My mum has thrown away over £150 worth of makeup and medication

True but just thinking they might not have been the most hygienic anyway?
OPs parents must have more money than sense anyway. OP, your mum was totally wrong there. No respect for your belongings.

It's weird, because you can virtually guarantee that, if you accidentally left a small bag of this kind at an airport or huge railway station, it would be found either by a kind, honest person who would look for clues inside to help them get it back to you, or by a potential thief who would want to see what valuables they might be able to take... but either way, the stranger would look inside the bag. Nobody there would just pick it up and throw it in the bin.

And yet your own mother, who knows that you recently visited - and indeed saw you opening the bag to get something out of it to give to her - has no 'responsibility' to not just toss it into the bin without a care in the world?!

Maybe some people's bar for family/friends/ordinary half-decent people is much, much lower than mine.

Still not the responsibility of the person whose house it was left at. Your bag, your expensive make-up. If you leave it somewhere and it gets thrown away by mistake, it's your responsibility.

It's also very feasible that somebody could be using a compact pouch like that in place of a handbag for all kinds of personal effects and valuables: phone, bank cards, cash, keys...

Why it wouldn't even occur to somebody to have a quick check is completely beyond me. And even if it's empty and you know for a fact that neither you nor any of your recent visitors could possibly want it, if it's in good condition, it would still be something for the charity shop bag and not for the bin - which is obviously only for things that are of no use or interest to anybody.

It is the responsibility of the other person to NOT bin it, so long as it is not disguised as rubbish in some way (eg. wrapped in dirty kitchen towel, or being stored in a black bin bag).

Now you're just being silly - what if, what if, what if. Who knows. My point is, if you leave something somewhere, it is not the responsibility of the other person to look after it, unless you have let them know it's there. What's the problem with this?

Bloody hell, who pissed on your chips today?

Exactly, 💯 this. Either a lot of people are not bothering to sort their recycling properly or people are playing devil's advocate. People should not just be throwing things into their black bin without checking it first. This thread is giving me an eye opener into how much unnecessary stuff gets chucked into land fill because people are just throwing stuff into their black bin.

If you're not sorting stuff into recycling then you really should be. I find it hard to believe that people are sorting their recycling on their kitchen worktop. Or that people have so much black bin waste sitting on their kitchen worktop that they don't notice a makeup bag amongst it.

@Tekknonan

so if you saw a makeup bag on the side what was unfamiliar to you, you would just bin it? You’d have no curiosity as to what was inside? Wouldnt spend the 5 secs it takes to open bag and check nothing of work before binning? That’s crazy! Especially not long after a guest has visited you

@nostyleandnoclothes

i know right, right!

or even… heaven forbid… lips that look nice with a nice liptick and lipliner.

some mumsnetters would keel over at such vanity!

Yeah, right. Into the bin with the microwave, the radio, the toaster, the lot.

Read the post. I don't bother checking what's there because I already know. I put it there. I don't usually check to see if the local poltergeist (or a careless relative) has dumped a bag of expensive make-up. It's up to the OP to look after her own stuff. My partner died some years ago, so no, he doesn't dump pans and things on the worktop. I wish he did, but he doesn't.

Doesn't matter. The fact is the mother threw away something that didn't belong to her. What's so hard to understand?

Can't believe the OP is getting flack for having expensive make up in the first place. Jeez 😩

Absolutely

I love my make up

A surprising number of people will express horror at reading a full thread when it's 'already far too long to read'; yet they somehow clearly believe that their adding to it and making it even longer will help - and that people (whose time obviously isn't as important as theirs) will nevertheless read THEIR comments...

But even aside from that, the number of people who will come on and post - usually with rather obvious and facile comments - without even reading all of the OPs own posts is truly baffling.

"Here, let me tell you what's happened and then see what you think about the situation."
"No, no, no need for that - I'll just guess and we'll go from the assumption that I'm right!"

Your mum sounds like a nasty piece of work tbh OP. 💐

Sounds like you take after your parents with your blasé response to retrieving lost belongings!

The basic lack of bothering to recycle alone gives the lie to the claim that many people who behave like this make of being ultra efficient and quick at dealing with a simple task. In reality, they're actually attempting it with the skill and wisdom of a toddler.

A task is only actually dealt with efficiently (indeed at all) if it's done properly.

I’ve had people leave stuff behind before, never have I ever thrown them away?! That’s weird of her. Are you able to wash it all down and use it again or is the makeup ruined?

You just throw everything on your worktop away? You don't bother checking what it is and sort it into recycling? If your partner had left a pan or a bag of shopping on the worktop you would just chuck that as well? Seriously, just all into the black bin?

I can't get my head round this mentality, so wasteful just throwing a load of stuff into landfill without just checking what it is. Especially if you've had friends or relatives round.

I had a friend visit recently and she accidentally left a couple of things behind. I did NOT throw them away and if I had I'd offer to replace them.

That's a very good point, actually. It blatantly wasn't an accident in the first place... but supposing it had been basically rubbish but with a possible bit of value - say, an empty crisp packet with an offer on it that OP had wanted to keep - the answer would almost certainly have been that she most probably/must have thrown it away; but the fact that she knew that she had thrown it away is very telling indeed.

Shouldn't have had to ask. The mum should have offered to reimburse but she sounds like a dreadful mother,so she won't 😞

This makes no sense. Why shouldnt she retrieve it? You can wash it...madness

It’s a bit late now to ask for it to be replaced, you should have said something whenever she told you she threw it out.