(Not The Bee) For my entire life, I’ve been told that recycling would save the planet. The marketing has been so encompassing and persistent that even grown theocratic alt-right extremists like me continue to recycle anything and everything when possible.
As it turns out, all that recycling is pretty much pointless.
Of the 51 million tons of plastic waste US households produced in 2021, just 2.4 million tons (5 percent) were recycled, new research shows.
The findings show that plastic recycling is a “myth,” says the analysis by environmental nonprofit @greenpeaceusa. https://t.co/sWiJjsJzCh
— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) October 31, 2022
Don’t get me wrong: I’m going to keep recycling because it saves me a lot of room in my trash bin and recycling pickup is free.
But let’s put aside the notion that we’re saving the environment by separating out our plastics into different bins.
Yeah, that’s right.
This study isn’t coming from some conservative think tank that wants to pollute so that the rich white men can afford more cigars for their dimly lit villain’s lairs; it’s coming from the uber-woke activists over at Greenpeace who would be more than happy if a few billion people kicked the bucket to save Mother Earth.
By 2050, emissions from burning used plastics could reach 50 times the annual emissions of all coal power plants in America.
The most hilarious thing is that there’s a ton of woke companies that get you to buy stuff by making “climate pledges,” one of which involves recycling initiatives.
But even if they recycle all their waste material, only a fraction of it is actually getting reused!
