Friend Doesn't Recycle

I had a colleague who didn’t. ‘Why should I?’ was the refrain. Unless she’d really thought there would be a fine or other sanction, she’d never do it. She never washed any cans or other containers that went in her bin, either. ‘Why should I?’
So disgusting - I do often feel sorry for the bin men, having to cart people’s stinking, maggot-ridden bins about.

@GasPanic I don't believe it either, I don't know anyone who rinses it out and I've never been told to.

How do people justify judging others about recycling when unless they don't drive, don't go on holiday abroad etc, don't buy clothes from most of the mainstream online shops they're probably contributing just as much to the destruction of the planet it's so hypocritical

We have to take glass to the glass bank but I've near enough given up on trying to sort out recycling, the bloke lumps it all together

It's crazy, I have a colleague who doesn't recycle. I asked about her bin getting full she said she just puts her rubbish bags in which ever bin she fancies! (As in general waste/recycling/garden waste) She said her blind Aunt is allowed to put rubbish in any bins as she can't see the colour difference, so she said if her aunt does why can't she 🤦‍♀️ she said she doesn't get paid to separate her recycling the workers at the dump do though 🙄

My mums system is the same

More reason not to recycle then,….cos you bet a pound to a penny that someone on your street doesn’t rinse……it’s just not worth the hassle

OK. So try this thought experiment.

A lorry load holds 50 houses recycling who all rinse out their containers.

I put one jar of non rinsed out bolognese sauce in my recycling.

How do they even find it to condemn the load ? Do they inspect each and every container, putting them in a holding area and then wait until they find one that has not been rinsed, then condemn the lot ?

They'd have to do that for every single load ...

My guess it is just a lie they tell people to try to convince them to make it easier for them.

Recycling just makes people feel better about using so much plastic but it doesn't actually achieve anything.

It feels callous to say "oh, we don't recycle" but frankly I don't think anything much of what we put in our recycling bins is actually recycled. Colour me cynical but I believe it's mostly a money-making/green-washing ruse because to actually, properly, recycle all of our recyclable waste (1) isn't technically possible (2) would be prohibitively expensive (3) beyond the logisitical setup of the UK.

It all ends up in landfill, being burned and/or dumped abroad or into the ocean.

My Council use one bin to put everything in - glass, cardboard, plastic, cans, paper etc.

There are some people in my road who never recycle yet our scheme is one of the easiest.

@GasPanic It is true I'm afraid

@TorroFerney Yes!

Not sure if my last post posted this image so I'll share it again....

If that were true then all of it would end up in general waste because there is always going to be someone who doesn't rinse it out in a lorry load.

WTAF? What an astonishingly self absorbed thing to say

If you don't rinse recycling then that entire lorry load has to go into general waste!

People put others stuff in their recycle bins….our neighbour uses 2 of his for kindling for his log burner

Not everyone is an Eco zealot.
My neighbour rams everything into the general bin and then goes round putting bags into other bins, skips etc.
They saving their recycling bins! 😐

Our next door neighbours - a family of six - don't separate their rubbish. They have one bin that's always badly overflowing, and three that are completely empty. Occasionally, it gets out of control or the bin men refuse to take their bin because it's too over-stuffed... and then they hire a skip.

I really, really don't understand why they don't recycle. Not because I assume everyone cares about that kind of thing, and of course I get that people with four kids are busy people, but simply because it would so obviously be in their own best interests just to use the bins available to them, rather than cramming everything into one bin which isn't remotely adequate for the amount of rubbish they generate.

This is me exactly.

Well there’s worse things than lazy eh

Well this is the 3rd time in 5 weeks that our recycling hasn't been picked up (it's supposed to be a weekly collection). It's getting to the point where I'm thinking if they cba to collect it then I cba to keep on putting it in the "correct" bin. The only bin guaranteed to be collected is the household rubbish every 2 weeks, so everything will go in there ready for tomorrow's collection because it's not hanging around for another week.

Recycling in the uk largely gets shipped abroad and burned / dumped etc so it's largely pointless anyway.

We recycle with mull club, that way we know it's actually getting recycled, worth a look. It's so good!

mull-club.co.uk

Yes! of course you are.

I'd think my friend was a bit of an arse for not recycling. The city's waste reclamation centre (or recycling centre or whatever it's called) is absolutely fascinating. Things get separated and recycled much more than some of the lazy gits cynics here would have you believe.

Yeah, it'd be easier to care if the breeders of the next generations cared about their own offspring enough to stop buying shitloads of new stuff, driving brand new SUVs, flying abroad, etc.

I've never not recycled, but these days I'm not as bothered about it because I don't see it as my responsibility to prevent the suffering of other people's children when they've chosen to bring them into a climate crisis and exacerbate the problems! 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️