The fairy tale of recycling—and it is a fairy tale—
does not start at the register, or the curb, or even
hovering over the kitchen trash can, licking the
yogurt top clean, and wondering if it’s good
enough. No, the story we Americans believe in
begins in our hearts, put there lovingly by Sesame
Street Muppets, parents, and teachers: Place your
depleted bottle in that blue bin, and soon enough
it will be reincarnated—or smooshed or melted
down or however, whatever—into something new.
Maybe the two of you will meet again! We are a
generation raised to believe in recycling. Too bad
it rarely happens.
Only 9 percent of all plastic waste ever produced
has actually been turned into something that we
were then able to use again (i.e., recycled). Wait,
what? And also: Wait, why? Two main reasons: (1)
That waste has to be disposed of perfectly correctly,
which is difficult even for those with the best
intentions. A bottle cap, a shard of glass, traces of
tomato soup...they contaminate the entire bin and
typically condemn everything in it to landfill-ville. But
honestly, the stuff was probably headed there
anyway because of the second reason: (2) For waste
to be recycled, someone needs to want it. And pretty
much no one does. (The exception is aluminum—
there’s money to be made there, and more often than
not, it gets recycled.) China was willing to take our
recyclable trash for a while, but that party ended a
couple of years ago with the country’s ban on the
import of foreign trash.
So where does that leave us? With a new sus-
tainability motto, already promulgated by cities
such as San Francisco: reduce, reuse, recycle,
refuse. “Buy less, use less, buy in bulk, use reseal-
able containers,” says Sonya Lunder of the Sierra
Club’s Gender, Equity & Environment program. And
yes, do your damnedest to sort your trash. But do
not pass off all the responsibility to a blue bin. It’s
on you. —COTTON CODINHA
FLORAL STREET
FRAGRANCES
It’s a first: a high-
end perfume
bottle encased in
a reusable pulp
carton (with zero
cellophane). You
can try to recycle
the glass bottle,
but sadly the pump
will stick around
long, long after the
scent fades.
Or at least, not nearly as
much as you think you are.
You Are Not
Recycling
LASTSWAB
The pilot product
of LastObject’s
Kickstarter
campaign: a soap-
washable swab. The
“Beauty” version,
with a tiny rubberlike
teardrop, is perfect
for eyeliner detailing.
The textured “Basic”
swab is for your
ears. It won’t last
forever (more like
1,000 uses), but
it’ll help you kick the
single-use habit.
KINSHIP
MINT MUD
DEEP PORE
DETOX MASK
