AIBU for people not breaking down cardboard boxes into recycling bins

[Aerom]

Why people don’t bother to flatten down cardboard boxes - cereal boxes to boxes that had stuff delivered in before putting into their recycling bin. Boxes that not flattened take up much space. You are binning air if don’t flatten boxes.

Walking past a lady binning a box which was about a size of two shoe boxes side by side into her recycling bin. She couldn’t put the lid down. I asked if I could help. I flattened the box and placed in bin and could put the lid down.

On recycling bin days - often see boxes intact over hanging the bin. Not just where I live but in the town where I work

Only I know people’s surnames are taking in parcels for my neighbours.

Plus those who put their empty Amazon boxes (not broken down) on top of recycling bins. They blew off in the wind and found them with their name and address label on it still. Would less likely to blow off if broken down

I have just tried to squash a milk bottle

and failed

i don’t have the strength or time to be squashing boxes and don’t see a problem when they fit in my personal bin! How is that selfish? It’s all tipped into the recycling lorry and the big metal teeth do the job for me

I'm astonished that you care so much about something that has no impact on your life at all.

You cant recycle wet cardboard (nor food contaminated eg pizza boxes)

When you've worked retail it's just automatic because there is so much cardboard waste and you'd pay 4-5x the fees for it to be taken away if you didn't break the boxes down, so it gets drummed into you so hard you can't get out of the habit at home, where it's sensible but not the end of the world if not done.

I think if it's not a communal bin YABU - who cares what other people do with their recycling? It all gets squished down at the recycling place anyway so it won't matter if a box is flattened or not.

I’ll flatten big boxes, everything else goes into the recycling as is. I don’t flatten milk cartons or bottles. I rinse everything, though.

YANB. Also annoying people in my house who don't flatten the recycling they put in the indoor recycling bin (gets emptied daily into the outside recycling bin) so that it is immediately full because it has a cereal box and a milk bottle in it.

Hey! Are you not on hosepipe ban? Sounds highly illegal!!

Same. I wouldn't be particularly bothered if they weren't communal bins, but the people who are too lazy to compact their boxes fill the bins up well before the next collection day!

Where should I put my foodwaste once I’ve separated it? It ends up in the same stinky bin anyway, so not sure why I’d bother separating it from the other waste?

I'm with you that . Lazy fuckers

I'm not lazy. I can't physically do it. Stop being ableist.

We don’t currently have a hosepipe ban.

Stop being abelist..and pray tell how would I know about your condition.
I was relating to the situation in the block of flats we live in and the only disabled person in the block just so happens to be the person I live with.

How do you know that? We don't all wear a label.

Cheerio go find someone else to poke with a stick.

I wasn't the one calling people lazy fuckers. That is far more stick poking than calling it out.

In my city the recycling ends up in landfill anyway so yabu to fuss over it

😂😂 Yes i suppose that’s true. We don’t share bins here, in fact my
council don’t provide bins at all. We have bags for cardboard, a sack thing for plastics, and a food caddy. General waste is also bagged but they don’t provide those.

it’s a fair question, youve no idea what other people’s abilities are.

I don’t see why it matters so long as you don’t share a bin and the lid will shut. If the lid doesn’t close round here they wont take them. They also ask you not to put cardboard out in the rain because it falls apart. You are allowed to leave extra at the side but I only leave very big stuff or well packed regular boxes (rarely) as otherwise it would blow away! I do squish cans, tetra packs and plastic bottles and break up some boxes but am a bit half hearted about it! Sometime I just fill one box with other cardboard instead. I have been known to chuck in a whole shoe box if there is plenty of room.

Genuinely sorry I didn't mean to offend.
I was going by what goes on where we live and no one cares about our surroundings

I’m astonished at the wet cardboard info someone posted near the top. Our recycling tubs have no lids. So if it rains, the cardboard, and indeed all the recycling, is wet.

If I can fit the cardboard into the tub, that’s how I’ll leave it. It’s just too much work with a large busy family.

Recycling collections sounds like an absolute luxury, I am where there has not been any for atleast 16 months here!
So I definitely rip apart and compact mine down, and every week the night before bin collection i am cramming as much as I can into my refuse wheelie bin!
Birthdays and christmas are a nightmare trying to get rid of it

Definitely don’t do this. Wet paper and card are not recyclable because they mould.
where I live recycling is chewed up by the collecting truck so no sense doing it ourselves except to minimize number of loads the bin men collect. Like PP we just fold them into one another and don’t waste still more plastic shredding them into a bag.