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!

Our council also recently changed systems, and we now have 8 bins! We used to have a mixed recycling bin, which was fine, but now we have to separate all our recycling. The system only allows for a small amount of each material, and I feel like they’ve got the ratios wrong, e.g the paper bin is far too big, but the cardboard bin is too small. I find it a massive ballache tbh. (We have a food bin, a paper bin, a plastic bin, a glass bin, a cardboard bin, a garden waste bin, a sanitary bin, and a general waste bin - plus we have a little pot for batteries)!

I never wash things out. I pay enough council tax as it is without having to do an extra job that they want me to!

So you are happy for it to end up in landfill (depending on the area) or for your council tax to get even more expensive? Cool,

So it can stink out landfill with the rest of it.

Genuinely surprised at how many people don’t care about the planet their offspring will inherit

The council don’t pay me to wash out jars and containers. If they want to recycle stuff and ensure jars and containers are clean before going to recycling then maybe they should have come up with a better recycling system than having people leave their jars out in bins for weeks on end. Unfortunately it’s not my problem and I did not sign up to having to wash out jars and other stuff for their benefit!

Are you for real? With attitudes like that, our planet is f&&ked.

I'm guessing you also don't shovel snow or use communal grit bins because "it's not my job".

I despair.

lol!

Yeah.

Hilarious.

Wow you really are getting into a tizz about this aren’t you! You could always come over here and wash them out yourself if you feel so strongly about it!

@QuietComet can come clean mine too 🤣 and clean my bins out too if the smell is so offensive 🤣

It's not for their benefit.

It's for everyone living in your community's benefit. It costs the council money to send rubbish to landfill. By washing your recycling - and thus ensuring it is recyclable - you are reducing their landfill tax, and therefore maximising the amount they have to spend on other community resources.

The economic illiteracy of the British public is astonishing.

We see the price of our bills go up - food, heating, services, everything.

We don't think that the same applies to local government - all their costs have gone up.

We know that the population is ageing and that there is a problem with social care.

We whinge to fuck when our council tax goes up because that cost is largely borne by them now, thanks to central government doing nothing about it.

And now we want the councils to somehow find the cash to wash our mayo jars because 'I didn't sign up for that'.

What planet are you on?!

“By washing your recycling - and thus ensuring it is recyclable - you are reducing their landfill tax, and therefore maximising the amount they have to spend on other community resources.”

“We whinge to fuck when our council tax goes up because that cost is largely borne by them now, thanks to central government doing nothing about it.
And now we want the councils to somehow find the cash to wash our mayo jars because 'I didn't sign up for that'.”

My local council piss our council tax money up the wall on unnecessary shit so please spare me that!

Washing them doesn’t change their size so doesn’t help get more in the bin.

You're damn right I'm in a tizz.

We don't have a spare planet, and ignorant, selfish people with flippant attitudes are going to continue to kill the only planet we have.

Not to mention the poor, minimum wage people who have to handle your unwashed waste.

And not to mention the financial cost of your practices.

If you weren't so busy being proud of your flippancy, and thought about things from a perspective that wasn't your own, you'd hang your head in shame.

I think you need to take a chill pill lol
Are you okay?

I hate washing the rubbish too. I would just do a swish out - hubby does a full scrub clean with detergent. So I use the dishwasher for those I can.

No I'm not.

It's incredibly depressing to know that people like you exist.

Okay well like I said. If you feel so strongly about it to the point it depresses you then you are welcome to come over here and wash them out yourself

I travelled out of London on the train through Essex a few weeks ago and the rubbish tipped on the side of the tracks was so depressing. Now I know where people get this sort of attitude from. Lazy, selfish people with no sense of responsibility or pride in themselves or their environments. I expect they’re bringing their children up to be the same.

It probably doesn’t end up.
Staff at the rubbish site will pick through and remove anything dreadfully awful, nappies, dead animals etc. Stuff clearly not supposed to be there .
The rest goes into a vast machine and gets washed.

Can I ask you a couple of serious questions?

Do you think about the planet? Do you consider the environment when you're doing everyday things?

Things like drought, the decrease in insect life and bird populations, the effects of landfill and waste on our soil systems and water sources, habitat loss and the decrease in biodiversity?

I agree with this. We trash our own environment.
I watched a programme about Japan recently. Not a scrap of crap anywhere. They got over one of the worst disasters in recent history and have rebuilt in good time. They are fastidious and super clean. Their cities, their rural areas, all absolutely spotless. Their civic pride is second to none. We don’t seem to have any.
What they must make of the UK I dread to think.

We have paper & card in a bag, other recycling in blue bin, I fill the bag, but there’s barely anything in the bin. The black bin only has 1 bag a week. 1 week they collect recycling, the following week the rubbish. I enjoy, I know, I know, cleaning my bins out. The bins do look a mess & could do with being smaller for people who don’t have much rubbish. It also pisses me off that I have to waste water on rinsing stuff, you can’t leave stinking stuff lying around.

You do realise that a lot of other countries, much larger than the UK that don’t recycle waste don’t you? So trying to accuse me of single handedly killing the planet is such a dumb argument if ever there was one!

Same situation here. But I’ve always washed our recycling.
Jars are easy - half fill with water, lid on shake and then empty. Voila clean jar.
And if you eat/handle/cook meat, you should at least be able to handle rinsing the tray, do it at the end of your washing up, or under a running tap.

And it’s precisely your one jar (and the ‘one’ jar of everyone with a similar attitude) that will make a difference.