long read/rant/concern/idek
I've practiced recycling my entire life, especially living in a lower-income as well where we reuse the items we use to be smart about waste and efficiency. We've had instances like the classic cookie tin that's full of sewing needles and thread, and we've had our own recycling methods with using a wafer roll can to hold pens and pencils, even storing used grease and oil in old coffee tin pans so they don't mess with our drain (learned from experience) and we sort out plastics, paper and metal. We also don't buy extra of much unless it's for food and we always repair before we buy new for appliances and others (it took my dad 14 years before buying a new coffee pot and it was only because the entire inside was fried).
It is so drilled into my head from my family and my young school life that recyclables go in the recycling bin and waste gets thrown in the waste bin. Methods of saving energy and utilizing it efficiently (turning lights off before leaving, turning water off in between washing hands and teeth, using cars only in emergency purposes, long distances or unwalkable places, etc.) has also been drilled into my head many times. So much as it's never a second thought, it comes naturally (get the joke haha nature=natural). It has literally become a compulsion that I cannot stop thinking about an item if it is misplaced in the trash can or vice versa.
A couple months ago, it was brought to my attention that regardless of us paying extra to have a recycling can, my town does not recycle. The facility that picks up the recycling cans is the same ones for the waste, and they all go to the same landfill miles away. My school at the time also does not recycle because they are fined $500 per garbage bag that holds a misplaced recyclable (like if someone threw an empty plastic bottle into the trash instead of recycling bin). And of course, when you don't have enough money to pay your teachers, you're going to take the cheaper route.
It felt like a smack in the face. All those years my family and I stressed people putting recycling where it belongs and utilizing good practice with wasting products and it still doesn't do anything in the long run? Have you guys seen or heard of what facilities do when there's too much garbage in a landfill? They put dirt and grass over it and make a giant hill out of it. Are you kidding me?
I love plants, and within caring for plants, you water them. Most pots have a drainage hole at the bottom, and so stores will have these plastic plate/bowl looking things to put at the bottom. Nothing is wrong with that besides the fact that it's plastic and doesn't biodegrade at all. There was a time I had a mum on my porch with said plate/bowl, and it blew into my yard partially covered by dirt. I went to go retrieve it and couldn't find it until 3 years later where I dug into around that spot and guess what? The plate/bowl was fully intact with just some dirt dust on it. PLASTIC IS NOT BIODEGRADABLE. IF THIS ISN'T PROOF IDK WHAT WILL BE.
I keep seeing trash scattered all over the city my university is in and I see people disrespecting the recycling cans all the time. I myself get puzzled every time I go to toss something and there's no recyclable bin to throw it in. I'll hold onto my trash until I see a good bin to throw it in. I've even gotten into the maybe bad habit of storing trash in my bag until I find a spot for it. My campus has proper segregated bins but they're very rare to see and so little of them are genuinely used. I saw a janitor once just combine all the bags of the separated bins together with the waste bag, I was so distraught. I had to think to myself "maybe he doesn't get paid enough to care" which is the sad story of everyone here unfortunately.
I'm not the type of person to fully engulf myself in forcing others to use reusable bags or reusable straws or reusable bottles because I myself still buy cases of water bottles while also having a reusable water bottle. I myself will use plastic grocery bags very minimally if I forgot my reusable one at home or if I really need to. I myself will skip litter on the street if it looks dirty or concerning (or if it looks like it has an unknown substance in it). I myself utilize the styrofoam cases a restaurant uses because I have no other options that are equally as convenient for them. I don't over consume when I do have to use a wasteful product, and I don't yell at you if I see it happen (unless you shove plastic down a turtle's throat for fun, then I'm gonna yell at you).
It's probably the craftiness in me or just the way I am, but I will always find a way to better utilize the waste I hold or produce. If I see a cool looking can, I'll cut it into a new pot for a small plant instead of the small nursery plastic ones. If there's a cool candy wrapper I find on the ground (with no unknown substances on it), I'll pick it up and use it for a scrapbook craft. If I buy those plastic cases for gum, I can repurpose those as storage for little cables and wires in my house (while also giving it a minty scent lol). If I came home with groceries in the plastic grocery bags, I put them in the bag cabinet because we all have that cabinet in our homes that's full of those plastic grocery bags that we repurpose as trash bags for our bathroom cans, and I think there's some strange beauty in the way we all collectively do this.
My general point is, I'm tired of it. What will my impact be if the facilities around me fail to continue on the trail of recycling? Peace of mind? Peace of mind that I'm doing something good for the environment? That's like buying a hundred metal straws off of shein or the tiktok shop that come from a warehouse that do equally just as much damage to the environment as plastic ones do just to #savetheturtles. Even with reusing straws, you have to wash them and is that level of washing the 100 metal straws good for the water? Because you have to remember we have to reduce our usage of water too.
Instead of recycling feeling like I'm saving the planet, now it feels like a meaningless chore. A chore that doesn't end up doing much of anything besides making it look good. Like wiping down cabinets in your kitchen or mopping your garage floor. I've seen a trend where people make these things called ecobricks. You essentially put tiny plastic wrappers or waste in a plastic bottle and you fill it until you simply cannot compact it anymore. It's very convenient for little spaces like a desk or walkspace because if you grab a candy from another room or a wrapper of a food bar, you can instantly put it in there. I've made them myself and they're pretty cool. When I put my trash in my bag, I would store them in the plastic bottle I drank out of until it was full (like a travel size trash can!!). But what are you supposed to do with them when they're full? Store them? What use will they be for storage? And you can't use them as actual bricks (unfortunately). It's not like Wall-E and how he made actual bricks to build towers and towers of stuff. We could rebuild so many establishments with recycled bricks.
I feel like I'd feel better about recycling if I knew where 90% of the stuff I recycled went. Like seeing items in the store that say it's "100% recycled plastic 💚🤍♻️." Okay, where's it from? How much plastic was used? Are you 100% sure it's 100% plastic because that's a very big number to be sure about. Also, how can I trust the logos of bottles that say they're a part of a zero-waste program, yet your bottle isn't in the slightest of recycled material at all. I am in no way shaming Milo's tea because it's one of the only brands of tea I'll purchase. But I'm sitting at my desk writing this while staring at the plastic bottle on my desk that says "zero waste" on the back, yet if I threw this in my normal trash can it would be "waste". Facilities that actually do recycle wouldn't see this particular Milo's bottle if I threw it in the waste, defeating the purpose of it being zero waste.
Have you guys seen the videos of people who color plastic bottles, put them on a cutting spool, and warp the bottle into a string for feed on a 3D printer? That's so unbelievably cool, and it makes so much more sense to do so. I'd rather believe the guy that does it himself than a facility that says they do that but then doesn't show anyone the behind the scenes.
I don't know how to end this essay I wrote above me, other than leaving it up in the air for people to question if they will. This will either be reblogged/reposted all over or just exist here. No clue, but it is definitely probably a wake up call for people to see and do something about since most of us are very limited in what happens around us.
TLDR: Why should I recycle if I can't trust the sources around me to finish the job?
