To inwardly rage against people who won't recycle

[siblingrevelry]

My dad told me that his neighbours either side have told him they 'can't be bothered' to recycle as per the new scheme in the area, and will just continue putting everything into their main bin.

It pisses me off that people are seemingly allowed to opt out of this public duty. I am very environmentally aware, although i realise that scraping shit off babie's nappies is a step too far for lots of folks, but why should I and many others bother washing tins, squashing plastic and taking out the recycling when others don't?

I appreciate that the jury is still out on global warming, but there is no denying that the physical space this stuff takes up in landfill affects us all.

Lazy, lazy, lazy!

Well I don't recycle and here's my reasons why-

I find it so bewildering. Certain items aren't recyclable at all, then you get other items where one part of it will be and the other part won't be. You also get stuff where you have to take one part of it off for a different bin. There's also the fact you have to go to the effort of washing everything out. I don't have a clue what each bin means and there isn't a plastic bin so that has to be taken to local recycling centre and I don't drive. I'd also either have to leave tins, jars and cardboard lying around before I could get chance to go out to the bins or go out to the bins constantly. I have three DC under four that I home ed and quite frankly I just don't have the time.

But it's not just that. I do a lot more for the planet that will be a lot more helpful for the planet than a lot of people who recycle do. I don't drive, use reusable nappies and wipes, buy as much second hand as possible, don't use carrier bags and am a vegan. So if you recyle but also eat meat then good luck in thinking that you're helping the planet because fact is it is good to recycle but it is better to be a vegan and not drive cars. Just a fact.

Our district doesn't do glass leaving us with no choice but to throw it away, as the nearest recycling plant thing is miles away and we don't drive. Yanbu generally though, it's not difficult in normal circumstances to make an effort, even if you don't do everything.

yanbu
but we are lucky that the council makes it easy for us.
we have three bins: waste, recycling (every thing, glasspaper, metal, plastic), garden+food waste) and weekly collection.

I recycle glass, paper and tins, but I won't recycle food - I tried, but it is disgusting. For me, it wasn't so much the inside caddy (it is manky, but not much goes in it and it gets put out quickly) as the outside one. We would leave it at the end of the alley before 7am/the night before, the bin men would collect it at say 8am. They would leave it only half emptied and wide open for us to collect it at 7/8pm, stinking and full of maggots. Rats were coming and feeding from them fearlessly, which was distressing to the elderly couple who live next to the alley as well as a health hazard to us all.

And as for the idea that we shouldn't have food waste is ridiculous. With a toddler, I quite often have food left over - appetites can be unpredictable! DD has just eaten 2 slices of toast, a handful of raisins and a biscuit, but for yesterday's breakfast ate only a quarter of an apple. My husband sometimes comes home with a headache after battling through the traffic and eats a much smaller portion than usual. I sometimes buy something I think I'll like (coconut yogurt anyone?) only to find it tastes of soap and plastic. I don't buy food to throw away, but some food does get thrown away each week and I don't feel guilty about it.

Wamabama - because you home ed, and as your children get older, you will be able to involve them in the recycling. You could look at it as being educational - but my dses would call it using them as staff!

Being serious for a moment to prove that I can you are making a very good point about how complicated some councils make it to recycle. Both the council where I live now, and where I used to live, have a pretty sensible attitude to it - all the recyclable stuff can go in the one wheely bin - including glass and cardboard. And when I asked someone from the council how clean things had to be, she was fairly pragmatic about it, and said we should do what we can but not knock ourselves out - and these two things do make recycling a lot easier.

I know I'm probably in tiny minority here but I actually like the separating it all out, flattening the cardboard boxes etc, I find it therapeutic and strangely satisfying, bringing some sort of order to our waste. I hate putting stuff in the black bin as it feels like I've failed to find a home for it.

I have no idea if recycling is worth it or not, its detractors are every bit as adamant as its supporters, but its there, its collected from outside my house, and I find it weirdly enjoyable.

I don't understand any principle behind not recycling - reusing stuff makes sense whichever way you look at it. People who are somehow proud of not doing it just sound really stupid to me.

I do agree, however, that councils must make proper provision. Ours is very good - food every week and alternate weeks for glass/plastic and paper/card + landfill. You can request more boxes any time so it's all stored properly. In those circumstances, I'm quite happy for it to be mandatory.

everything that can be taken in our green boxes here goes in, glass we collect then take to the bottle bank at the supermarket when we do a shop, fruit and veg scraps and any other compostable stuff goes in a little caddy by the sink and gets emptied into the compost bin outside , and oh to the pp who says it shouldn't get maggoty, erm it can if its not emptied often enough as I can tell you other food scraps... if the birds will eat them or the gulls then out they go onto the bird table / shed roof demolished in seconds especially fish or chicken skin, any other cooked leftovers (extremely rare as I have teens ) go in double bags in the normal bin in the kitchen, this is emptied when full we get a weekly bin collection and fortnightly green bin. also get garden waste fortnightly in summer. It all works well where I live and is not a huge effort. tbh when I see how much packaging goes in the green box in one day I would be forever emptying kitchen bin if it all went in there which is more of a pain. I would prefer my kitchen without two boxes stacked in it on the back doorstep but I am used to it now. (I dream of a futility room) its lazyness and socially iresponsible not to recycle when there is a system for collection IMO.

