Styrofoam and plastic in the trash outside West End Market.
I would like to take this opportunity to address a problem I encounter with increasing frequency. It seems that many otherwise responsible, intelligent people believe that recycling is the cure-all for their wastefulness, and they need not alter their consumption behaviors because they "recycle."
Well, for many products (plastic, some metals, paper) recycling is inefficient and the resulting material does not have many uses. For example, recycled paper is of such low quality that it's not really good for anything except newspaper or other soft paper products. So, consuming a massive amount of paper (or plastic) and justifying it with the excuse of "recycling" is not a very good argument. I'll just tell you, those of us who are truly responsible stewards of the environment are all snickering at you recyclers behind your backs.
Obviously, recycling is still important. It's impossible to avoid consumption of paper/plastic/metal all the time, and if you do end up with a disposable container, it's always best to recycle it. Unfortunately most recyclable products never make it to a recycling center and instead end up in our landfills and our oceans.
Pretending that recycling is the solution to waste is not the way we are going to heal our planet; instead, this myth provides fuel to those who argue that disposable beverage containers and styrofoam boxes are a necessary convenience of modern life.
