The Great Recycling Myth

"I do recycling." Have you heard someone say that recently? Maybe you yourself have uttered the words, or ones similar. There always appears to be a mild tinge of righteous indignation in the tone. As if all is well in the world, at least their world, because some paper, tins and plastic bottles are not lumped in with all the other rubbish. They're separated and then put out for collection. Once collected they will then be sent for recycling. Job done, relax, feel good about yourself.

But it doesn't really constitute 'recycling', does it? And how many of those self-satisfied recyclers are aware that you ought to try to reduce and reuse your waste first, before even getting to recycling? Come to that, how many 'I'm doing my best to limit environmental destruction because I recycle' adherees have the first idea what happens to their recycle-able waste after it has been picked-up?

Hhhmmm! Tricky one. Why, it's recycled, of course!

But where, how, and at what further cost to a fragile planet already groaning loudly under the strain of human pimping, pillaging and prostituting of its resources?

Over 90% of all waste collected for recycling is bought by commodity brokers, packed into empty storage containers and then shipped all the way out to China. Why China? Wouldn't it make more, most, sense to carry out the recycling process locally? Well, erm, yes. But nothing is recycled for reasons of sense: only for reasons of business. That's why commodity brokers buy the paper, tin and plastic: it's a commodity. And it's sent to China to fill the hundreds of empty cargo ships that are returning there after unloading all the Chinese made goods the West seemingly can't get enough of. It's business. Ships returning empty cost more to business than ships returning full.

Okay, so it's hardly environmentally sound to ship all that paper, plastic and tin out to China, then ship it all back to Britain, (especially as the shipping industry is the only unregulated transport industry, so the cheapest, most polluting fuel can be, and is, used) but at least it's all being recycled. Right? Wrong.

Less than 10% of the waste sent to China for recycling is actually processed into a usable product. The vast majority of it is stored in massive warehouses awaiting some uncertain future: a bit like the wealthy masses in cities.

Happy recycling. Glad you're doing your bit.