
- Used oil get flushed in the toilet
- used coolant poured into a hole dug in the ground
- plastics and tires get burned.
- cardboard goes into the trash.

Just doing my part…

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I too am a big recycler. But if there is any doubt, toss it in the trash. Too many batches of recyclables are relegated to the regular trash because there is too much contamination in the batch. I've heard that in some places 70% of recycled material is trashed. This is the result of dealing with the lowest common denominator of uneducated people.
 
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