Neighbour angry about recycling

[m0therofdragons]

We have a neighbour who is a bit bonkers imo. She's all lovely and smiles to me but bc when she's annoyed about something she seems to time her complaint for when I'm not home. Dh is lovely but quite sarcastic so I worry she might get offended - seems to be easy to offend her.

Our house is in the corner of a small cul de sac so the front of our house faces the side of her home but she's not got any windows there. Outside our house is a small front garden with a low front wall (sitting on height). Then in front of that is our drive with the car on. Our recycling boxes are left out tucked behind the wall near the front door. We're a family of 5 and many times a day I send dc out to put recycling in the boxes. Due to the regularity of our usage I really can't be doing with putting them in the garage.

This morning I noticed a card pizza box had blown in front of neighbour's garage. I saw through the window but was in my pjs and by the time I left for work it was gone. It wasn't ours - not a brand I buy and we haven't had pizza. I thought to myself at the time, I bet neighbour's blaming us. Anyway, it turns out she had picked up the box and taken it into her house then gone to work. When she returned she noticed dh was home with dc and she came and presented dh with the box, telling him he needs to ensure our boxes are in our garage. He kept pointing out that it wasn't our box and as it's windy and bin day it could have come from any nearby house but he was happy to put it in our recycling box now so the recycling team can collect next week. She kept saying "so it is yours then? Otherwise why would you want it in your box?" Dh was - it's recycling and these are recycling boxes so it doesn't really matter who owns the box, I don't think they want it back or left it maliciously. She eventually gave dh the pizza box and left muttering.

Some people really go out of their way to be annoyed.

🤣

That's a lot of words over nothing!

@ThatMuppetShow I know. It's the third time this year she's tried to start an argument over nothing. She does it in such a way we feel like we are missing something are nightmare neighbours without realising.

Last summer she wanted me not to park our second car on the road outside our house because her son was visiting for three weeks and he's in the RAF. Er okay so I assume he's fit enough to walk the 30 second walk from the other parking up the road?

It's weird the things she obsesses over.

I'm disappointed, I was hoping for a neighbour who was angry that you recycle. 2/10.

Post it back through her letterbox

Maybe she doesn't approve of takeaway pizza.

Do you have secure lids on your boxes? If not, YABU. I have a neighbour who keeps uncovered rubbish outside and it is a nightmare on a windy day. I keep my paper and cardboard box under the stairs and take the other recycling out to the bin daily.

Non lidded boxes must be a trauma, soaked cardboard, stuff blowing round. I’ve got a big box in the utility room which gets emptied regularly into the big recycling wheelie bin. Your neighbour sounds a bit odd.

They are uncovered but sheltered by the wall. Only time we see recycling all over the road is bin collection day - has to be left on the pavement so if course it blows everywhere but ours doesn't as we pack them carefully. When it's really stormy I bring it in but it's never our rubbish that's escaped. Card is held down by glass jars etc.

No space in utility room. They're rubbish boxes but if you don't use the ones provided they won't collect.

I would love a recycling wheelie bin! We fill two plastic boxes every week.

We used to have a net to cover our recycling boxes to stop the contents being blown away by the wind. Now we have proper wheelie bins for the boxes and cans etc there's somehow more rubbish blowing about when it's windy.

Price of wood and a brick? Hold it down nicely

But it's not my rubbish that's blowing around. Crazy neighbour thinks it is. Last time she accused me of smashing an empty bottle of red wine outside her house. I don't drink red wine. I think she's just decided anything that goes wrong in our road is our fault.
She once complained our dc has been overly loud one weekend... they had gone to stay at grandparents and weren't even home. Lots of dc love in our road. It's just odd and makes life unnecessarily uncomfortable.

Terry Wogan used to mention the sort of people who sit at home, watching their tellies and listening to their radios, just waiting to be offended.

Sounds like recycling is your neighbour's bete noir. I'm guessing that, to her, the worst thing she could possibly think of would be to have nothing to complain about at all. Moaning about nothing is her hobby - and probably also her life's work.

Sounds like she's just decided that everything is down to you. I'd be keeping a note of the things she accuses you of, just because she could be the type to keep a note of all your "crimes"

We have one of them. There's a stray Tom cat causing havoc in our street. I have a cat therefore the stray cat is my fault/problem. The other night he picked a wailing fight with another cat at 2am. Despite the fact my cat was in the vets overnight because of injuries caused by him it was my fault...

Mine has a habit of calling the anti-social behaviour team so just keep a note of everything to cover your own back

I would just put the boxes in my garage and take recycling out there once a day so I couldn't get blamed for any rubbish in the street. Uncovered boxes look unsightly as well, even if you are sure your rubbish is weighted down and won't blow away.

misses point of thread but I didn't think pizza boxes could be recycled? I'm pretty sure they can't here

Anyway, we have a block on our glass box lid to stop it blowing off. Might be worth doing, just so you can say with 100% assuredness "its not ours!"