As a conservationist, I like the idea of recycling; why waste something? Unfortunately, as even National Geographic points out, the fantasy of recycling often conflicts with the reality:
A plastic bag, a dirty pizza box, plastic utensils, paper napkins, and a soda can—a single takeout meal can feel like a game of recycling trivia.
Which items can be recycled? What kinds of plastic go in the trash? What if the container is greasy?
Recycling can be complicated, and the rules outlining how to do it vary from city to city, which might be one reason why only about 32 percent of our trash gets recycled.
Only about six percent of the plastic—everything from plastic bottles to IV drips—produced in the U.S. in 2021 was recycled, according to a Greenpeace report. Some plastic items are designed in ways that make them difficult to recycle or recyclers struggle to find people who want to buy recycled material.
Once China stopped accepting our recyclable trash, the heyday of recycling was over.
1 comment:
Not to mention that nearly all the alarming photos of pollution, and the great Pacific Garbage patch, and so on, used to call out the alarm for recycling ....are from poor countries in Asia and Africa.
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