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!

But my point and my underlying point of the whole thread is that this should not be a luxury of the money and time rich. The infrastructure needs to be better. I should be able to refill my pasta and rice at my local supermarket, companies must be lobbied to use less packaging in the first place. You cannot put the blame at the foot of the consumer who is just trying their best to live their life in a world that is constantly making it harder.

It's a huge time saver to have milk and veg delivered (we use a local farm company - the big names are not as flexible we find) and likewise to know that should we run out of washing up liquid/washing powder/kitchen spray we just have to refill a bottle and off we go.

It's also great for people who don't have a car - we can walk to an Aldi but I wouldn't want to carry back a week's worth of milk and veg.

It does work out more expensive for some things but cheaper for others, swings and roundabouts. DH makes most of our bread in a bread machine and that saves us too and saves plastic wrappers. But I definitely think we save time our way.

One thing that is hard if you are not well off is buying in bulk: milk and veg are just weekly payments but buying flour for the bread, bulk containers for washing stuff is an outlay, it is true.

@drspouse genuine question how does it save time to get those things delivered? I already get a sainsburys delivery on a Sunday so it’s not like I’m going to the shops regularly anyway (apart from top ups).

I feel like it has been set up to be impossible. Forcing people to spend more money that they don’t have and putting the onus on the consumer who probably hasn’t had a pay rise in line with inflation for years, rather than actually solving the bigger problem.

. I dont know anyone that washes out their recycling.

FFS.

Some people seem to think they are living on a different planet.

Sadly they are living on THIS planet.

What chance is there that these folks’ grandchildren will have a planet left to live on…

Why have you quoted me and reproduced words that aren’t in my post?

Whatever, I don’t believe for a minute that washing your rubbish will help save the planet. It might contribute to sewer fatbergs and the general decay of infrastructure, but it won’t save the planet.

They are just there in the morning (or when we get home from work), no booking a delivery, no working out how much you need for the whole week, no dash to the shops when you run out mid week. We email our milkman in the evening and it's magically there on the doorstep in the morning. No delivery cost on top of the veg/milk cost either.
With other groceries we often run out mid week (and we don't have a delivery every week, sometimes we don't need enough to justify it, sometimes we go to the supermarket anyway), and then it's a dash to get what we're missing on the way home. Never happens with milk, and we only top up veg/fruit when we are shopping anyway - no special trips to top up.

My black bin barely has anything in it when collected. To those too woossy to wash out a plastic meat container or jar. WTAF, you eat the stuff so wash it. Every packet, every item that is put into landfill is very much making a difference. Also, reusing and recycling helps with the limited resources. I do it for the planet and my children. You can also collect up soft plastic wrappers and recycle them at Tesco. All my family do this. Those wrappers really add up too!

Yes, divert from what you can do yourself and go around complaining about people trying to make a real difference. So smart aren’t you?

Have you seen my update? They are also only collecting recycling every 4 weeks so me washing out my jars this week has only created a new problem.

Pathetic

Well the benefit will be the items won’t smell in the bin for 4 weeks. I’ve always washed out everything and it takes seconds. The laziness of people on here has astounded me. First world f-in problems. Boo hoo.

But there is not enough space for the items

We work full time, are not rich, have veg delivered , cook from scratch and have next to nothing in the black bin. It’s not hard or expensive, maybe 2 or 3 items to rinse each day. We’ve been doing it for ages where we live and have to do it at work too. Nobody complains. People have been washing out jars and tins since we first had them the last 2 centuries . We have dishwashers and many other accessories to make life easier now . You’re making an issue out of nothing.

There is masses of space. What are you talking about?

So are you!

Oh I see I thought you were just complaining about washing packets. I agree 4 weekly is ridiculous, ours would be overflowing. Ours is 2 weekly.

No I’m not, I’m washing my containers out and recycling without have such stupid thoughts and crying about it.

It’s sort of both - I’m making more effort to wash out more things for recycling because they aren’t collecting the black bin as often…but they are also collecting recycling half as often with a new limit on how much you can recycle (we used to have unlimited bags) so it feels impossible and pointless. I am currently spending my Sunday evening researching can crushers

Good luck, if it’s limiting your recycling it’s increasing landfill I’d write to your council and see if you can get others involved as that is a very stupid situation they’ve just created there.

For the love of God, delicate petals, there are whole families living waist-deep in rubbish including your dirty jars of mayonnaise. I honestly cannot keep reading this whingefest. It makes me sick to the stomach. This planet has no chance really, when some of the most privileged people in the world think it's too much effort to rinse a fucking meat pack and a jar of mayonnaise.

I have no idea how some of you can look at your children in the eye.

I don’t wash things out either. I’m baffled by the very idea tbh. Just put them in the appropriate bin.

I have been through my opinions about this and why I feel it’s a waste of time on this thread! I’m not writing it all again! You carry on washing them out if you like but don’t call other people “pathetic” for having a different view! I’m not responding anymore to your stupid comments having a cry about it because I’ve already said all I needed to say pages ago! Goodnight!

Here's a trick I learned while on holiday in Spain: after emptying a jar, fill it with pasta, vegetables, chicken, or other ingredients, close the lid, and give it a good shake. By the time you empty it again, the ingredients will have scrubbed most of the residue off the inside of the jar!

Still think you're 'pathetic '.

I'm actually puzzled if you have a full sized wheelie bin for your metals and plastics, how you can fill it up?
We don't have milk cartons in ours but I don't imagine we have THAT much less than you, possibly more with 4 adult portions being cooked each day.
Today we've put in one large chicken tray, 3 Coke zero cans, a peanut butter jar, small beer bottle from last night, and some foil. At this rate for a week we'd fill about 10%. We previously had recycling boxes and the metal/plastic one was collected every two weeks - generally we only filled one box in the fortnight.

Everyone had cereal or toast for breakfast so nothing from that needed to go in the recycling. I had hummus on toast for lunch, with chutney but obviously will take ages to empty the jar, and I'll empty the hummus pot this week. DH had cheese on crackers and DD and DS both made themselves bacon butties but didn't empty the packet. So that's one day of empties.