The Illusion of Modern Recycling

WE NEED TO SHIFT OUR FOCUS TO REDUCING AND REUSING

By Kora Quinn, Culture Staff Writer Photographed by Anna Janke, Contributing Photographer

Between 1960 and 2017, the amount of trash going to landfills decreased by 42% as recycling became more popular and even enforced in select areas.1 Yet despite its rise in popularity, recycling as we know it today wasn’t always possible in America. It’s an expensive process; the recycled waste has to be transported to a facility with enough staff and equipment to process it, things that cost more money than you can make off of the products the waste gets turned into.

In the 1990s, two decades after curbside recycling went into effect, China started buying U.S. recyclables. Christopher

1 “When Did Americans Start Recycling?” History, 2020. Joyce shared with NPR that at the time, “China had plenty of capacity to handle plastics and lots of cheap laborers to sort the recyclable materials from the non recyclable. By 2016, the U.S. was exporting almost 700,000 tons a year to China alone. Overall, China imported 7 million tons from around the world.” 2

Although it created other environmental issues elsewhere (e.g. pollution), for a while, this system worked. The U.S. would ship its recyclables to China, who would process the waste into new products and then ship it back to be sold again in America. That is, until 2017 when China announced they would be implementing a new plastic ban under a policy known as the National Sword. Under this

2 Joyce, Christopher. “Where Will Your Plastic Trash Go Now That China Doesn’t Want It?” NPR, 2019.

policy, China would prohibit the purchase and importation of foreign waste that’s damaged or isn’t properly cleaned, including single-use and nonindustrial plastics.3 This meant that the U.S. had to start shipping their waste to other Southeast Asian countries, such as Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia, who have slowly started closing their borders to U.S. waste as well.4

Despite the National Sword going into effect in 2018, recycling in America hasn’t changed. Once a week, families all over the country put out their blue bins for the city to pick up. My apartment building still has a dumpster marked “Recycling Only” where I throw my yogurt containers and Nutella jars. If you stopped someone on the street, they might not even know China handled our recycling process in the first place.

This begs the question: does recycling actually work? The short answer is no. China implemented their plastic ban because the majority of U.S. waste coming in wasn’t cleaned and most of it was contaminated, making the recycling process either more difficult or impossible. It also contributed immensely to their pollution problems.

In America, recycling doesn’t work for three main reasons.

3 “What is the National Sword?” Center for EcoTechnology, 2018. 4 Joyce, Christopher. “Where Will Your Plastic Trash Go Now That China Doesn’t Want It?” NPR, 2019. First, recycling regulations are inconsistent from place to place. Many different cities and states have varying guidelines when it comes to curbside recycling. For example, in Madison you cannot put recyclables in plastic bags because they get caught in the machines used to process the waste.5 However, in smaller towns throughout Wisconsin, there are no regulations on how to collect recyclables other than placing them in a blue bin on trash day. Due to a lack of federal recycling laws in the U.S., some states and cities across the country don’t have recycling available at all.

The second reason recycling doesn’t work is just general confusion. Many Americans aren’t educated on proper recycling methods and contamination. Not everyone knows that you should rinse containers such as milk jugs and peanut butter jars, or that food or grease on any kind of paper or cardboard renders it contaminated and thus unrecyclable.

And finally, now that China isn’t buying U.S. waste, nearly all plastics aren’t recyclable anymore. It’s too expensive and they degrade faster than other materials, so they can only be made into new products once or twice.

So why is there such a push to continue recycling these plastics then? The answer is money. The oil industry has been selling the idea that plastic can be recycled because if the public believes it can, they will continue buying more of it. “But [plastic is] not valuable, and it never has been,” writes NPR’s Laura Sullivan. “And what’s more, the makers of plastic — the nation’s largest oil and gas companies — have known this all along, even as they spent millions of dollars telling the American public the opposite.”6

Our recycling isn’t going anywhere and plastic can’t even

5 “Recycling Guidelines,” City of Madison, 2021. 6 Sullivan, Laura. “How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled,” NPR, 2020. be recycled in the first place — so what can we do? If you remember the age-old mantra we were taught in elementary school, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” you’re on the right track to beating the plastic problem. When it comes to “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” recycling is listed as our last option, meaning we must emphasize reducing and reusing heavily. Better yet, you can implement a new mantra of “Reduce, Reuse, Refurbish, Repair, Recycle” into your daily lifestyle.

Rethink every purchase and make a conscious effort to reduce consumption and waste. If a purchase is necessary, try to reuse it. Invest in reusable menstrual products, makeup remover pads and washable napkins. Get handy too; you can buy used products and refurbish them. This goes for anything from furniture to clothing. If you need a new desk, find one someone doesn’t want anymore and paint it. Learn to sew and repair clothes yourself as opposed to throwing things out and creating more waste.

While taking these steps is important and a great way to make sure you are individually contributing to a greener world in an impactful way, ethical consumerism can be problematic if it’s the only way you try to make a difference. It puts all the blame for greenhouse gas emissions and unnecessary waste on the consumer all while encouraging consumerism, even if it’s with sustainable products. Being a consumer activist is truly the alternative to simply placing plastics in a blue bin. Hold plastic manufacturers, or gas and oil companies, responsible through direct action.

Modern recycling is an illusion manufactured by corporations responsible for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions, but it would also take a cultural reset to redesign to be more effective. We continue to recycle because we feel as if it’s our only option, but it should be our last option. ■