Ever since I was a kid in the early 90s, I always wonder how it was possible that the logistics of recycling sorting could possibly work. How could recycling even happen if all this plastic needs to be sorted into 10 categories and then paper (but not greased paper) and metal and etc. Not only would the system have to account for people who made errors in sorting the recycling, but the system would have to account for the people who do not care to sort it.

So was the world was asking individuals to recycle, and was employing legions of people at the waste facility to double check all the recycling. But then why ask people to bother sorting in the first place? And how would it even be possible to double check and sort all that plastic? It just did not pass the smell test.

And then of course it finally came out that we were just packing it up and shipping it back to China where they did who knows what with it. Gave everyone in the US political points and plausible deniability.

Anyway, I consider recycling to be worth near zero. At this point, the only mitigation is reduce, then a far way down is reuse, and that is it.