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!

More of a shrug.

My DH would be in heaven with all those bins! He gets bin envy and likes nothing more than gleefully telling me why I’ve put stuff into the wrong bin!

@sharkstale We’re none of us here the worst offenders I shouldn’t think, but to think you or I are not doing anything detrimental to the planet is ludicrous and arrogant.

I just can’t imagine not giving a single shit about landfill. 😕

The world is made up of nations, made up of societies, made up of communities, made up of neighbourhoods, made up of families, made up of individuals. We’re all part of the hive and we’re all fucking it up.

It’s not remotely ‘gross’ to rinse a mince pack or an empty mayo jar under the tap. Grow up.

My thought exactly. YABVU

Ohh shut up and get over it and wash them up!! I wash absolutely everything out, what's the point in only doing the bits you like?! Absolutely pointless. Get some better washing up gloves if it bothers you so much. If you are recycling properly you won't have much waste at all. We have a baby and a dog and it's fine. I work for a local council and the AMOUNT of people who have and always will moan about bins is ridiculous. People should be grateful we live in a society that has good waste management and it's not strewn all over the streets.. there really would be something to complain about then.

Well youre part of the problem, lazy. Stinking your bin out and contaminating the load in the wagon cos you 'cba'.

Ah, good tip about wiping those items - thank you. I hope others see your post too. I've been recycling for years, but it was only when a friend recently mentioned inadvertently rinsing fat/oil down the sink that I thought about fatbergs.

in our last house we had food waste collected every week, recycling was every two weeks and general waste every three and you couldn’t put out any more than three rubbish bags. There was also a service for collecting nappies and incontinence products weekly. We could also recycle batteries at the kerbside. It very quickly became a habit to split everything out. I would fill the dishwasher with everything that could go in it, then half fill the washing up bowl for the bits that couldn’t go in the dishwasher, then rinse out the jars, cans and meat packaging at the end.

we’ve recently moved to somewhere with much reduced kerbside recycling and I hate the waste we produce. I take all my soft plastics to the supermarkets and pill packages to Boots as well as bottles to the bottle bank and batteries to the shops. I can’t wait until we get our extra bins over the next 12 months!

Depending on the time of year and or current advice, if you use stale bread you can put it out for the birds as well!

Sounds like our council’s arrangements for years. We cope fine with a family of 5 and rinsing the raw chicken dish really isn’t a massive deal. Do you usually shove them in the black bin for maggots to enjoy? 🤢

I’m amazed that anyone would put unwashed jars, cans or plastic packaging in the bin, how revolting.

I do this too. It helps keep our (reusable) recycling bags clean too.

What is the issue with washing meat packaging. You are using all the meat from it and then it just needs a quick rinse immediately after. Done!
The packaging will tell you where it is recycled. Usually trays in house recycling, the clear plastic that mince is in usually goes back to the supermarket.
It is not hard. 3 weekly bins here, recycling and food waste weekly and purple bags for adult or baby nappies/pads. Those you have to book in.

You should have seen the absolute drama over food waste bins being introduced here, and how many people kicked off they weren’t using it

”I’m not having rotting food in my kitchen”
what, like in your normal kitchen bin?

“the rats will be attracted to it”
well it was outside in the general waste bin, do rats know it’s a different container?!

Sounds the same as our new scheme OP (East of england) I don't mind washing up jars as do that anyway for the bottle bank, but what frustrates me is we have limited space in our kitchen (only for 2 bins) and have no conservatory, utility room etc, so are going to have to faff about sorting the recycling outside into the 2 bins, and also the food waste bin will be impossible for us to store indoors too.
As for the black bin being emptied every 3wks....really don't know how that is going to go with a newborn in nappies and half a bin full of guinea pig hutch waste every few weeks!

I put glass jars, tins, and plastic containers in the dishwasher. The plastic sometimes goes a bit out of shape due to heat but that doesn't matter. I can't imagine putting dirty jars into the recycling ever.

We don't here sadly - we asked that question too.

I tend to rinse out most glass but we still have to take it to the bottle bank.

For other stuff, honestly it depends.

I will happily give stuff a quick rinse that doesn’t stick to the container, such as a tin of chopped tomatoes.

But other stuff takes up more water to get thick stuff out, like baked bean sauce or my kids’ yoghurts. So tbh i don’t bother and they go in the normal bin. I am conscious of wasting water and also my water bill.

Then stop putting stuff in the wrong bin. Obviously

It takes seconds to rinse out your jars & yogurt pots before recycling them. As for meat boxes, particularly in this heat a quick squirt of fairy in the bottom, fill it with water, tip it out, job done.

But I must say, it’s been entertaining seeing people losing their minds over a bit of recycling. Something a significant proportion of the country has managed as normal for 15/20yrs +.

I always wash out every packet and jar. Just leave the tap running for a while, it’s really not that deep.

I am also amused at some of the recent recycling hysteria i’ve seen on social media and literally gob smacked that some areas have only just introduced food recycling as it must be a minimum of 15yrs since our council did. I don’t get why people are happy to have discarded food in their main kitchen bin, meaning it stinks every time you open it, compared to having a small counter top food bin that you can empty every few days. Much preferable. Seen quite a few posts on insta of people complaining about this and me thinking hang on, where have these councils been?!

There is someone on a local to me recycling group page on Facebook claiming that their using the food caddy has meant that they now apparently have an ant infestation and what are the council going to do about it?

People refusing to use the food caddy because the council forgot to include a starter roll of compostable caddy liner bags and why should they have to pay for more when they've already helped to pay for all of this from their taxes etc etc.

Interestingly, whenever myself or someone else mentions what's the difference between a caddy and a regular kitchen bin, they almost always never have a response for that! You really couldn't make it up! 😂

We don't have food recycling bins where I live, so you can be even more gobsmacked.