You can breathe a sigh of relief, the world of recycling is enjoying a global resurgence. Despite decades of doomsayers anxiously suggesting that recycling actually hurts the environment, the poor state of our ecology has yet again reasserted itself at the forefront of the collective conscious.
For years recycling's popularity seemed to be on the decline, due in part to rising prices and a growing confusion about what was even happening to the materials we sent away each week. Some organizations oversold their ability to transform industrial and retail packaging processes and others misjudged the publics capacity to shoulder the burden of rising costs for sorting the mismanaged materials. A general malaise towards recycling had set in and this helped set the stage for an existential crisis with the ever-increasingly dysfunctional global recycling system.
The major sticking point for recycling is of course caused by the failure of consumers to properly sort their recycling. The overwhelming amount of trash ending up in recycling piles forced domestic sorting centers, desperate to stave off the rising costs, to reroute most of the materials over-seas to China. Unfortunately for us, our poor recycling abilities along with rising costs both contributed to China suddenly deciding to stop accepting recyclables from the West.
China's opening salvo in the recycling wars has effectively forced the West's hand. Corporations and nation-states, feeling the pressure from growing ecological concern have both finally decided to get serious about recycling.
McDonald's to recycle packaging in all locations globally by 2025
Brussels targets single-use plastics in clean-up plan to make all packaging recyclable by 2030
Coca-Cola announces plan to recycle 100 percent of its packaging by 2030
The most lasting changes in society have always sprouted from independent actions which build up to greater collective actions, but this late in the game I welcome these top-down edicts from the largest corporations. And it's better late than never too because the alternative means we're destined to live under a dystopian amount of trash like the grim future exhibited in Blade Runner.
Me, you, corporations and nation-states should have all been more aggressively recycling, reusing and reducing our waste over the years. But it's not too late to get serious! Most importantly, make sure you're doing your part by only sending the materials your local recycling center explicitly accepts.
Here are some actionable tips: 10 ways to improve your recycling
What are some other creative ways we can deal with the overflowing plastic and trash in our dumps and oceans?
I personally enjoy the strategy of sending our most toxic trash to the dark side of the Moon.