...or is anyone else secretly fed up with recycling?

[Chil1234]

I do it, of course I do. Socially responsible, obedient, middle-aged woman, terrified of getting a big sticker on my wheelie-bin that I am - what choice is there? I've got the two-sided Brabantia for the compostable waste, I keep my reusable shopping bags in the back of the car, I'm even tipping the dirty washing up water on the plants to conserve that. But as I look at my little collection of rinsed-out bottles, cans and cardboard waiting to be sorted outside into their relevant bins, bags and boxes I can't help feeling a twinge of nostalgia for the days when you used to just throw stuff away and forget about it. I threw a dead battery in the 'everything else' bin this week and felt positively subversive.... yet elated.

Anyone else a reluctant green?

I'm expected to drive to my local recycling point (14 miles away) in order to recycle any excess that doesn't fit in my bin.

No extra bins are provided, they won't take anything that isn't in the bin and they get arsey if there's recycling mixed with ordinary household waste.

Where's the greeness in that? Having to make a 30 mile round trip to recycle any excess that's going to end up in a landfill somewhere anyway.

Maybe less packaging and a return to items such as milk in glass containers that can be recycled easily would be more effective. Maybe it would be better to concentrate on putting some life back into rural towns and villages rather than encouraging gigantic supermarkets to take over. That way everything could be more localised as it was years ago. Much greener that way and much better for the local economy I would have thought.

I agree SS. We are lucky that the bins our council provides are far bigger than we need. We have a green wheelie bin for cardboard and garden waste, a brown one for tins and bottles (which we never fill) and a plastic bag for papers. These get collected once a fortnight. We also get a grey bin for landfill waste, which is only about half full after a fortnight. We also make our own compost.

My bugbear is that I have to get in the car to recycle plastic bottles.

We have our milk delivered from a local farm, and it comes in glass bottles. I wouldn't be without my milk delivery, and it doesn't cost much more than supermarket milk. I also buy my meat and veg from local farm shops and don't have much packaging to throw away.
But we still have tins - tomatoes, beans, coconut milk, tuna; and plastic bottles - shampoo, Actimel, laundry liquid etc. All packaging items that are unavoidable.

I'm not fed up, but my council is very good.

They collect everything weekly, and the only categories are rubbish, cardboard, and everything else. As has been said, it's no harder to put something in the recycling box than the rubbish bin.

I am aware my view may be different if my council did was stricter or I had to take it to the recycling place myself (when we lived in Plymouth they wouldn't take glass; we just filled boxes and boxes with it until parents visited that could take it to be recycled as we didn't have a car at the time).

Our council is very good - we put it all, the recyclables, that is into one colour plastic bag. Believe the council then ships it to the third world for sorting!! [hhmm]

Don't mind the recycling so much but do mind the exhortations to walk to places rather than using the car.

Yes, I'm sick of it. The reason I'm so sick of it is that the County Council sees it as merely a money-saving exercise and is not in the least interested in doing the thing properly.

If they were interested, they would arrange collections more often than once a fortnight. They would ensure that collection points around town were not overflowing. They would not be so picky about what they will and won't take, with no logical explanation for their decisions. They would put some real investment into it instead of trying to push all the costs onto us - did you know that in some countries people are paid to recycle? They would stop finding flimsy excuses for leaving the recycling box untouched.

I'm sick of my tiny house looking like a rubbish tip between collections. I'm sick of all the recycling bins around my garden. I'm sick of the pathetic excuses as to why they will take this type of container, but not that one, even though they're both made of the same plastic...

recycling pisses me off too.

I do paper and glass religously - the other stuff I'm not to fussed about.

I absolutely refuse to use our slop bin. I really don't think me recycling my orange peel is going to save the world.

Accidently left a plastic bottle in the recycling box a couple of weeks ago and got an arsey notice.

Thing is, next door don't bother recycling, have overflowing smelly bins and don't get crappy notices.

Why do I bother

Agree that recycling is a pain and I don't bother with it. Fortunately I live in a block of flats with communal bins so there's no way to check whether individual households do it or not.

"MNers Lead The Revolution Against The Recycling Con"

Wonder what the Daily Fail will make of it? [hhmm]

I don't really understand people that wish the council would spend more money getting other people to sort it for you. Would you really rather the extra council tax than spending two seconds picking a container?

Well I'm really fed up today. After years of the recycling box taking plastic, cans and glass, this week I get a big embarrassing sticker 'reminding' me that the glass should go in a separate box. Reminding? Since when? Did I miss the memo? I mean... you do your level best to be a good citizen, comply with the silly rules (and have reminders around the house that this week is the green box and next week is the black bin etc.) and then they move the perishing goal-posts!

Paying 40 euros for a roll of 20 bin bags does focus your mind wonderfully on recycling I must say. We are going to get a compost bin.

I'm in northwales (wrexham) and our council are pretty good really. I.ve never yet had a recycling bin not emptied because there are crisp packets in it, if there is anything thats in the wrong place the bin men will still empty it and leave the offending article in the bin,

But we have the same problem with the foodbins, all the food coats the bottom of the green garden bin which stinks, as a result all our food waste now goes in normal rubbish and the food bin gets relegated to the kitchen cupboard

I am sooooooooo fed up with it! Plus, most of the packaging I don't want anyway. The companies who produce the stuff should pay to collect and sort it.

YANBU. I'm all for straightfoward recycling but when the bloody bin men won't take away my huge crate of glass because there is a tiny bit of paper in it; pah!

Wow, which is your council? Wish ours was as good as that

OLD THREAD

Have you ever watched them when they come to collect it? You spend time sorting it and then they just throw in into the back of one big truck. Really. Well, they do where I live.

I was just getting into the discussion too and noticed its an old thread, bah.