> Recycling plastic produces a lot of nasty chemicals and is awful for the environment, but we still do it, because the alternative (chucking it in a landfill) is worse.

Is it, though? Or was that just a scam to keep us buying plastic shit and to keep packaging unregulated?

It is not trivially and obviously wrong that it might be better to throw plastic into big holes than to spread it all over the surface of the planet. It's not true for nuclear waste. Not to be preachy, but the "at least they're doing something" common sense argument is not good. You have to do the math.