The intention of many of these campaigns (like paper straws and paying attention to your individual carbon footprint) is, at least in part, to instill the idea that environmentalism should be all about individual action, rather than holding large companies to account for their role in pollution and environmental destruction.

Recycling at a personal level is a good idea—but it can only ever be a small part of a solution, and it also requires that recycling be taken seriously by the places that actually take the recyclables away—that they genuinely recycle the stuff, rather than just sending it to a landfill in some other country.