Why are people so rubbish at recycling?

[NotDarkGothicMama]

I'm not talking about just not bothering, but grown adults seemingly unable to put recycling in the correct bins. We have colour-coded bins at work with pictures, writing and specially-shaped slots for paper & cardboard, food, glass and mixed recycling. It's idiot-proof and yet I still see plastic bottles in the food bin, dirty tissues in the paper bin etc.

We were on holiday last week and the campsite only recycled glass and cardboard. Cue the glass bin full of plastic bottles. Why?!

AIBU to think it really isn't that hard?

We have 5 recycling bins plus a food caddy for food waste.
I'm quite a keen recycler and, as you point out, quite a lot of the rubbish is quite simple to put in the right bin. But I struggle with the blue plastics and metals one. I'm often not sure as to which plastics I should be putting in there. I work on the basis that I've washed the items so if I have put something in that isn't correct it's not going to cause a problem. I'm also a bit unclear, apart from food cans and drinks cans, what other metals can be put in there.

I do get irritated about the amount of stuff I have to take to recycle with the bags at the supermarket. I wish they could be included in home recycling.

But I agree with you that it's annoying to many people don't take recycling seriously.

The rules in my borough, my parents, my boyfriends and my workplace are all different. Could be people don't realise they have different rules in one place to another. Could be they can't be arsed to read a new set of instructions every time they want to do something as simple as put something in a bin.

I am totally baffled that 29% of posters think YABU.

We have clear labelling on our bins at work and often get emails saying please remove food from packaging if it is going on the food waste bins yet people still throw packaging into these bins.

It really, really isn't difficult.

Each area has different criteria/systems.

I think a lot of people believe recycling is a futile part time job of expectation, when on a larger scale it barely makes a dent.

I do recycle at home where I understand the expectations, but when I’ve seen the work cleaners throw all the waste into the same large rubbish bin outside, I’m less inclined to swill everything out, categorise etc etc in my limited break from my desk.

I don't even try at my parents' house as they have 5 different bins, none of which are labelled and all are completely different colours to mine. I'm giving myself a free pass on that one. But the work bins and campsite bins are clearly labelled with pictures, words, colours... It couldn't be easier to understand.

Because a lot of stuff allocated to be recycled simply isn’t. It’s out in landfill or sent in containers abroad with general waste.

The poor attention to recycling at work really baffles me, I just don't think they care at all or think somebody else (ie our cleaner) will sort it out. So annoying. Re-education hasn't worked either.

We also have five recycling bins issued by the council, although the garden waste one has to be paid by subscription. Yes, it is a faff. I'm in and out all day taking out just the odd item so I don't end up with a huge jumble pile in the kitchen.

But that’s partly Because it get contaminated with the wrong stuff and because sorting it get very expensive .. chicken and egg

One of the many reasons I was glad to move from our old flat to a house was not have a communcal recycling bin anymore. All our recycling goes in one bin (other than food waste) so it really wasn't that difficult, but still people got it wrong every week!

I bit my lip though as I wasn't about to become the recycling monitor.

Because a lot of people, including me, believes it all ends up in one place. Its a money making scheme for councils.

I have no idea. I think it’s because they don’t care though. We have colour coded bins in our house and it’s very obvious what goes in what bin.

Dh is the worst offender and then the kids follow suit. He claims it doesn’t matter because he is the one who does the bins (which is true) and it’s easier for him to sort 3 recycling bins worth of stuff by hand into the correct roadside bins than to just put it in the correct bin to start and tip it in. 🤷🏻‍♀️ No amount of me trying to convince him that there’s no way that’s easier seems to work. He’s the one who bought the bloody colour coded bins to begin with. He’s also the one who is huffing about in the dark every Wednesday night “trying to sort the bins” too. 🙄

We have 3 recycle boxes but they are all green. So we use one for glass, one for cardboard and one for cans and bottles which are allowed to be mixed.
What annoys me is the amount of times I go to the supermarket and see recycling piled up by the bins. The recycling bins at our local supermarket are never full but people carefully place their recycling next to the bin. Why? It's not hard to put it in the bin!

That's why I'm not really bothered if people opt out and just put everything in non-recyclable waste. But purposely sabotaging the recycling bins seems a bit much.

It's difficult because there is no standard system. We are in a council area on the outskirts of Glasgow, 2 miles down the road there is another council area with different colours of bins. Where my mum lives she does not get food waste collected and it goes in the general waste. She can however recycle Tetrapak with her plastics and we can't.

It really needs all the councils across Scotland or England to get together and standardise it, but that's never going to happen.

People fundamentally don’t understand what’s recyclable, and it varies from area to area. People think well a tissue is paper so it must go in the paper bin.

Having said that, the bulk of plastic recycling is burnt for energy recovery in our area, the same as landfill, so there’s no real gain to recycling.

I used to agree but after seeing that a lot of our recycling gets shipped abroad I just haven't got it in me to care anymore

Agree, but our dirty landfill waste bin is so small that if we don’t recycle to the nth degree we would fast run out of space. That bin is only collected fortnightly.

Oh I agree OP it is maddening.

If people want to throw everything in general waste because they can’t be arsed or think it’s a con, then crack on. But drives me mad when people just carelessly put the wrong stuff in clearly labelled recycling bins.

We have a local recycling point with large bins for cars, glass etc and every time I go down there people have shoved random stuff in the wrong bins. Why both going to the recycling point at all if you’re just going fuck it up?

I think maybe people just want stuff out of their house and don’t really give a damn beyond that. Similar to people who dump bags of stuff outside charity shops ignoring all the signs telling people not to leave donations on the street.

Lots of people are lazy. Different places have different systems, and different coloured bins.

Several reasons - firstly (and most likely) is people are lazy. Secondly, there is now much more awareness of the staggering amount of pollution generated by countries such as China and the US, and as a consequence people feel that it really doesn't matter so much if they recycle their yoghurt pot correctly.

A fair number of adults in my area seem unable to use any kind of bin. They think the public road is the place to chuck their rubbish from their car windows.

I spent Sunday morning clearing rubbish from under our hedge. 🙄 Tins, plastic, polystyrene, paper. It got recycled into the correct bins eventually.

Yanbu. Out of all the annoying errands and life admin I have to deal with, recycling is the easiest.

The amount of wrapping paper and dirty pizza boxed I see wedged in green bins does my head in. It's not hard to get it right.I also judge the sheer amount of alcohol my neighbours drink 😁.

Absolutely agree on standardisation. At home, my recycling wheelie bin is green, garden waste is brown, there's a box for glass and a black bin for everything else. That makes sense to me. Green = eco = recycling. Brown = soil = garden.

My parents have a black bin, a purple bin and and orange bin as well as the food waste caddy. The black one isn't for general waste but I have no idea whether it's purple or orange!

I've added photos of our office bin area to illustrate how clear it is.