Having worked in recycling (among many other things*) I will say that recycling is a scam. And we desperately need it to work.
Recycling is how all these companies putting all their crap into single use plastics or throw it away plastic packaging say "it isn't
OUR fault for unleashing all this plastic on the world, its
YOUR fault for not recycling it!
Its part of the common practice of dumping some of the costs of production on the public. Superfund sites are another example.
Plastic straws are a distraction.
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*I'm the original short attention span kid. The longest I ever worked at one job was five years. And that's because it was my own shop and I COULDN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO QUIT.
Actually this isn't a political post. Its an economics post. Now separate economics from politics please.