to think recycling is a bloody pain! cause most of it can't be recycled

[Jelliedeels]

Our rubbish has changed and we have to put of a bag for plastics and paper. Sounds simple enough.

No crisp or biscuit wrappers, no film, no plastic food containers. Nothing with food waste on it.

So I use paper plates for microwaving they can't be recycled,

I use paper towel, again it has food waste on it , no wet wipes

My normal rubbish looks like it could all be recycled but lasagne tray nope not that either.

The majority of stuff I have says it can't be recycled , even my milk carton and my Fizzy pop bottle say "not recycled at the time"

I think what annoys me is the lifestyle overhaul that we all have to do every time the council changes its mind or we move to a different area. TBPH why should OP change to a more expensive brand of milk? Tetra paks can be recycled but her council chooses not to. Next week they might change their minds. They want things rinsed out, wasting time and water, but hers, not theirs. They don't provide proper instructions - I only found out our council is now accepting food waste in plastic bags rather than the expensive paper food waste bags (newspaper was allowed, but that got really messy and smelly) through an advert I saw on here - no communication from the council at all.

Our council used to give us open recycling crates, three or four different ones. I live in an area where lots of people have no front gardens or a tiny one that will hold a couple of bins and nothing else. All the front gardens here are now just dustbin storage areas - terraces, so no way to keep the bins round the back. With three crates for each house, the pavements were covered with them, and any windy day resulted in rubbish everywhere. I was once threatened with a fine for "inappropriate materials in the recycling waste" - wind had blown leaves into the crate.

Then we switched to the two bin system, which was a bit better, but with no separate weekly food waste collection. Food waste went in the main bin, to be collected after two weeks. In summer, it rotted and got full of maggots and stank from feet away (and remember these bins were right up against the houses and the pavements). When people complained, the council recommended freezing chicken carcasses to be put in the bin on bin day, and only eating fish the day before collection.

Every couple of years, they change the rules in what can be recycled. I've got fed up of having to change what I do and commit the new rules memory so frequently. You arrange your life around the council's requirements and they change them all again. You go and visit family and you have to hold every item up before you throw it away, and ask them "Which bin does this go in?"

It would be far easier to encourage recycling if it were the same rules everywhere, meaning instructions could be put on the packets add to which bin they should go in, and if councils didn't keep changing their minds all the time (and not always telling us either).

*as to which

Not everybody has a freezer for bulk cooking or bloody chicken carcass storage, not everybody has a massive garden, not everybody has a kitchen with room for several bins, not everyone wants to change their eating habits to suit the council.

Mrsjayy - could you read my updates, as I explain there

AYD2 - I totally agree. I have to change my lifestyle, kitchen, cooking and good because last month they changed our recycling. Next month it could change back

I'm not against recycling however when they tell me no trays foil or film etc I'm unimpressed. My rubbish is full of things that to first sight look recyclable

After the incident with the leaves in the open recycling crate, until we changed to a 2-bin system, I had to stop recycling altogether because I couldn't afford to risk a fine for contaminated recycling (we weren't penalised for putting recyclables in the general bin). Bloody ridiculous

Don't get me wrong BTW - I think all our lifestyles should be taking into account the environment and I think people should be encouraged to recycle. But unless you make it reasonably easy for them (a unified system so packaging can be labeled, a system that doesn't change every couple of years, clear up-to-date rules, sufficiently regular collections, acknowledgement that not everyone has a lot of room for bins, and not telling people they should only eat fish once a fortnight, for example) it's going to cause resentment and do nothing to improve recycling rates.

My council recycle absolutely loads of stuff, not crisp packets or paper towels though or food waste. I have a large bin for recycling and a smaller one for general rubbish. Works very well.

My previous council recycled nothing apart from paper and glass, ironic really as it was, at the time, the only council in the country run by the green party.

YABU to have long life milk.

I think we are going to monthly different bin collections the food waste is going to stink

We can't recycle butter tubs or juice cartons or plastic trays or various types of yoghurt pots. Sometimes I wonder why the council bothers at all.

I have 4 plates I don't have the room. Or the plates
In my last house my kitchen was so tiny that I didn't have the space to store any plates. All of my crockery either lived an a cupboard in the living room or on the draining board.
Recycling aside you are being needlessly wasteful to keep using paper plates. I don't understand why you can't use a normal plate and wash it. It takes moments to wash a plate in the sink.

Desolate - completely besides the point.

How I use the paper plates is not the issue the issue is the huge amount of other items that cannot be recycled.

Not to mention the wasteful but.... Hhhmmmm how much water will I be wasting..... All adds up

This thread is about recycling

I think what annoys me is the lifestyle overhaul that we all have to do every time the council changes its mind or we move to a different area

Exactly. We need a national strategy for recycling so every council does the same and you have the same bins so it's not confusing when you go from one area to another or are visiting someone. It is ridiculous that some councils recycle say tetrapaks or yogurt pots and others doesn't.

I don't know what council Camber near Rye comes under but they seem to recycle everything including soft plastic. Where I live don't recycle yogurt pots or tetrapaks.

OP I am struggling to see why bulk cooking doesn't work for you - is it because you forget to defrost? If you have the food in your freezer surely it's just as easy to use it instead of buying processed? I use the odd ready meal but I also do mini-bulk cooking (ie two portions, eat one, freeze the rest for next week).

And why do you need to put a ready meal on a plate at all? I oven cook mine but they come in a tray that I put straight on the shelf in the oven.

Name - it just never works for me, one I can't stand cooking, I don't find scratch is cheaper.

When I cook something eg, spag Bol there is enough for the following days lunch. So we eat it then,

Bulk cooking is not for everyone,

I don't eat loads of ready meals, like this week chicken and salad, the salad packaging was not recyclable.

I use paper plate in microwave to reheat meats and veg for baby,

Not for ready meals

Just thrown icelands frozen Pettit polis in general rubbish as it says not currently recycled.

However if council look on first glance it looks like I'm not recycling.

Just thrown icelands frozen Pettit polis in general rubbish as it says not currently recycled.

I have no idea what that it is but don't go by what it says on the packet, go by what your council say. They know if they have the facilities to recycle stuff or not.

Do you mean petit pois? Are you talking about the bag they come in?
In which case, no you can't recycle it. You can only recycle hard clean plastic like yogurt pots or margarine tubs.
It won't look to the council like you are not recycling because that can't be recycled.

The way my council put it is that if the item keeps it's shape when empty then it can be recycled. So bags are a no, but rigid plastic is a yes.

Yeah petit pois - bloody auto correct

In which case yes the bag isn't recyclable.

I don't think the council will go through your general rubbish and send you a letter saying that you threw something out that should be being recycled.

My mum screeches at me if I general waste something she thinks is recyclable, for fear of a fine (I only chuck things I think can't be recycled like dirty kitchen towel). Has anyone had a fine for the wrong stuff in general waste?

I was at a green festival last year that had maybe 8/9 different recycling bins, which was different. Interesting sorting stuff too- separating plastic string bags from oranges and other plastics, for example. Because the bins were there with big labels, everyone managed it. So, I'm sure with clear enough instructions, people are willing to follow even complex sorting.