why does DH put juice cartons in the cardboard recycling bin? Why? He has a degree and everything.

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I just. Don't. Understand. It's as if every time I tell him that juice cartons need to go in a separate box he hears "lah lah lah lah lah doo doo bi boo". This is one single dimensional piece of information. Just one. A child could understand. Why, why WHY?

Maleeka, MamaVoo, was going to post to say the same thing.
I DO really try, but I know I really frustrate DH sometimes... well... alot!
We take tetrapaks to the local recycling centre, so we have to collect them all together ourselves. He has this really complex way of removing the plastic pourer bit, opening the carton up, taking the LAST DROP of juice and rolling it up to save space.

I'm the lazy one, and tend to leave them on the side for him to do.

So it's not just men. I'm crap too (and he'll probably tell you I commit some of the other crimes people have listed here too)

Ha ha my dp will insist on putting household rubbish bags in the green gardening wheelie bin when the other bin is full NO MATTER how many times I tell him they won't take them.

He's a bit thick anyway but even my 10 year old ds can grasp this so why can't he

Recycling rules vary a lot from one place to another. We have a big green bin (garden waste and per bedding but not kitchen waste)
a plastics bin (some kinds of plastic only, pop and shampoo bottles and milk bottles)
then, a paper and metals bin and a glass and cardboard bin. Now, the council leaflet specifically tells you not to put the tetra packs in the cardboard bin, but to take them to a special place (thus requiring a special trip in the car, not good practice plus when I did it the container was overflowing). BUT when I went to the dump one time, having failed to get rid of my tetrapacks en route I asked the men there, thinking it would just have to go straight in the non recyclable skips, but no, they said they CAN go in the recycling. Was so suprised by this I asked agai next time I went and got the same reply. So now I put tetrapacks in our household cardboard recycling bin and they always get taken. Which is a jolly good thing as we have about 15 a week!!
So, maybe OP's DH has been speaking to the guys at the dump (aka Household Waste Recycling Centre)

our (very backward)council collect only cans, glass and newspsper once a fortnight.other paper/cardboard/including juice cartons we take to the recycling depot ourselves - and yes we have checked they accept them - DH even cuts the plastic cap bits off though i think there is no need.

it makes me sooooo angry seeing how much cardboard the neighbours are leaving out for the binmen tomorrow, post xmas - dozens and dozens of large boxes in some cases, outside about 6 houses in my road. And we are 5 mins drive from the recycling place.

And as DD wisely says (and she only 7) it is not a good idea leaving all that outside the house so a burglar can see exactly what new stuff you had for xmas!

Isn't it silly, & frustrating, that all councils don't have the same rules?

We can't put plastic in recycling if it isn't a bottle - even when it's made of the same kind of plastic (ie PET & HDPE for our bin), it's bottles only - so we have to save up all the containers & take them to the recycling centre (run by the county council, not the borough council, although it's in the borough, what's that about?)

Our recycling bin is also for tin cans & aluminium & glass - not sorted. We can put cardboard & phone books & brown envelopes (minus their windows) & books in the paper sack.

(Some very big branches of Tesco have tetrapak recycling bins, so for anyone who can't do it at home, check out any big ones you might go to - DH takes ours to one near his work) (at least he says he does but being a man, who knows )

tetrapak recycling facilities map

Asda & Sainsburys provide them too

we are allowed here too!

not that it means he can open the back door and put them in the bag, he leaves them on the windowledge inside instead!

My DP has a degree in Social Anthropology, a Masters and everything.

It is of no help whatsoever with the recycling although he can knock up an absolutely wizzo matrilineal kinship diagramme and read Levi-Strauss in the French.

Which, of course, is one of life's everyday essentials.

My DH...

Puts recyclable things in the main bin despite the fact it is right next to the recycling bin

Repeatedly puts tetrapaks and jiffy bags in the recycling for me to fish out.

When bought two boxes of his favourite cereal, will open them both and eat both in tandem, then put both empty boxes back, then wonder why I didn't include cereal on the shopping list - and won't understand why I thought since there were two boxes there, one must be full.

Ditto deodorant.

He puts completely empty packets of food back in the cupboard / fridge.

and cannot understand which bit of the tray in the washing machine has fabric conditioner and which washing liquid, despite being shown repeatedly.

He has a PhD

I keep meaning to ask our council just what their actual policy is. Normally our recycling is collected and sorted into glass/paper/other things and put into separate compartments of the recycle wagon. Occasionally when they are running behind a 'normal' bin wagon comes round and all of the recycling is put in a big wheelie bin by a guy then its all tipped together into the back of a wagon

It took me ages to train dh and the dses to recycle, and none of them have really grasped it yet. Dh still puts envelopes in the recycling, and plastic bags/food wrap.

He had just about learned what could and couldn't go in the recycling, when we moved, to an area with very different recycling rules. I spent the next 18 months teaching him the new recycling guidelines - like not recycling meat trays (washed), or carrier bags, both of which our previous council accepted for recycling.

Then the bastards council changed the guidelines again, and we are back to square one. Now we can recycle meat trays (washed) and tetra paks, and we don't have to separate things the way we used to - but dh still hasn't gotten to grips with this.

I used to have a notice on the recycling bin, listing what could go in it, and I would still find the wrong stuff in there.

The dses aren't much better either - I do have to fish stuff out of the ordinary bin to put in the recycling, and vice versa.

Perhaps it's something to do with testosterone?