Recycling is an illusion that fools us into thinking we are saving the planet, amirite?

Only reason I do it is because I get two trash cans, one is blue for trash, one is a slightly different blue for recycling. If I only used the trash can, which I tried, about every other week it would overflow, so I make use of the recycling can.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Yep. Same here. My dad use to wash the super cheap paper plates because he was huuuuge about recycling and saving the planet. He is still all about recycling but no one can tell him it was a scam. I had to do all the things to recycle everything we could growing up. Now.... it is just a second trash so my regular one does not over flow 🤷‍♀️

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Exactly. They won't let me NOT have a recycling bin. They told me I must pay for it even if I don't use it. Oh I use it. ☠️

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Reduce Reuse Recycle is in that order for a reason. It says to reduce consumption, then in the few cases that isn't possible, reuse the thing as much as possible, and in the extreme cases where even that isn't possible, recycle it. Recycling is by far the least important on that list.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Yet, it's the one pushed to us because it's the most profitable solution

by Anonymous 7 months ago

I assume you're referring to recycling. But yeah it's really hard to do 1 and 2 because single use is so convenient and most items don't have a way to refill themselves.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

for whom is it profitable ?

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Hard truth. People these days generally are not interested in the truth, though, just positive vibes.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

These days?

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Idk man, took a lot of truth to get us from caveman to where we're at now. Just not so sure it was all worth it

by Anonymous 7 months ago

"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." - Douglas Adams

by Anonymous 7 months ago

To each his own I suppose. Personally I enjoy heat and living past 22, but that's just me.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

We're so fancy we export our trash to poor countries. Those rivers of garbage you see in 3rd world countries likely is partially made up of trash that was created here in the US.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

You can always buy things that don't need plastic or as little as possible. Buy in bulk and bring your own jug.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Plastics are tricky because they greatly reduce the amount of carbon put into the air compared to things like glass containers, metal or wood crates, etc. Choosing things besides plastic isn't always the best choice if you consider emissions vs pollution

by Anonymous 7 months ago

It depends on what you're trying to improve on. Yes they can reduce the carbon issue, but microplastics in the environment is a big issue. Discarded plastic damaging wildlife is also a big issue.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Plastic recycling is a joke right now. It's essentially getting thrown into a void that workers have to parse through to separate and find anything useful amongst the trash people throw in the plastic bin. 2% of it ends up being useful, the rest just gets rerouted to becoming more waste.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

The saying is 'reduce. Reuse. Recycle' hardly anyone thinks of the first 2.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Recycling has been a con for decades. I worked in a "recycling plant" for a short time. It's a total charade, and this is true for countless government endeavors marketed as serving some "greater good". Countless dollars are stolen from the taxpayer and spent on this charade.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

What savage country do you live in? Where I live, it is reused very much. Glas, Aluminum and Steel are infinitely reusable. If your barbarian-country just puts these materials into a landfill, that's such a waste. To conclude: Depending on where you live, you're not wrong.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

I am fully aware that not 100 percent of the recycling bin is being recycled, but it's the least I can do. Be part of the problem, at least try to be a small part of the solution.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

OP looked at the issues of "wishcycling" and decided that it was reflective of the entire existence of recycling. The real issue we have with environmentalism is more to do with the fact that if every single regular person was capable and willing to do what they needed to do to cut down on emissions, emissions would still be rising, because multimillionaires and billionaires contribute more emissions. I assure you, this is connected more specifically to the plastics industry, because most of the plastic we have in the world cannot be recycled due to the plastics industry having huge lobbying strength on the world stage.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Someone is profiting from it. Everyone who sells you something that comes in, or contains plastic.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Always has been a con and so is the global warming agenda, just look how many are making money of the gw bs.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Some company will always try to make as money as possible, so we might as well choose the least harmful option.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

My 2 recycle bins keep all that out of my landfill and I use reusable bags at the grocery and reuse everything possible ( including sometimes paper towels) , why people do not see how that is beneficial just want something else to complain or whine about. Get a grip

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Really, you think that keeps it out of your land fill? Less than 10% of the plastic you put in your blue bins gets recycled (bring generous). The rest ends up in the ocean or someone else's landfill, so maybe your right it's not in your landfill. Recycling in America is a joke and practically nonexistent.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

So you are saying that 90% of all the plastic and/or cardboard goes to the landfill anyway? That's surprising to me.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

It goes somewhere, because the vast majority doesn't get recycled. Where does it go? There's very few other options.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Is anyone profiting from recycling? If there was money in recycling, more companies would be genuinely pushing it. From the articles I have read, it still costs much more to make a product from recycled plastic than to create a product from natural resources. I don't think recycling is a con, but the technology has not improved (or companies in tandem with government have not funded research) to make recycling a planet saving AND cost effective method for dealing with plastic waste.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

We get taxed for it.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

A literal illusion. Over here the trash trucks pick up the recycling cans on the same day they pick up the trash cans.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Dunno what country you're from but we have recycling plants here lol

by Anonymous 7 months ago

You're completely right, except what you described is basically plastic recycling. Paper and metal recycling is real.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Similar issue with electric vehicles. Rare earth mining,shipping parts globally, and it all runs on a power grid that is vastly coal powered. I'm not adverse to EV's, but don't blow smoke up my trash chute.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

There are places where it makes sense, where hydropower or nuclear are used. Quebec, Chiang Mai (Thailand) and British Columbia, to name just a few. Mining & parts are or could be made nearby.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

I really hope at least aluminum cans can be recycled cause I haven't thrown a beer can in the trash since like 2016

by Anonymous 7 months ago

So sad and so true.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

I work in retail and our store doesn't recycle … like at all. Learning this makes me feel a little less guilty about it.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Here we have different containers. Some for glass (brown, white and green) paper, food, materials you can recycle and one thats simply for the usual trash.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Yup on the plastics. Where are the eco warriors and climate changers on that?

by Anonymous 7 months ago

True

by Anonymous 7 months ago

I'm beginning to believe it's largely BS too. It think only 20-30% of our "recycled" plastics get processed. Most plastics are too expensive or cause more pollution harm for recycling

by Anonymous 7 months ago

I hate using clean water to wash trash. But I still do because society expects me to.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

The only reason I recycle is my dump offers a 1 for 1 deal. One bag of recyclables equals one bag of garbage free of charge to drop off.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

In my city the recycling truck goes right to the dump.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Totally agree, but I am so trained that it feels like I am a bad person if I don't. Logically, it doesn't make sense, but I'm emotionally invested. And I hope it helps a little bit.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

At this stage, it's pretty much confirmed as an open secret, not just an opinion.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Let's just get one thing out the way first, recycling metals makes sense. Metal is very easy to rework into something else. Paper and plastics aren't, but metal is. Metal recycling actually does work. I get where you are coming from though. I hate that saving the planet has been pushed onto the individual despite a majority of pollution being produced by a few companies.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

It's...a total lie. They made a documentary about it. Basically recycling was a marketing idea created in order to get people to use more plastic.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Are you sure this applies to all "recyclable material"? Or just plastic?

by Anonymous 7 months ago

The only materials truly economical to recycle are metals. That's why recycling centers pay you for them.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

people dont care either way. i wish we would just die off already.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Coming from a construction guy who spent alot of time at the dump, the recycling center used to be "at capacity " 1 hour into the day. Guess where all the recycling truck dumped their loads? At the regular dump. Bug blue trucks full of forever chemicals and glass being dumped with the other trash.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

There's a 85% of garbage recycling rate in my city.

by Anonymous 7 months ago

Same with donation

by Anonymous 7 months ago