Lots of sceptics out there about whether our piddling little efforts will do any good but they wouldn't be piddling little efforts if everyone did it would they. Granted it's a small drop in the ocean but this alongside campaigning for changes elsewhere could make a difference but not if everyone takes the view ' ah well, I am not contributing much to destroying the planet and won't be here to see the damage therefore why bother' nice attitude to the world and its future inhabitants which could possibly be members of your family generations on.

It really boils my piss when people make sweeping statements about how 'most of it ends up in Asian landfills anyway'
The waste and recycling industry (my industry) is highly sophisticated and one of the most highly regulated and legislated. Shock horror, says the Daily Mail, your recycling ends up in China. Well yes, some of it does. China is a net exporter so it is an excellent use of resources to send their containers back full of recycling rather than empty.
The recycling industry in China is one of the best in the world since they introduced new requirements for recycling imports (the Green Fence) and to assume that the chinese are stupid enough to pay us for stuff that ends up in landfill is ridiculous.

I expect the same people who don't rycycle are the same people who most probably drop litter and don,t care at aall.commonly known as a low life .

If you have space, chuck bones etc in a bag in the freezer.

Stop wasting food? i have a 4 year old and a 1 year old. What would you have me do with half-masticated fish finger? Frame it?

With recycling and pollution, it's a no brainer as landfill and smog affect us directly and immediately.

With other things like reducing usage of fuel, energy and considering how we live our lives in general is does feel like bringing a cup of water to an out of control inferno.

I expect the same people who don't rycycle are the same people who most probably drop litter and don,t care at aall.commonly known as a low life .

I don't recycle but certainly don't drop litter either. There's a big difference imho.

Haven't read the whole thread but what annoys the crap out of me is when my inlaws come over and chuck rubbish in my recycling bin. They do it at their house too.

'Everything except food waste can be recycled, can't it?' Nooooo?!?!

A dirty nappy, snotty tissues, food wrap can not be recycled!! How many times do I have to fish all the rubbish out?

I've got inward rage about recycling this week. They would collect my 4 boxes as " it wasn't sorted". Meaning I had too many plastic bottles and had used space in other boxes

How does it take more time or space? You merely spend the time you would spend putting the item in the waste bin putting it in a recyclying bin instead. And if you recycle, you have less regular waste, so need a smaller regular bin, so save space that can then be used for recycling containers...These are 'dog ate my homework' excuses!!!

I'm guessing you have a kitchen bigger than 8x10 then. We used to live in a terraced house that went straight onto the street. The house wasn't big enough to fit a bin in the kitchen, let alone more than one. We had a titchy back "garden" that was big enough for a couple of pots, a Little Tikes cube slide and a small shed thing to put the freezer in. Why should I have lost my precious space for recycling ? That only seems to get sent to landfill anyway !

I have my doubts about it but it is a step in the right direction and getting people thinking about it and getting more aware and educated about it. I agree it is probably a drop in the ocean compared to our over indulgent, gas guzzling, mega heated homes, plastic tat house filled lifestyles though.

I've been on quiet stunning beaches in far away places and the cramp that gets washed up is depressing, this is nothing compared looking overboard a ship and seeing a huge floating stretch of plastic and crap. It really is crap but we want our nice lifestyles and all our tat.

FREEZE THE POTENTIALLY STINKY STUFF UNTIL RECYCLING COLLECTION DAY.

If you have freezer space, obvs. Putting food waste into the general refuse bin is really crap, unless you perhaps have a miniature kitchen or your council don't collect.

Putting food waste into the general refuse bin is really crap, unless you perhaps have a miniature kitchen or your council don't collect.

If you are putting non-recyclable food waste in a compost bin such as meat and dairy you are considerably more crap, as you are probably causing the neighbourhood rat population to increase tenfold.

Also you not only need a food bin in the kitchen but either a council collecting it or a garden to put it in. Not everyone has any kind of outside space.

This is what I do with food waste. Try to to have any, generally, but like almost everyone yes I do sometimes fail to use things that have gone off or well past their best. Leftovers generally go to the chickens, if it's something they can eat, i.e. most things.

I get a compost bin for the kitchen. I fill it with recyclable things, I empty it. This routine lasts about three weeks. Then I forget to empty it and it stinks. Then it gets put out in the garden and forgotten about. For months, in which it all composts itself. But it is revolting. At some point I go out in the garden with a peg on my nose and sort it out, wash out the bin and start again.

So like most people I am neither completely environmentally sound nor completely feckless, but somewhere on the scale.

And TBH, I worry more about the amount of plastic and Tetrapak that goes in the general bin rather than food.

Eh? Our council accepts all food waste?

Well ours doesn't accept any, HTH.

What would you have me do with half-masticated fish finger? Frame it?