Recycling has always been a kludge, an inefficient process trying to minimize the damage caused by making and owning stuff. Worse, a lot of it is just greenwashing, a pretense that gives companies and consumers a feel-good way to pretend we’ve not causing so much damage.
Despite that, recycling is still necessary if we hope to create a “circular economy” where raw materials go round and round in ever-new iterations of the stuff we want.
But New Hampshire is doing worse at it, as New Hampshire Bulletin reports (full story here).
Since 2020, the proportion of municipal waste sent for recycling has dropped by about four percentage points, according to the department. … It does highlight the effects of rising pressure on regional recycling industries from factors including shifting recyclable markets, a lack of local infrastructure, and mixed attitudes toward recycling among the public.
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