Against Recycling
Recycling is part of an insidious sleight of hand that reframed our growing waste problem as one not of corporate excess, but of irresponsible consumer choices and individual lifestyles.
Recycling bins outside a building. (John Lambert Pearson / Flickr)
Earlier this month, the New York Times posted a video op-ed correctly debunking “The Great Recycling Con.” According to the Times, the plastics industry has sold generations of consumers a lie about just how much of the waste they produce could be recycled in order to create the false possibility of eco-friendly, guilt-free consumption.
It comes painfully close, but misses the full story. The true “Great Recycling Con” runs far deeper than lies about which products can and cannot be recycled; it is an ongoing political battle waged by waste-generating corporations against the public to evade regulation, shift responsibility for environmental destruction onto consumers, and protect the ecocidal and highly profitable business model that lies at the heart of industrial capitalism.
Disposable Prosperity
After World War II, Americans sought to leave the austerity of war behind and enthusiastically embraced mass consumption. We doubled down on frozen TV dinners, bottled soft drinks, new cars, and lots of other stuff.
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