Yeah. Recycling is just a crappy band-aid. I finally realized that when I imagined our modern consumption as a pipeline:
PRODUCTION CONSUMPTION
RAW =====*=============*=========> LANDFILL
MATERIALS
That's our economy in a nutshell: an exponentially growing process that turns raw resources into trash. Now add in recycling:
RECYCLING (small %)
/--------------------------\
| PRODUCTION CONSUMPTION |
RAW v=====*============*=======^=> LANDFILL
MATERIALS
Since no recycling is perfect, all you do is take some (often small) bit of resources and let it loop around the pipe once, maybe twice, before it gets used up to the point of being non-recyclable. It only delays the inevitable. Given that the pipeline grows exponentially, that small loop there pretty much doesn't matter. That's why Reduce is the most important of the three Rs.
The 'small %' and amount of times something can be recycled does depend on the material involved though. So while typical plastics are hard to recycle and a lot of it doen't even get sorted and hence goes straight to landfill, materials like steel and glass do much better. Moreover IIRC recycling steel even needs less energy than producing it from raw materials.
the question is how to connect this in a circular economy and not just through some random company's optional light touch corporate social responsibility cum virtue signaling marcoms program.
Find a way to proportionally link production with disposal and you will see a 5 pack of undies from Kmart change into a durable good that's built to last.
