to be sick of recycling?

[Umleila]

It seems to me recycyling actually means more unpaid work for mothers. I'm sick of washing and crushing cans, folding cardboard, swilling out bottles and then staggering out with the box and bags for collection. Why won't governments just force companies to use less packaging in the first place? As it is we mums are just expected to clear up capitalism's rubbish.

Hmmm... I was bemused in December when, due to the snow, our bins were hardly emptied. When they were, the council advised us that all rubbish would be collected at once and all used to create energy (ie burned). Why can't they do this all the time then?

If its too much effort to recycle (i.e. tins not clean with the quickest rinse) I don't bother now I'm afraid - too knackered. If they start providing me incentives to recycle then maybe I'll reconsider.

I don't even bother with the plastic containers - is it still true that they're not even recycled?

And don't get me started on the cardboard.

YANBU ours usually ends up littering our street, as lazy buggers don't pick up the bits they drop or get blown out of skimpy plastic box. So extra work again clearing others rubbish from garden!!

Oh just send it all to landfill then - after all we have plenty of space in this country

how is it possible to use less packaging than bottles & cans, btw...should they put drinks & beans in plastic bags?

"As it is we mums are just expected to clear up capitalism's rubbish"

Mums? What about dads? And who does it in childless households?

Oh and in case you don't realise, you, me, all of MN are capitalists whether we like it or not, and as such it is our rubbish.

Take responsiblity.

Incentives? How many fucking incentives do you need? How much landfill do you want? How much more do you want to pay in council tax?

Pathetic.

too much effort?
apart from the swilling out surely it's no more time consuming than putting it in a 'normal' bin. Lazy people.

What happens if you don't rinse out your bottles??

I don't think I ever have

on another thread the OP said tinned tomatoes are "lazy food"

(is she playing devil's advocate here...?)

I do the bare minimum and hate the tax on my time that recycling imposes.

I heard a lot of local authorities are storing recycling until the new financial year just so they can get their bonus (or avoid penalty) from Govt. They then will just dump it in a landfill. The market for recycled material has collapsed as a lot of it was packed in empty shipping containers and sent to China. Now there are less shipping containers coming here full of goods the cost of shipping our waste back the other way has gone up and that means it is no longer viable.

Frankly, I think it is unethical to ship our waste elsewhere so very poor people can sort it at risk to their health. I know some is recycled here in the UK but a lot is shipped elsewhere or dumped in landfill anyway.

Ponders - sounding likely!

YABU. It really takes very little effort, lets be honest. I have 2 bins. One for recycling and one for rubbish. I store glass in the old paper recycling bin and put food into a bin to got into the composter. Once you get into the habit of doing it it really doesn't create much more work than emptying the various bins.

And I don't think we should get incentives. I do think they should target work places though as they can't even use the normal recycling bins you get in supermarket car parks etc and have to pay more to recycle. Also if people get used to doing it at work it will encourage people to do it at home.

there was a thread here recently about fortnightly bin collections; someone who knows about it said that waste incinerators are the way forward in the UK, but that they need a big PR exercise because we are all (understandably) prejudiced against them but they are actually quite clean & safe now, & they can generate power instead of us paying to ship stuff to China or wherever

my workplace is recycling now, eddas - no more wpbs under desks, instead there is a collection of bins at each exit for paper, plastic & general waste, & we are all being encouraged to switch off monitors, lights etc & think more about saving energy. It's great!

YABU

why do you assume only women recycle, v sexist

yes its a pain in the arse, but thats life!!! think of the polar bears

ABetaDad, "I do the bare minimum and hate the tax on my time that recycling imposes"

Tax on your time? Really??? Blimey, you must have really important stuff to do every day

Tis no bother surely? Use a tin, swish it out. Chuck it in the bag with everthying else that goes in that recycling bin.

Paper/card all gets chucked in one massive bag that gets emptied every other day. Glass wine bottles every day

Not that much effort?

ps Porcamiseria - LOVE your name

Ponders - it might have been me who was banging on about incineration. Its my pet winge that we don't incinerate more and recycle the heat. If this wiki article is right then 1 tonne of household waste generates 2/3 MWh or electric and 2 MWh of waste heat that can be used to heat local buildings/houses round the incineration plant.

The value of that electric and heat is very rougly £75. Add on the value of the metal in the ash and the fact that 80 - 95% of the weight/volume of waste is consumed during incineration so less landfill - that is a winner all round.

Interesting that the first municipal incinerator in the world was built in the UK in 1874. Sad we stopped building them.

My husband works in facilities management and his office has recycling and energy saving targets. His company make a commitment to the governement to reach these targets. My work place has also got rid of under desk bins etc.

nope, it wasn't you (unless under an alias ) - will search back for it

But, as ABD says, surely most of it isn't even recycled, just shipped off to China and, in the case of plastic, buried in landfill?

That is why I feel it is a tax on my time as there are so many better ways of dealing with household waste than the way we recycle now.

But are you just applying that argument to circumvent "I do the bare minimum and hate the tax on my time that recycling imposes"

Surely it really isn't that imposing?

How difficult is it just to have diffrent sacks to throw things into and then take to the bins once a day?

it was notcitrus, very last post here

ourlady, historically it has made sense for us to send recycling material back to China in ships that would otherwise make the journey empty (very large ships using massive amounts of fuel)