Recycling: A Band-aid on a Bullet Wound

Make no mistake, recycling is absolutely essential.  Recycling is not, however, the answer.  There are two kinds of recycling; open loop and closed loop.  

Open loop recycling means materials can be recycled a limited number of times before that material is rendered useless and goes to the landfill.  Plastic is the best example of open loop recycling.  Some plastic is not recyclable at all, others can generally be recycled between one and seven times.  Most tend to be the former.  Open loop materials such as plastic and paper can only be downcycled.  Downcycling is exactly what it sounds like, a recycled product that is of lesser quality.  

Many plastics are turned into fabric for clothes or carpeting.  Sounds like a good use of something that would otherwise be going to the landfill right?  Wrong.  Here's why.  When you keep producing virgin plastic and turning it into something of lesser quality, it still goes to the landfill eventually.  Clothing fabric made from recycled plastic releases micro plastics when being washed and pollutes our water systems.  When that clothing is useless, it often goes to the landfill.  Plastic destined for recycling doesn't mean it will be recycled either.  When you send your plastic to your municipal facility, it is sorted and like products are lumped together.  They don't just go around giving away that plastic to companies who would like to use it like some magical plastic fairy,  those companies have to buy it, and it is usually more expensive than making more virgin plastic to begin with.  Why does it cost more?  Because you have to pay the facility for it and then you need to take extra steps to render it into the new material you want it to be.  There are many more steps in breaking down the plastic, mixing it with new product to make it strong enough, and then molding it into the next product.  That is why some bottles say "made with 10 percent recycled materials."  

An equal supply and demand for recyclable plastic does not exist.  The supply far outweighs the demand and that divide grows larger each day.   Guess what happens to all that plastic waiting to be recycled that doesn't get purchased?  I'll give you a hint, it rhymes with "sand-bill."   So if making new plastic is bad for the environment, and recycling plastic is bad for the environment, what is the answer?  The answer is a simple one that most first world citizens are not going to embrace.  The answer is to stop producing plastic the way in which we currently do.  We need plastic, for some things, but not in the way we currently utilize it.  Remember that before the twentieth century, there was no plastic!

Closed loop recycling is the process of recycling a material that never loses its integrity.  Glass, aluminum, steel, and copper are great examples that offer infinite recyclability.  These are valuable resources that can and should be, recycled.  They are more easily broken down and made into something new, without any degradation.  

In our era of mindless consumerism and overconsumption, plastic has a robust future.  The problem is two-fold.  On one hand, many people are not aware of the dangers and problems caused by the hoards of plastic that we use and waste each day.  On the other hand, many people just don't care and refuse to change their lifestyle.  

Did you know that the average American produces four and a half pounds of trash per day?  I know if I can't produce four and a half pounds of trash per day, then I don't want to live!