Why Recycling is NOT the Answer?
This is why you should recycle less.
It’s a crisis.
I have always been an avid recycler. In college, I was known to pick water bottles out of trash cans and carry them back to my dorm where they had a recycling bin. I had always thought that as long as it can be recycled, it’s ok. As I began my sustainability journey, it became clear that I was mistaken.
Right now we are in a recycling crisis. China is no longer taking our recycling (they were receiving 40% of U.S. recycling). And how sustainable was shipping our recycling across the world anyways?
Even when recycling does get processed domestically (or overseas), recycling contamination is a major issue. If paper gets wet, it cannot be recycled. Food contamination is also another big problem. Not to mention, not all materials can be recycled infinitely.
How many times can a material be recycled?
plastic | 1-3 times
paper | 5-7 times
glass | infinitely
metals + aluminum | infinitely
When paper and plastic are recycled, they lose quality each time. After being down-cycled a few times, they can no longer be repurposed and end up in the landfill. Glass and metals can be recycled infinitely without loss of quality. However, it should be noted that a 2022 Greenpeace report found that only 5% of plastic was actually recycled. According to the EPA, only 43% of paper, 31% of glass, and 34.9% of aluminum gets recycled each year. For items that don’t get recycled, their lifespan ends when they are discarded.
How long does it take for materials to degrade?
plastic | up to 1000 years
paper | 2-6 weeks
glass | 1 million years
metals + aluminum | 50-500 years
It should be noted, however, that although glass takes up to a million years to degrade, its presence does not have a significantly detrimental environmental impact. The degradation of glass is quite harmless which cannot be said for materials like plastic. I am not saying glass shouldn’t be recycled. It should. The amount of energy and resources it takes to recycle glass is less than making virgin glass. However, just because it exists in the environment for a long time doesn’t mean that it has the same environmental impact as something like plastic.
What’s the solution?
While the facts may feel discouraging, there is a lot we can do. The first step is to refuse what you don’t need. This includes saying no to freebies or anything you don’t have plans to use. Next, reduce what you buy. This might mean purchasing less stuff overall or limiting certain waste-producing channels like online shopping or packaged foods. Repurposing what you already own also helps reduce the strain on the system. So by reusing disposable bags or repurposing jars to store bulk foods and other items, it means fewer new things need to be produced. Limit what you buy new by buying secondhand, swapping, borrowing, and making things yourself. And while it can take some time to build these new habits, when we put these principles into practice, these new routines start to feel like second nature.
sources: Greenpeace, EPA (paper), EPA (glass) EPA (aluminum)
