I don’t want to wash up chicken packets and jars of mayonnaise!!

[ChristmasBaby2026]

My council like many have recently changed our recycling. We now have:

• a bin for paper and card
• a bin for “mixed recycling”
• the food bin
• the black bin
• the garden bin (which I have to pay extra for 😡)

The only substantial change other than the number of bins to put things in is they will now collect glass whereas we previously had to go to the bottle bank.

But it now means they are now only collecting our black bin once every THREE weeks (and currently not for 4 because the new system has stupidly started on a recycling week).

How are families supposed to only have rubbish collected once every three weeks? There is simply no way.

I do recycle but I have always drawn the line at washing up gross things like packets of mince and jars of mayonnaise. But apparently the council have decided people have nothing better to do. I wouldn’t resent it so much if I thought it was actually making a difference but my landfill mayonnaise jar is not the main problem here!

Lay off the mince?

We don’t need to be generating so much rubbish, like single use plastic, in the first place.

I can just about remember the pre-supermarket days, when there was barely any grocery packaging. People took their own shopping basket (which was literally a straw basket) and each item went straight in, or at most in a paper bag. Meat, fish and cheese wrapped in paper tied with twine. Glass bottles were returned and refilled, like the milk bottles I still use.

And it wasn’t so long ago people hardly generated any rubbish and pretty much disposed of it themselves: chucked on the fire or composted.

Perhaps if people had to dispose of their own rubbish, they’d think a lot more about how much they generate, how hard it is to get rid of and refuse to buy plastic. And composting or washing out the odd glass jar to be reused or recycled wouldn’t seem like such a chore.

The mantra should be: reduce, reuse, recycle. With the latter being the last resort. Other countries are starting to refuse to take our plastic waste.

3/4 normal rubbish topped off with 1/4 of whatever recycling they are asking for

Just deal with it OP & stop whinging.
Been like that for years where I live & we just adapt & get on with it

You very clearly lack the rational and logical thinking that would be consistent with someone adept at mathematics.

You are saying your contribution is "zero," but very clearly you make some contribution. And it's the sum of all of these small parts, across many people, that make a collective whole. This shows that you difficulty conceptualising how many, many small things make a big thing.

I was tracking an Amazon parcel yesterday. It was dispatched from an unnamed hub, arrived at the hub in my hometown, was then dispatched again to one 30 miles away to then be put out for delivery and brought back to where it had previously been. Absolutely ridiculous. I do wash out all my jars, tins and plastic for the recycling though

Not UK but, I'd lobby your local council as we have weekly( free) green waste plus forthightly recycling and weekly general rubbish. We have those green bags for scraps delivered regularly too for us to use, they go in the green bin, We have 2 of them as they made a mistake and I'm not fixing it 😁

What's all this with people that are too lazy posh to wash a jar out?

Our bins are collected every three weeks and have been for years. Recycling is fortnightly, and all tins/bottles/jars/packets should be rinsed. But of course they should. These items go through a whole process once they leave your front step that could take weeks or months. Rotting bits of food will encourage rats and goodness knows what else. Take a few seconds to rinse out your food containers and save anonymous strangers a whole bunch of hassle later.

@EdithBond And it wasn’t so long ago people hardly generated any rubbish and pretty much disposed of it themselves: chucked on the fire or composted.

While I agree with the rest of your comment and I think we need to emulate how people lived decades before us... it is definitely not advisable to dispose of rubbish by burning it in a household fire.

Only approved fuels should be burned in a fireplace.

How long does it take to rinse out a mayonnaise jar or a meat container? No time at all - and if you have a dishwasher, they can go in there with your washing up.

I can’t believe some people aren’t washing jars etc. It even says on the bottle bank to have rinsed stuff before. It would also make the recycling bin or bag disgusting! Just rinse or put it in the dishwasher.

So many posters assume that everyone has a dishwasher! I just Googled, and apparently around half of households in the UK don't have one.

Also, as at least one PP has pointed out, doesn't swilling out items like jars of mayo or tins of fish mean putting fat and oil down the sink, thus contributing to the build-up of fatbergs?

Our bins are collected 4 weekly and we've had the system you're now getting for goodness knows how many years. Just get on with it it's not a big deal.

I agree with this and I don't think it's our problem to fix. Everytime I do a big shop, I'm surprised by how much plastic goes straight in the recycling bag. I empty all the fruit and veg into the fridge and am left with mountains of empty plastic containers and packets. It's unnecessary and can be fixed by the supermarkets packaging them differently.

I don't eat meat so only occasionally buy chicken for the kids, my once-in-a-blue moon chicken packet goes in the main bin once cooked. It's gross and I'm not washing that out, I hate cooking it in the first place. But that odd packet doesn't make a difference by not going in the recycling.

If things used to be packaged and sold differently, we can go back to that way. That would fix the issue instead of this ridiculous way of everybody having 5 bins.

In our area we can get bins specifically for nappies. Might be worth asking if you have the same

I have never used a dishwasher in my life yet manage fine - anything with fat, wipe it with stale bread or kitchen towel and put towel in bin.

Wash jar with other washing up

When dry, put jar in recycling.

My contribution would be very close to zero in the grand scheme of things.

Do you have children? It’s not great for the environment so surely making a small contribution is the least you can do! Especially when the climate crisis is likely to affect them or their eventual children?

Once I am dead, I have no skin left in the game as I’m the last of my family yet I continue to do my small bit for the future

You seriously think I'm going to save the world for future generations by washing my chicken packet? If only it were that simple. The world is fucked in all kinds of ways and we're not going to save it by recycling.

I cba to put a bin out every week so I don't. We're a smaller household now. I wait till the black bin is full (this can take months), ditto the recycling. The only downside is they often miss us and just drive by because I usually don't have bins out

Agree. Also dogs do a great prewash for all sorts of items.

Ah well, let’s not bother then 🙄

Washing a jar is a tiny thing to do - who knows if it will help but to refuse on the basis it makes no odds is a strange take.

I am more of misanthropist than most but I do my bit

No, I don't do it because I don't want to.

But realistically, it's not going to make a difference to the world anyway. We're not the ones fucking it up.

Did you say that with a little stamp of your foot?

Glass has been collected for recycling for many years where I live.

We're told we don't have to get the jars/bottles squeaky clean, just give them a rinse out. The processing equipment is able to remove residues.