Unpopular opinion: individual recycling is a distraction from real climate action

I was at a neighborhood cleanup last month and this older guy spent like 10 minutes sorting a plastic bottle into the right bin, then got in his truck and idled it for 15 minutes while chatting. It stuck with me because he clearly cared but was focused on the wrong thing. I mean, I get that recycling helps, but isn't it mostly a bandaid when corporations produce 90% of the waste? Could we do more good pushing for policy changes instead of obsessing over our home bins? Has anyone else noticed this disconnect?

3 comments

3 Comments

ruby_patel2723d agoMost Upvoted

Wait, he actually sat there idling for 15 minutes after all that bin-sorting? That's wild, I would've lost it lmao.

nina_jenkins23d ago

Honestly I get why he did it though. Sometimes you just need a minute to decompress after a weird situation even if it looks silly to everyone else.

lindab4913d ago

15 minutes just sitting there? That's a whole other level of decompression.