Friend Doesn't Recycle

Changingplace · 27/08/2024 22:19

Are you in the UK? I’m surprised they can fit all their rubbish in the general bin if they’re not separating the recycling?

Sahara123 · 27/08/2024 22:21

GetDownShepp · 27/08/2024 22:17

I stayed at a friend's house this weekend and they don't recycle.

Surely I'm not being unreasonable to hope we all do this now?

Isn't this just second nature?

You’d like to think so wouldn't you.
How do they manage the bins, ours won't be emptied if they've got the wrong thing in them

TomatoSandwiches · 27/08/2024 22:24

What?

So everything just goes into one big bin?

Do they have recycling bins and ignore them?

Did you ask them about it?

Needmorelego · 27/08/2024 22:24

I don't because I live in a flat and only have large communal dumpsters which are always "contaminated" with non recyclables so gets taken with the landfill collection.
I would if I could.
It was great being at my parents earlier in the summer. 3 different bins plus food waste. It was brilliant.
I wonder why your friend doesn't.

naemates · 27/08/2024 22:25

Needmorelego · 27/08/2024 22:24

I don't because I live in a flat and only have large communal dumpsters which are always "contaminated" with non recyclables so gets taken with the landfill collection.
I would if I could.
It was great being at my parents earlier in the summer. 3 different bins plus food waste. It was brilliant.
I wonder why your friend doesn't.

I have this, my neighbour puts their bin bags in to save them putting out their wheely bin

MassiveSalad22 · 27/08/2024 22:29

We have holiday flats and everything just goes in 1 bin and it’s somebody’s job to go through and sort it all into general waste, recycling and food waste 😵‍💫😵‍💫 gross and bizarre way to do it but there you have it!

Fortesque · 27/08/2024 22:37

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ncforcatquestion · 27/08/2024 22:39

I don't recycle. I have communal big bins and the recycling ones are only usable with a small hole so you would have to put items in one at a time from a bag. And I don't have space for another bin in the kitchen

TheHangingGardensOfBasildon · 27/08/2024 22:40

I'm always amazed at how few people bother - especially when they're away from home, even if it's just a case of popping something clean in their car and taking it home, but they wouldn't dream of doing so.

Then again, although I recycle everything myself, I have a real suspicion as to how much stuff sent for recycling actually gets recycled.

Places that tell you to stick everything into a big skip - no matter how nasty, messy, dirty, sticky - and the recyclables 'all get sorted automatically'. If that is true, why do the council ask us to wash things out? In fact, why tell us to recycle at all, if they can just sort it all for us at the other end anyway? Why do they tell us that contaminated loads have to go straight to landfill, if it can all simply be 'magically' sorted?

I've also heard far too many stories (and seen pictures) of UK 'recycling' ending up sent out to poor countries and just burned or buried there. Maybe our authorities do indeed pay 'the going rate' (for the poor countries anyway) for it to be responsibly recycled, but there's clearly no audit trail - or proper interest for one - to ensure that it actually happens.

SaltAndVinegar2 · 27/08/2024 22:46

TheHangingGardensOfBasildon · 27/08/2024 22:40

I'm always amazed at how few people bother - especially when they're away from home, even if it's just a case of popping something clean in their car and taking it home, but they wouldn't dream of doing so.

Then again, although I recycle everything myself, I have a real suspicion as to how much stuff sent for recycling actually gets recycled.

Places that tell you to stick everything into a big skip - no matter how nasty, messy, dirty, sticky - and the recyclables 'all get sorted automatically'. If that is true, why do the council ask us to wash things out? In fact, why tell us to recycle at all, if they can just sort it all for us at the other end anyway? Why do they tell us that contaminated loads have to go straight to landfill, if it can all simply be 'magically' sorted?

I've also heard far too many stories (and seen pictures) of UK 'recycling' ending up sent out to poor countries and just burned or buried there. Maybe our authorities do indeed pay 'the going rate' (for the poor countries anyway) for it to be responsibly recycled, but there's clearly no audit trail - or proper interest for one - to ensure that it actually happens.

Yes - I suspect much of it just gets binned or burned in the end. Glass, tins, cans are recycled in the UK. Not much plastic is.

In Liverpool they have a single bin for plastic, glass, tins and paper. It all gets crushed together in one lorry. I strongly doubt they separate the crushed glass from the soggy paper etc. if anyone works in this field and can tell me otherwise I'd love to know!

Original poster

GetDownShepp · 27/08/2024 22:46

TomatoSandwiches · 27/08/2024 22:24

What?

So everything just goes into one big bin?

Do they have recycling bins and ignore them?

Did you ask them about it?

I'm not sure to be honest.

I was in their kitchen and went to put some rubbish in their kitchen bin. There was only one bin (I thought we all use two now) so I asked where their recycling bin is. Their response was "I know we should but we don't recycle".

I didn't ask anything further at the time but I now wish I had!

