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!

My black bin has only the contents of my vacuum cleaner. I could possibly compost that. Every else is recycled. What’s so hard about that?

YANBU. I don’t mind the tins and jars but I am absolutely not washing meat packaging. That is against safe food prep guidelines.

Well... it is more work to wash the recycling, for mostly women in the home, doing the washing up. That is true. Only a little bit more work, but a bit more nonetheless.
Mayo jars are a bit sticky, also agree, but compared to peanut butter and tahini pretty easy.
I guess I just like the thought of doing my little tiny bit each day, so I rinse the recycling. Also, the glass jars are possibly the most recyclable thing in the bin.
Re "tech bros are killing the world, so why should I rinse my mayo jar". I like to think I'm fighting the bros one piece of recycling at at time, and also hope they get their come-uppance when the revolution comes for the enshittification of the internet, the environmental destruction and all the job losses of "lower value human capital", as the CEO of Standard Chartered put it so nicely last week - he means women BTW. Although when he's finished firing us we will have more time to rinse the mayo jars.

Open empty mayo jar.
Scoop some washing up water into it.
Lid back on.
Shake vigorously
Jar is clean,

Not hard….

Put the jar in the dishwasher. You will then have a collection of jam jars so make jam.

Just give them a quick slosh under the tap.

That's not great as it contaminates the whole recycling load. Because you can't be bothered.

Don't do it op just chuck it in a bin. We pay so much council tax we do not need to be washing jars.

It’s all starting to piss me off to the point I can’t be arsed to do any of it. Maybe a bit more effort should be made to create less packaging in the first place

Refusing to wash out a jar is so lazy. It takes seconds. Or if you really can't be arsed, fill it with water, leave it in the sink and come back to it later whereby 90% of the time it will rinse right out. Meat packets = a squirt of washing up liquid and some hot water. How hard is that?

It is odd that the easiest to recycle is the one you have to pay extra for ie garden waste.

Our bins are emptied every other week, the green bin tends to be full but not overflowing unless it’s Xmas whereas the recycling (only have one for everything here) is overflowing with extra bags / boxes at the side every time. We recycle more than waste I guess. Definitely wouldn’t manage with monthly collections though. We’re a family of 7.

I’m lazy as anything, but even I wash jars and packaging before it goes into recycling. Jars go in the dishwasher, everything else is washed in the sink. It’s pretty gross not to.

I actually like twashing jars in dishwasher and will often take labels off and keep the prettier or good size ones with their lids. I use them for all sorts, home made vinaigrette or mint sauce, small leftovers, baking stuff etc I’ve got a big pretty one with herbal tea bags ( so not mixed with the proper tea bags) Like tupperware . Sad as it is I get satisfaction from seeing them in cupboards or fridge 😂😂😂 and advantage is you can always see what’s in them

Ah the MN myth of “contaminating the whole recycling load”. If that were the case every single load would be contaminated and nothing would ever get recycled.

I don’t rinse stuff out either op because i’m conscious of water use.

We have an extra large waste bin, two recycling bins, garden waste and food bin.

All are full fit to burst every collection day.

Recycling more wouldn’t help it won’t fit just like I couldn’t throw more in landfill bin is already full and jumped on by dh 🤢

We also have composters.

I guess I could burn it 🤷🏻‍♀️

The secret is that there is a hand sort to start with at the recycling depot. Look for the videos of vapes catching fire on a conveyor belt. Someone (usually a man) does a hand sort of your rubbish first. Actually vacuum cleaner contents could go in your compost if you have a garden. Babies nappies are the only thing that has to go to landfill because they can't be incinerated.

We’ve been on 3 weekly bins for a while, it’s no problem and I’ve always washed out mayo containers etc - I just bung them in the dishwasher these days but in the past I soaked them

We've had all those bins since we moved here in 2013. Black: general crap. Blue: mixed recycling. Red (a bag, not a bin): paper and card. Brown: food waste. Green: garden waste. (We also have a compost bin in the garden, but that's down to us.) Food waste is collected weekly, other bins on alternate fortnights.

Somehow everyone manages this without drama.

I do give ours a quick swill out but not fully rinse or wash as we are told not to in my area because it wastes water. I agree it is getting silly the amount of bins, different packaging and collections.

I’m not washing a thing.

Yes it’s a bit more work, but why should we go through life thinking we don’t have to do ‘a bit more work’? We don’t have the right to live a life without rinsing out the jars and containers that we have used.

I don't mind waahing up glass jars but for families of 4+ I really dont think a normal collection every 3 weeks is acceptable.

Thanks for that. It's obviously a Gov.UK myth as well.

When jars are unwashed, they can contaminate other recyclables, leading to the rejection of the entire load. To prevent this, it is essential to remove food, grease, or liquid residue from jars before recycling. A quick rinse is sufficient, and removing lids is also recommended to reduce the chance of them getting lost during the sorting process