Why is recycling wrong?

Sitting here with my preloved clothes, and recycle bins, I have the thought that actually recycling is wrong. In so many ways.

Just like a lot of other people, I try to be more conscious about my footseps on this planet, and so I do recycle. Since my childhood, in my family we always thought about selecting. At first the paper and cardboard, than came the glass bottles, finally the plastic and the conserv contianers also stood in line. Today I live thousands of kilometers from my childhood home, and I still recycle. As many other people, I kept the good habit.

Today in our little Spanish home in Barcelona we even have the luxury of seperating the bio and compostable waste. So we do that as well. We got to the point that now we own a very small bin for the general thrash, that barely fills up every week (check out Ikea’s new recycling sorting solutions: US link, UK link).

IKEA HÅLLBAR Waste sorting solution 55l - £43

After decades of recycling I got to wonder: How much recycling is enough? How many years and tons of recycling will save our Earth? How much more is there to recycle?

Than I realized: by recycling we are not actually saving the world. When we recycle we try to mitigate the damage that has already been done. All that happens is that we make an attempt to minimize the harm that comes from artificial materials, so they would not end up in nature that soon. That process does not make the harmful materials to dissolve or disappear, just extends their lifecycle. And eventually they will end up on a landfill or in an ocean.

If we were to save the planet, we would need to take actions that do positive environmental impact instead. Meaning that we would need to CREATE nature, create life.

With this is mind, we can say that recycling is wrong because:

1. Recycling allows us to think: it’s ok to produce and consume a lot of things since they will get recycled anyways. That is a dangerous thought, because it will allow us to overconsume and feel ok about it as long as we recycled.

2. It also allows companies to use recyled or recycable packaging, put up their own “recycle” bins (like clothing companies do) and claim that they do everything for a sustainable future. And we believe them. This is something that is called “green washing”. It is highly unethical, and definitely not good for the environment.

3. Many things that end up in the recycling bins in reality don’t end up actually being recycled, and we don’t even know it. Depending on the country, region and local administration, the city or the companies can recycle only certain items, and in some cases that is even more limited than you might think.

4. Without even realizing, we have better options than recycling but we don’t even consider them because we think we are already doing the right thing when recycling. This stops us from growing in truly sustainable solutions.

As a bottom-line: we can conclude that recycling is not a truly sustainable solution on the long term. So what should we do? Should we stop recycling?

You can probably guess the answer: we should definitely keep recycling. It is only wrong to recycle if you have better alternatives but you decide to recycle anyways. What more you could do is: first of all to start educating yourself (well done you already started by reading this post!). Implement new habits. And encourage others too. Occasionally you can also speak up in person or online.