OP posts:

HeySummerWhereAreYou · 27/08/2024 22:47

That would annoy me too truth be told.

Clafoutie · 27/08/2024 22:48

TheHangingGardensOfBasildon · 27/08/2024 22:40

I'm always amazed at how few people bother - especially when they're away from home, even if it's just a case of popping something clean in their car and taking it home, but they wouldn't dream of doing so.

Then again, although I recycle everything myself, I have a real suspicion as to how much stuff sent for recycling actually gets recycled.

Places that tell you to stick everything into a big skip - no matter how nasty, messy, dirty, sticky - and the recyclables 'all get sorted automatically'. If that is true, why do the council ask us to wash things out? In fact, why tell us to recycle at all, if they can just sort it all for us at the other end anyway? Why do they tell us that contaminated loads have to go straight to landfill, if it can all simply be 'magically' sorted?

I've also heard far too many stories (and seen pictures) of UK 'recycling' ending up sent out to poor countries and just burned or buried there. Maybe our authorities do indeed pay 'the going rate' (for the poor countries anyway) for it to be responsibly recycled, but there's clearly no audit trail - or proper interest for one - to ensure that it actually happens.

Yes, I agree these issues do need clarification/resolution.

Also- off topic- but your username made me smile! 🙂

fashionqueen0123 · 27/08/2024 22:50

I would feel awful. How can you not recycle in this day and age? It’s not exactly hard.

Grabyourpassportandmyhand · 27/08/2024 22:56

I don't care much about recycling tbh.
I do it half heartedly e.g. I throw dirty wrappers into the recycling, I don't rinse out cartons. I don't use compost bins. I throw batteries into the normal bin.
I really don't believe that whether or not I rinse out my orange juice bottle is going to make any difference.
Like a PP I don't believe the bins are sorted properly at the recycling centres anyway.
Reduce the number of SUVs on the road and I might reconsider.

Original poster

GetDownShepp · 27/08/2024 22:57

fashionqueen0123 · 27/08/2024 22:50

I would feel awful. How can you not recycle in this day and age? It’s not exactly hard.

Exactly.

I'm not an environmentalist but thought recycling was second nature now to us all.

OP posts:

BaronessEllarawrosaurus · 27/08/2024 23:05

Not everywhere does recycling. I definitely know places that don't give you the option

shoofly · 27/08/2024 23:07

I'm in Northern Ireland, so it's maybe different but our plastics are recycled locally into drainage pipes. Our paper and card is recycled locally into new cardboard and egg boxes. Glass, aluminium and cans recycled as well. Waste collected in public bins goes to what's called a dirty buddy system where recyclable material is picked out.
I don't really understand why people don't recycle. At the moment local companies are buying in decent quality recyclable material from overseas, to be made into new products while some people are so bloody lazy that they're just sending it all to landfill

HeySummerWhereAreYou · 27/08/2024 23:08

GetDownShepp · 27/08/2024 22:57

Exactly.

I'm not an environmentalist but thought recycling was second nature now to us all.

Show quote history

Yeah, this. ^ In my Midlands Town, we started having to separate our rubbish into general waste in the grey bin - and recyclables in the green bin/recycling bin and tubs, around 1997/1998. Some towns I believe, didn't get it till 5 to 10 years later ...

But even so the vast majority of people have been doing it for a good 16+ years now. How bizarre to just chuck everything in the grey bin! As a poster said earlier, how on earth do they have enough room??? We recycle so much and so well, that we actually could easily have our grey bin emptied just once a month. And even then, it would only be two thirds full.

HeySummerWhereAreYou · 27/08/2024 23:09

BaronessEllarawrosaurus · 27/08/2024 23:05

Not everywhere does recycling. I definitely know places that don't give you the option

But why WOULDN'T you do it if the option was there? As it is for the vast majority of the UK...

Creamcakes99 · 27/08/2024 23:10

it’s very strange, flag it up
having just been to Italy I genuinely feel like trying to look after the planet is a lost cause
I also remember Mexico being the same, trash everywhere
Americans love everything In plastic too

Quitelikeit · 27/08/2024 23:11

I thought the majority of recycling rubbish in the U.K. was sent to underdeveloped foreign countries where it is dumped

Wotabout · 27/08/2024 23:12

Where I live has the same system a PP describes for Liverpool. Our recycle bin is absolutely full whereas the remainder takes up the space of half a carrier bag after two weeks. I’d hate to put everything in land fill.

Summertimer · 27/08/2024 23:13

People are pretty good round here. We have black, blue and green bins. Blue is paper, card, plastics, tinfoil; green is food and garden waste. In the winter the green bin collections are monthly. Because of this, I suspect a lot of people put Christmas veg stuff in the black bin in bin bags. There have been rumours that separating waste at the recycling centre isn’t very well done. We had road works the other week and the bigger recycling trucks could not get down the road. I noticed blue and green bins got tipped into the same one

Oblomov24 · 27/08/2024 23:14

Doesn't most of it not even get recycled anyway?