Rubbish accumulations and exhaustion. Do others feel this way?

It does!
I worked as a hospice nurse for 5 years, and saw the same changes you have been making.
One family though our agency should pay for have the increased trash taken away. Takes all kinds, doesn't it?
Do what you need to do keep your head above water until you have more time/energy to demonstrate your concern about the environment.
Hoping that bed in the care home is open soon.

You must do what you have to do to survive this challenging period in your life. If you can't recycle everything as you did before, forgive yourself and promise to do more once you are "emancipated" from this responsibility. In the meantime, allow yourself to cut some corners and use single-use plastic utensils and paper or foam plates if it helps. I've come to rely on frozen vegetables to reduce food waste, but it's still inevitable with my mother's wildly vacillating food demands. I maintain a large compost pile so the vegetables get a second chance at life, but it still feels like failure to find them lost and decaying in the fridge.

Speaking of decay in the fridge: my mother ordered quarts of this special holiday fruit salad at Thanksgiving and finished off one of them in a timely fashion. The other one got pushed deep into the back of the fridge and lost for about a month. When I discovered it and told her it needed to go, she threw a scary fit and threatened me with police action if I threw it away. I've warned her so many times about eating spoiled food, but she won't listen. So, more than a month after it was prepared and sold to her, she eats half of the old container and then has terrible diarrhea for three days. She tried to deny eating it and refused to tell me where the container was (she stuffed in the freezer). She refuses to wear her incontinence underwear so I'm washing round-the-clock normally; this 3-day event really pushed the limits of the appliances and me. No sooner did that resolve when she decided that she would just have a normal bowel movement in her bed (over several hours and several bedding changes). While trying to manage this round of laundry, I reached the incontinence pad with the large "load" and just said F'IT, I'm throwing this one in the trash. It felt so liberating and was the nicest thing I'd done for myself in a very long time.

You can't control your sleep schedule (I'm right there with you on that issue--it's torturous, and I expect to have PTSD in response to doorbells long after my mother passes) and you can't control your mom's behavior, so just give yourself permission to cut corners and survive. You have to survive, Cappucino.

You are a full-time "pooper scooper," the one coming behind the circus to clean up everything. (Another user said that once and it resonated with me.) Whatever helps you get through the day is worth it right now.

My ex told me that dump sites will be able to be recycled in bulk in the future for fuel, plastics, metals, etc. He explained his Google research to back this up... and for all I know, he could be right. I hope he's right. We are all too wasteful. But it's ok to just get through the days right now because what options do you have? Maybe your own Google research will give you some ideas on more environmentally-friendly ideas.

Everything goes into the land fill eventually. Just be glad you have access to depends and wipes and paper plates. Imagine the level of work and exhaustion you would have if none of these modern conveniences werent available. And corporations are bigger polluters then you will ever be. Think about planned obselesance of products. How wasteful is that. Right? Clothing manufacturers and others that dump goods to keep prices higher. You have bigger things to worry about than saving the environment so stop feeling guilty.

Cap, I used the depends boxes for donation items. They were the perfect size for me to lift and carry and they are sturdy.

I broke them down and stored them beside a file cabinet and taped up when needed.

I just used the last box and I am going to miss those sturdy boxes.

If you are waiting for placement, you might want to consider doing this, you will be needing boxes soon.

Have you ever considered making your own laundry detergent? I can share a 3 ingredient recipe that takes 5 minutes to make. I make 2 gallons at a time, quicker then running to the store and about $1.25 a gallon, 64 loads per gallon and minimal trash.

Sometimes we all make excess garbage, you just have to accept the fact and know that eventually it will change.

One thing that I would try is giving mom a few bites on her plate, easy to give a bit more if wanted and then you can serve leftovers another day. She won't remember and it will save you time, money and effort.

It's much like raising children when diapers and incessant laundry are the order of the day. I did diapers for nine years straight when my kids were young. I never thought the day would come when my garbage cans weren't overflowing.

Eventually, this, too, will pass, and you'll be able to return to a more conscientious way of living. Like many situations in life, there are times when we have to adapt to a new normal for a while before things return to what we're accustomed to.