We have all been told since we were very young, that recycling is the right thing to do, since it's good for the environment. Well, is it really? According to the EPA, from the 1960s to the year 2018, less than 10% of plastic gets recycled. The vast majority of it, 79%, either gets burned or dumped in landfills.
You might wonder, why does so little actually get recycled? Virtually all plastic can be recycled, but little actually does get recycled, because the process of picking it up, sorting, and melting it is very expensive. In addition to that, plastic degrades every time it is recycled. When it is recycled into a new product, the quality is usually worse than it was before recycling, so plastic cannot be recycled more than once or twice. We also don't know if there are any carbon reduction benefits, as the process in itself has an impact on the environment. These problems have existed for a very long time, no matter what technology gets developed or what advancements get made. The main flaw with recycling is not the technology, but the counterintuitive process.
However, the plastic industry tries to keep these facts hidden from the public. Since the 1970s, the plastic industry has tried to make recycling look like it's beneficial to the planet. They motivate us by creating competitions, such as Global Recycling Day, teaching about recycling in schools, and writing about it in the news. They try to tell us that our plastic waste will eventually get turned into another product, but really, we are just dumping more waste into landfills. Recyclables are put in a different bin from the trash can, which further supports the recycling myth. It tricks us into feeling less guilty about depositing more waste, basically.
Now that we know that plastic recycling is a scam, we must use less of it. Some ways of avoiding plastic include using metal straws or glass straws, rather than conventional plastic ones. You could also use a reusable bag whenever going grocery shopping, instead of the plastic ones cashiers hand out at the checkout aisle. Instead of purchasing bottled water, you could fill a reusable water bottle with tap water. Lastly, stop chewing gum, because it contains plastic. These are simple things that you can do within your everyday life, yet they can go a long way.
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