Is Recycling Worth It Anymore? The Truth Is Complicated.

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America produces more waste per capita than any other country in the world. And recycling, which was once considered the solution to that problem, isn’t really working anymore.

Recycling works, but it’s not magic. As America continues to lead the world in per capita waste production, it’s becoming more and more clear that everybody– manufacturer and consumers– “over-believe” in recycling.

This film is based in part on Throughline’s podcast episode “The Litter Myth”. Listen here:
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/04/757539617/the-litter-myth

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35 COMMENTS

  1. The recycling we had setup at the office, was sold to China. That's right, China.
    Our recyclables were being sold by a US company to China. China is apparently using that material to burn to get electricity.

  5. Tired of recycling human births…..clean or dirty it because cash out every lottory A-list Majors 1 5 10 dime nick all penny……trick or treat levels st.eve munchins burn load down fee….💝💖💗💓💞💕💌💟♥️

  6. ah yes nor letting everyone know it’s once again the consumers fault instead of the fcking lobbyists who depend on this. ofc we need to massiving address consumerism and overconsumption as an american and western culture but jfc STOP MAKING IT TO BEGIN WITH

  10. Okay so we can put a man on the moon but we can't recycle a plastic bottle or maybe it's because we didn't go to the moon and we don't know shitt but yet we're getting rammed by NASA and all these other politicians

  12. No… in ireland we are soon double charged to recycle cans and bottles. Im giving up the fizzy drinks as i want a leaner body anyway
    Fxck that system. I remember cryimg because i was too small to carry the bottles to one bottle bank very far away i was very light too. 5 stone bc of thyroid problem.
    I cried as i felt guilty as i couldnt carry them to their destination
    I despise that system. I will do my best to leave no trace but even the takeaways are nasty with the wood plastic bring my own recyclable forks. Thid country have made recycling miserable and i may very well just not do it at some stage. No need to be a dxxk dont ask people to recyvle glass if uou have no facilities its the same for the electronic hard to get rid of. My bones dont thank you.

  13. I don’t recycle never did never will. Because I want to save the planet and not get scammed into another man made disaster. The juice isn’t worth the squeeze. Why people don’t understand that?

  19. works really well with me i collect aluminum cans and plastic bottles and have made thousands of dollars doing that , thing is you have to sort and separate recyclables yourself only some materials you can recycle . it gets some of the crap out of the environment at least for a while . its a dirty job can diving but its well worth it i do it in my spare time .

  20. Previous video I saw on this topic said “we will only need 1% of the space available for landfills for our trash of the next 1000 years” so thats pretty much the opposite of this video.

  22. We live in a very wasteful world. Someone needs to set new rules and regulations on how things are manufactured and disposed of. Earth should be priority #1, not money!

  24. Blaming the consumer because he uses the recycling system is the problem.
    Manufacturer label the products as recyclable and brand their company green.
    So who is to blame.
    A) the manufacturer
    B) the Recycling companies who do not hold up their responsibility of recycling !!!

  26. What a biased display of finger pointing. The government pushed this program down the throats of the American people with out thinking through what the end game may be. There are thousands of people pounding sand on the taxpayer dime blaming the taxpayer for their sloth.

  27. 14:49 this guy gets it, the only path to a sustainable future is to destroy the pollution at the source, manufacturers and corporations. They blasted us with propaganda for decades, fully knowing that what they were doing would have dire consequences, pushing a flawed ideology at the expense of both nature, and our wallets, is nothing short of a crime against humanity, and should be punished as such.

    It’s time to put an end to planned obsolescence and single use containers.

  28. One of the biggest reasons China banned the import of plastics is the negative effect it was having on their people health, China has national healthcare, so healing the people was actually cost them more then they were making off the recycling.

    That highlights one of the biggest advantages to getting universal healthcare in America, which is that it would give the government a reason to care about the health of their people, and pass legislation protecting our health from say greedy corporations putting known toxins in our food. (Which is happing right now on a large scale)

  29. I am voting green. I can’t say I know much, but I understand people are so occupied with life to realize what is happening. This week I am working on a flyer to put into the break room. It was supposed to be about recycling, but now it’s about reducing consumption… since recycling as a whole has been a big sham. 💔

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