I have supported recycling as much as my local community would allow me to be for more than a decade. I was the parent that took paper to the big Recycling dumpster at my daughter’s school (which also promoted that doing this would raise funds for the school). I have always took advantage of the city recycling programs, most weeks I have more “recycling” than garbage. And then, I started the Netflix series Broken.

Broken is an “investigative docuseries shows how negligence and deceit in the production and marketing of popular consumer items can result in dire outcomes.” The series currently only has 4 episodes and the last one is on recycling in the US. If you think you understand recycling and feel that using the local recycling program in your community is being eco-friendly, I urge you w=to take the 58 minutes and watch this episode.

As consumers, we have become incredibly lazy and the market has been flooded with single-use products. “Wishcycling,” the term Broken used to describe local recycling programs how truly broken and misleading they are is what most Americans are doing with that recycling bin that you set out every week with you garbage.

Things I Learned from Watching Broken:

Plastic bags and pretty much anything stretchy plastic that products are shrink-wrapped in (think the plastic that holds your bundle of toilet paper in a 6-pack) – Not Recyclable!
Those blue “Recycling” bags sold by Glad & Hefty – Not Recyclable! Most cities and municipalities shifted to what is called “single stream recycling” about 10 years ago to streamline the recycling process. As the term implies, all recyclables collected are dumped into a single stream that is sorted by machines and people. First of all, these bags fall into the stretchy plastic group (previously included) which mucks up the machinery. Also, the bags have to be opened and sorted in this single stream recycling process which we all know time is money and that added step slows them down.
Anything that is not washed out is thrown into landfill garbage in this single stream recycling process. Again, time is money, and recycled end-products can be contaminated if they are not clean. This means if you, as the consumer, don’t take the time to rinse out your plastic container, you might as well put it in the landfill garbage.
When cities prepare the recycling they need to have a buyer for those recyclables to then turn them into recyclable materials. Say this louder for the people in back,
THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH BUYERS TO SUPPORT THE PROGRAMS!
In the past, China was the biggest buyer of US recyclables. However, China has put regulations in place to get a grasp on their pollution issue and so, those buyers cannot import the recycling into China. This has also led to illegal recycling plants popping up globally that are putting small, poverty-stricken communities at dire health risk due to the chemicals released into the air by these illegal recycling facilities.
The American Chemical Council – though quietly marketed as a trade association for chemical companies – is a Washington, DC lobbyist firm that drives policy to support their members (Hint: Corporations that would see lower profitability if they were forced to adhere to environmentally-friendly production processes).

This documentary literally kept me up for a couple of nights and I’ve become a bit obsessed about it. It’s not going to happen overnight but after seeing this, I’ve started seeking eco-friendly products and companies that support the Zero Waste movement. I could share more I learned while watching it but then, what would you learn by watching it?

If you think you’ve been doing things in your home to support protecting the planet and recycle, I urge you to watch this episode and education yourself. I will continue to write about and share information about how I’m making the change to Zero Waste and responsible companies who sell products that reduce waste and are eco-friendly. Let’s start a conversation about how we can do better.