Do you wash your yogurt pots for recycling?

[Forgottenmyphone]

As if we don’t have enough to do! With young children, I get through a lot of Petit Filous. Do you wash yogurt pots?

Yes, but the kids can do this. Even a 3 yr old can have that job. It takes literally 5 seconds.

No, I just put them in the rubbish bin. Household recycling makes zero difference.

Of course I do, it takes 30 seconds.

If they are for your children then you must realise the plastic will be in your child's world for the next 60 years if you aren't recycling them? Are you ok with that?

Maybe you need to do one of those experiments where you carry round all your rubbish for a week and see how it accumulates and if you feel you should recycle.

The dogs wash the yoghurt pots, they’re happy to help lol

Childfree by choice here. The most eco-friendly thing anyone could ever do.

I win. 😉

Yes, the council asks us to - same goes for glass and cans. Takes literal seconds.

Yes. After doing the washing up I wash them in the water .

My dishwasher manufacturer says i can only wash certain plastics that are marked as safe. Yoghurt pots aren't (many single use plastics aren't safe) and I can't afford to buy a new one if it gets damaged. I can hardly stand long enough to cook, nevermind wash extra things that are going in the bin and if people can't understand that, then shame on them, not me.

To clarify, if it goes in recycle bin then it is washed. Not washed then general bin.

Yes, I just put them in with the washing up. We don't have a dishwasher. Otherwise the recycling will smell bad and attract bugs in warm weather, it takes very little time to do after all.

I do t buy petit flights but I do buy 1kg of Greek yogurt.
Dh always puts the pots ( and jars ) in the dishwasher. I don't but then he notices i haven't and puts them in the dishwasher!!

Yes, we rinse all recycling in the used dish water before it goes in the wheelie bin. It should be washed, but also the bin would be minging by the end of 2 weeks!

Meh, you can call me whatever you like.

Anyone on this thread who has children is doing far more damage to the planet than I am with my unwashed yogurt pots.

SUCH an unpalatable truth. 🤭

It doesn’t make zero difference. You can argue its environmental impact may be low and there are arguments on both sides for that. However there are two main differences.

A. General waste goes to landfill. This is buried and leaves large swathes of land unusable for centuries. The clean up required for these sites is too costly to repurpose the land. We already have a shortage of suitable space for this which is why landfill sites are now within residential areas which has a massive impact on the quality of life for residents not to mention the impact on house prices. There is a site in Fife which is currently still on fire for a 5th day, costing the taxpayer money in fire services attendance and reducing the service for others.

B. Councils pay a huge amount of tax for dumping in landfill. Approximately 14 million tonnes goes to landfill. That’s over 1.8 billion in tax that is paid for either in Council Taxes or increased costs passed on by commercial businesses. If you’re happy with that, then carry on. On the flip side, councils are paid for selling recyclable materials so that’s money that would help the council budget leading to lower council taxes.

Except that the “damage” to the environment, has an overall benefit as those children go on to be net contributors to the economy ensuring we don’t simply have an ageing population who can’t be cared for.

Just deciding not to play your part in green waste solutions because you don’t want to has no net benefit. It’s not an offset.

I wash them and leave to dry before chucking into recycling bin.

But that assumes that all DC will be net contributors and will stay in the UK and pay their taxes etc. their entire lives. Many aren't and don't.

Yes

Surely what the dishwasher manufacturer means is that using the machine to wash “unsafe” plastics might damage the plastic not that it might damage the machine!

Some plastics I put in mine come out looking exactly as they did went they went in (but clean). Others come out very misshapen and couldn’t be reused. I imagine that the dishwasher manufacturer is trying to protect itself from being sued by people saying that the dishwasher ruined their plastic plates/glasses/whatevers.

Definitely.

Yes, everything goes through the dishwasher before recycling.

It says the high temperature can melt certain single plastics which will damage the dishwasher but I'm not willing to gamble. However googling has also brought up that dishwashing single use plastics can release toxic chemicals from those plastics as they shouldn't be near high temperatures. So thank you everyone for releasing even more toxic chemicals into our water system.

Yes I rinse everything that goes in the re cycling. Meat packets, yogurt pots, wipe out the butter boxes

The UK really needs more waste to energy plants so waste is going to landfills any more. Less than 1% of waste goes to landfills in my country, the rest of non-recyclable or compostable waste gets burnt to provide energy so kills two birds with one stone, gets rid of the waste and creates energy for e.g. district heating, reducing reliance on fossil fuels.

Of course, put in sink, pour warm water, then turn upside down to dry. Takes abour 20 secs. Eveyone has a spare 20 secs, surely.😂