Bin wars - who's in the wrong?

[Recyclingbinbo]

Lighthearted

DH had a box delivered containing some items for a household repair. The delivery arrived over a week ago and he opened it, then left the box with all the contents and packaging inside by the front door.
We've had a lot of deliveries lately and I was taking all the boxes downstairs, after they had accumulated by the front door for a few days. (We live in flats with no lift so going down to the recycling bins tends to get put off even though it makes the job harder).
Anyway, as you've probably guessed, I appear to have mistakenly picked up DH's delivery and taken that down to the recycling as well.
Who is in the wrong?
YANBU - DH should not have left his item by the front door in its packaging for over a week. The cost of replacing the contents should be split (about £40 each).
YABU - You should have checked the box first before disposing of it and should pay to replace the contents yourself.

It takes seconds to flatten boxes. Just cut the seal on the other side. You'd get the block caretaker on your case putting them in unflattened here.

You are both to blame.

And what's wrong leaving it for a week? I have a box near the door that all cardboard is flattened and stored in. I live in a flat without a lift and rely on teen ds to take it down.

Did you pay 50% of the original item?

If so I would not be offering to pay for a second time.

OK so I accept I should be flattening the boxes.

FWIW I live in a block of flats with a large bin store and about 10 large recycling bins so I've never had an issue disposing of boxes in this way, there's always plenty of space and other residents put boxes in unflattened too.

Our Hermes delivery driver solves this problem by cutting out the middle man. Puts the box in our recycling bin then neglects to put a card through the door telling us.

Tbh, you dont put the packaging flat and i imagine your dh knows that.
He left the oackaging full of stuff in the recylcing spot.
He dint make the effort to take the recycling downstairs (do he ever do that?). A time when he hopefully have realise the issue.

Id say he had forgotten about the package himself tbh. Ad that's what is making him unresonnab;e (but now he has a possible exit route to tell you actually its all your fault instead)

So you took the opened box it to the recycling bins but then just dumped it all in one bin, unflattened, without recycling the individual contents? Unless all the individual items were made of cardboard, YABU. That isn’t what the majority of people call recycling.
Isn’t it a trip/fire hazard to leave empty boxes and packaging around for a week ? Your DH is also BU.

I think he's more in the wrong leaving something abandoned where cardboard boxes go to die but I check things so I can shred anything with name and address and rip up the cardboard before it goes into the bin.

I wouldn't give him any money but I'd take this as a reason to set up a new routine for recycling stuff.

YABU for not flattening the boxes for recycling. Are you squashing them in the recycling with the packaging still inside? Not all of that will be recyclable.

This is a tricky one. I do not live in a flat, but things left by the front door are either waiting to be taken to the shed/bin/car or post and parcels just arrived. In fact, strikes me that we've been pretty lucky without a similar disaster in this household.

*You can’t be arsed to break up cardboard boxes? It takes a minute.

And you leave this all outside?

You’re a horrible neighbour*

This!

@LAMPS1 as far as I was concerned it was an empty cardboard box, next to a pile of other empty cardboard boxes that had already been sorted.
No, it's not a trip hazard ffs. It's 4 or 5 smallish cardboard boxes by the front door for a few days.

No one is our house. We regularly open things and leave in hall, or put put boxes in the hall for charity. However, we're both very good at checking contents and with eachother if one can go. If DH had ordered something for household repairs, I'd know. Also, if it was a genuine error and stuff for property we both lived in, it'd just come out of our joint account (rather than personally have to pay for it).

I think you are in the wrong. Not noticing a box hadn't been opened, not flattening it.

I don't think it's anyone's fault particularly, just one of those things.

@Recyclingbinbo

OK so I accept I should be flattening the boxes.

FWIW I live in a block of flats with a large bin store and about 10 large recycling bins so I've never had an issue disposing of boxes in this way, there's always plenty of space and other residents put boxes in unflattened too.

But even if there's room in the bin for "whole" boxes, flattening them first means they take up less space when left in your hall and it's easier to carry a pile of flat boxes than to carry several whole boxes to the bin.

I voted YABU as you should be flattening boxes first.

The fact it still had all the stuff in means you could have "contaminated" the recycling bin....if you're not regularly flattening the recycling you could have done this any number of times. So I'm afraid I think YABU here.

However, clearly your DH has contributed to the situation through laziness and leaving things lying about.

Both of you are wrong...he shouldn't have left it with the recycling and you should have checked...I double check the recycling as things jump into them ... Anyway not an argument as such as you married so joint money

You are not at fault. Much like it’s the individual’s responsibility to empty pockets before putting clothes in the laundry, it is the individual’s responsibility to empty boxes before putting them out for recycling. Given the placement of the box, you had no reason to assume it was anything other than recycling. His fault entirely!!

Sorry, you should have checked before getting rid of.

More likely though that it was pretty light and I am quite absent-minded and do things on autopilot so wouldn't really question it.
I know I should break up the boxes but I can never be arsed so I just force and squash them into the bins.

On this basis, you are in the wrong. I can't abide lacksadaisiness.

I still don't understand how you can have thrown out a box of items for fixing something indoors. You can tell the difference between an empty and not empty box.
Is this actually a case of someone getting pissed about things being left by the door, and it's knowingly been thrown out to prove a point?

I can't bear the nitpicking over who pays for what etc you constantly read on Mumsnet, presumably you are happy to share a bed and share children with this man so why quibble over this? I got a parking fine this week, totally my fault, it was paid out of joint money. End of.

Both wrong
He should have cracked in with repair and not left box there and you should apologise and replace £80 is a lot of money but for the sake of not building up resentments over petty things I personally would offer to pay ( maybe hoping he’d offer to go Dutch) and move on
Going forward I’d not. Get so het up over trivialities it’s nice that this is a big deal in your house

The fact that there isnt a third option of DH pays for the replacement as he left them in a stupid place says something to me about the state of your marriage/finances...

YABU for not flattening the boxes first. Even if you can't be arsed to do this because you think it's fine to be selfish and take up unnecessary bin space, surely it would help limit the space taken up in the flat while waiting for you to take it down.

At school it was drummed into me, Reduce - Reuse - Recycle. "Reduce" was short for "reduce the volume of waste" - volume being the amount of space something takes up. It's easy and simple to reduce the volume of cardboard and cans.