Has recycling done any net good at all? The old mantra of "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" is in that order for a reason - Recycling was theoretically acknowledged as the "least bad" option. But in practice, I think many people viewed it as a get out of jail free card - consume whatever you want as long as you recycle the packaging.

Now it turns out that it was (mostly) a farce all along. Most recycling ends up in landfills, and the recycling process has terrible pollution side effects of its own. The shocking part of it to me is that it has taken us forty plus years for this to even approach mainstream conversation. The idea that "recycling is a sham" sounded like a conspiracy theory up until recently.

The level of effort that has been put into marketing recycling, just to enable ever-increasing consumerism is staggering.