To be annoyed that my dad barely recycles?

[Danceintherain2018]

He's in his 60s so not old by any means but he refuses to recycle anything apart from cardboard and newspaper and says it's a generation thing.
I know plenty of people in their 60s who recycle but he flat out refuses to go beyond newspaper and cardboard. It's not even that he doesn't know what he can recycle, he just doesn't care. He uses a lot of cans and bottles which could all be recycled.

Anytime I am round I take what I can home with me but it drives me nuts!

AIBU? How can I make him recycle more? He's having to change his kitchen bin regularly as it gets full with all the stuff he could by recycling.

It's always the little things that grate in the middle of the night isn't it!

My mum and in laws recycle. She’s in her 70s and they are in their 80s.

Electric cars = more damaging to the environment than petrol powered Range Rover
Though that is only true right now (and likely for the next 10 years) until ways to recycle the automotive batteries is found and ways to build those batteries that doesn't involve strip mining for rare earth minerals/metals and cleaner power plants are created.

2bees thank you for that post, it is something I have been puzzling about for a long time re: the plastics.

who are the messy buggers who cant walk without a single use coffee cup and must have the latest brickphone? it isnt the over fifties, is it?

Erm, yes it sometimes is? I see a lot of people of all ages getting takeaway coffee, and it tends to be young ones who have reuseable cups. Wastefulness definitely isn't limited to any one generation.

My parents are in their 80s and make recycling into an Olympic bloody sport! Cleaning everything out so squeaky clean you could eat from it, breaking things up neatly, folding those long reams of paper Amazon use in packing into neat origami-piles. I swear it’s an obsession!

The irony of someone choosing a username lifted from the Wombles and then being anti-recycling is too much.

@ToadOfSadness that's why many areas have introduced mix recycling containers. The recycling can then be separated out manually or by machines into things that earn money and things that don't.

Even then they won't take your recycling bin if it is clearly contaminated with general rubbish.

@woodhill Over the years I've visited different parts of the US and different states have different attitudes to recycling.

I have relatives in their late 70s who saved up their recycling in the 1980s and 90s to take to recycling banks.

This is not really worth getting worked up about. Parents do lots of things you disagree with, and as you get older you usually have more distance from it. If he is infirm and taking things to the outdoor bin is difficult for him, get him a second indoor bin for recyclables so it has to be done less often and can be dealt with by a visitor or cleaner once a week or so. If he is still dealing with it himself, it's his business. (And if the council introduces fines for putting recycling in the rubbish bin and he gets caught, he would be the one to pay for it.)

So cute that you think you are saving the world with your little recycling bins

I think they call it pissing in the wind. It makes people feel better about themselves.

TBF my local council is shit for recycling. We have one bob for general waste (emptied every fortnight), one bin for garden waste and cardboard (emptied every fortnight) and a box for cans (emptied every fortnight)

No provision to recycle plastics or glass unless you hike them to the banks in the park. Not always easy if you don't drive/have young kids/a disability

But if it reduces landfill taxes for your council then there is money for other things or lower council tax possibly?

I think they call it pissing in the wind. It makes people feel better about themselves

Sneer if you want but the population of the USA is 300 million, the population of China is 3 billion - if only a quarter of them are recycling then it will make a difference.

Maybe, but it’s a choice that makes you a douche.

CoughLaughFart In your opinion, which doesn’t mean anything to me.

Rocinante1 I really don’t care. I find all that totally and utterly irrelevant. I would happily pay a fine in order not to do it.

Let's face it is personal choice. I recycle to an extent. Paper glass etc. But frankly it's people like rocinate and their views that put me off doing more.

I always equate the non recyclers of this world with the kind of people who don't pick up dog shit

@zwellers

So you hear legitimate reasons of why it's important and decide "well, if they're going to say I should do it, then I certainly wont".

That's how children behave. Cutting of their nose to spite their fave. Good luck to explain to your grandchildren why the world they and their children will grow up in has gone to shit.

My husband sorts all the bins and stuff. He seems like the sort of chap who would recycle.

Rocinante1 I don’t care. I find your attitude utterly disgusting and reprehensible.

It's consumption where efforts should be targeted. Reduce manufacturing of plastics. Reduce the spending habits of hypocritical twats who buy 4 non recyclable Starbucks coffees a day that go straight to landfill and cannot be recycled.
Trying to get the general public to do a pathetic reactionary sorting process that has been shown to be ineffectively managed by councils is what is disgusting.
What is required is government/global level change and sadly the world has bigger worries.

So you hear legitimate reasons of why it's important and decide "well, if they're going to say I should do it, then I certainly wont"
But Rocinate1, I haven't heard any legitimate reasons yet, just it makes me morally superior to others to say I do it even if it makes the problem worse (see previous points and cited references).

Yes I would like to know where the recyclables are going now too, since China has an embargo. I'm guessing landfill or incinerators.

I am a tad sceptical about all this recycling mantra TBH, when manufacturers are not encouraged to reduce unnecessary packaging are they? So it is again up to the consumer to dispose of this kind of waste.

I'm reckoning that paper and cardboard are recyclable, but not sure of the rest of it.

Anyway apologies to anyone who might have a tree hugging mentality and be horrified..... We have a water shortage here and a hosepipe ban. Water pressure reduced from 8pm to 6am every day, so I am refusing to recycle anything that requires rinsing and cleaning. Better to save water at the moment IMO.

I think I'd better duck down now!

Worse are people who recycle everything but then go on long haul flights which cancel out any recycling they’ve done.

So we’re not supposed to fly anywhere now either?