“Reduce, reuse, recycle.” Originally promoted in the 1970s to raise consumption awareness, this catchy, alliterative phrase has been drilled into the minds of U.S. residents for decades. One would be hard-pressed to find someone unfamiliar with these three successive words, much less a person who hasn’t encountered the last of the three plastered on everything from waste bins to food packaging. 

Reducing, reusing and recycling are all vital aspects of a consumption-conscious lifestyle, however recycling is used far more often in a mainstream environmental context than the other two. Recycling has been established in everyday society as a waste management system dedicated to reducing human impact on the environment — but this is a grossly misunderstood representation of the actual practice.

 The public’s rough understanding of how recycling works is extremely appealing, in theory. When people throw their metal, glass, plastic and paper waste into the recycling, they’re usually under the impression that those materials will be made into something new. Unfortunately, this is not the reality for many items that end up in recycling bins today.
Before 2018, the U.S. sent the majority of its recyclable waste to China to be processed. An estimated 30% of these materials were typically contaminated with nonrecyclable materials and therefore rendered unusable. These unprocessable materials would eventually end up as pollution in China’s coastal waters and rural areas, so in 2018, the country placed bans on the majority of foreign plastic imports. 

The U.S. now sends most of its recycling to countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia, Senegal and others due to their lack of environmental regulations and cheap labor. These countries do not have the industrial resources to properly process plastic materials or dispose of nonrecyclable waste, so a significant amount of plastic imports end up as environmental pollution. According to a report published by the United Nations Environmental Programme, a mere 10 percent of the seven billion tons of plastic waste generated globally so far has actually been recycled. 

Despite these realities, wealthy nations like the U.S. continue to make countries in Africa, South America and Asia their unofficial dumping grounds, perpetuating a cycle of environmental injustice that is detrimental to the well-being of millions. This plastic waste has a significant negative influence on the health of local communities and ecosystems in developing countries, polluting groundwater and air quality and littering the habitats of countless animal and insect species.

This means the purpose of recycling is defeated if not performed mindfully. One of the main reasons why so much single-use waste cannot be recycled is because it isn’t discarded properly in the first place. The recycling process has specific guidelines that must be followed in order to be properly carried out — guidelines most people are uninformed about. 

Items that should be thrown in recycling bins include plastic and glass containers, paper, flattened cardboard and paperboard, and food and beverage cans. Additionally, all of these items should be completely clean in order to be eligible for recycling. If food, liquids, plastic bags, foam, clothing or furniture items enter recycling bins, the whole lot is in danger of ending up at landfills. 

Because of the delicate guidelines the recycling system is predicated on, people need to assume a much more active role in the process. Before someone recycles something, they need to be sure the item has been rinsed out and that it falls under one of the categories stated earlier. If it’s unclear whether something should be recycled or not, the answer is only a search away. 

It can’t stop there, though. Society must dramatically reduce the amount of plastic, paper, glass and cardboard it consumes on a daily basis — especially plastic. Around 1 million plastic bottles are purchased every minute and around half of all global plastic produced annually is intended for single-use. Not only is this bad for the planet, it’s also bad for human health. Evidence shows microplastics have compelling associations with cancer, heart disease and neurological issues like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

There is also no economic incentive for companies to practice or enforce recycling — producing new plastic is cheaper than repurposing old material. The fault of mass plastic production and pollution lies with big corporations, but consumers still have the power to ensure it stops. Reusable alternatives must replace single-use items and strong systems and norms must be established to enable a society-wide application of this swap. It begins with the individual. 

One can also mitigate their waste production by learning practical skills like sewing, composting, papermaking and other home repair and craft skills to repurpose materials that would otherwise go to a landfill. Repairing is always better than replacing. 

The human race is on a harrowing trajectory toward mass destruction and ecological collapse. It may be impossible to think regular people have the ability to make a difference in the climate crisis in a time when corporations control the government, but they do. It can’t be done without effort, and it’s not enough on its own, but as part of a larger environmental justice movement, recycling can make the world a better place.