Media: Looking Beyond Recycling

Video:

This video shown to me first in my Industrial Chemistry Capstone really left an impact on me. It describes how many of our recycled materials actually cannot be recycled completely all the time, because of the economic aspect: it's just not profitable. Although Recology and the local government in our Bay Area do a fairly good job of funding recycling efforts, this is not the case in many places and with many materials (as seen in the video).

Does this mean we should stop recycling? Of course not. But we need to think beyond this concept (invented by the plastics industry). We need to reduce our purchase of plastic items in general, and try to re-use the plastic items we do have. As seen in our Environmental Art Contests, wonderful things can be made from "trash" when we get creative. In the end, we still have a certain personal responsibility to take up in reducing our waste.