A man fills a disposable cup with water in Berkeley, Calif. on Jan. 23. (Ben Margot / Associated Press) No compatible source was found for this media. Addressing plastic pollution has to focus far more on reducing and reusing. It is simply not a problem we can recycle our way out of. People assume that when they toss plastic packaging into a bin, it will get collected, recycled and finally transformed into another plastic product. This is a convenient fiction, actively promoted by the plastic industry. The reality is that much of the plastic tossed into bins ends up in landfills, or it gets shipped overseas to countries that lack infrastructure to deal with it properly. Plastic was never recycled at a high level, and it’s even worse since 2018, when China closed its doors to imported mixed plastic waste. U.S. recyclers have shifted exports to countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand, but those countries lack the capacity to handle the volume we’re sending, which has brought them new environmental problems. Moreover, despite our willingness to move plastic waste around the world, only about 9% of the plastic ever made has actually been recycled. We just keep […]
Berkeley isn’t just attacking plastic waste, it’s rejecting our entire throwaway culture

Latest Articles
Circular business model lessons from IKEA, REI and Eileen Fisher
Ikea, REI and Eileen Fisher are banking on a circular model to propel them into the next era of commerce.//Images by Graeme Dawes,...
Thames Water hopes to harness human ‘poo power’ to heat homes
Thousands of homes in south-west London could soon be warmed by the waste from their local sewage works as part of England’s first...
Adorable goat playground raises awareness of upcycling waste
NOMAD architects and Karina Aramanda have transformed wood waste into GOT WASTE?, an educational pavilion and animal playground that raises awareness about the...
Green renovation to a ’50s California home features recycled denim insulation
A private residence in San Anselmo, California has received a green renovation with some unique features. Designers from Pfau Long Architecture expanded the...
Seville’s plan to turn oranges into electricity
Spanish engineers have updated the old citrus cliché, bringing it into the eco era — when life gives you oranges, make electricity. In...
Global Recycling Day: an International Recycling Movement
It’s easy to think of recycling only on a local level, such as what goes in the household recycling bin or when is...