I agree that Marissa should try a different line, because "It's not normal," clearly isn't working. But the fault of this argument is not with her at all.
It takes the same effort to put the apple in the sink or in the rubbish. He chooses the sink "For Marissa to take care of later." She's in charge of throwing out his decomposing food scraps? Okay, maybe that's how they roll. But for him to
purposefully create more stuff for her to throw out? Red flag.
Even if it was something more understandable, when your spouse asks you several times to do something very small and you blatantly refuse to do it? Very inconsiderate. Bad bad bad. How normal this is isn't the problem here.
Also, who responds to their wife's unhappiness by saying, "My mother was okay with it"

Many more red flags sprouting all over the place with that line. He sees his wife as a substitute? Or that she's supposed to play the same role and have the same feelings about things as his mother? Even if they have kids and if Marissa is
a mother, Marissa isn't the same person as
his mother. To expect her to be is very disrespectful and juvenile. I'm always slightly disgusted with people who think along these lines. He needs to grow up.