> That doesn't mean that recycling has "backfired".

It did because it made people think that recycling was the best and most effective thing they could do out of the 3 R's, to the point where there is not the emphasis on reduction. Meanwhile recycling _is_ the least effective of the 3 Rs.

> It's not about virtue signaling.

Recycling kinda has become that. Instead of feeling bad about buying a bunch of single-use stuff that is not actually recyclable, we put it in the recycling and everyone pats themselves on the back as it is then shipped to an incinerator or landfill [I was not able to find very good sources on this, [5] states that about 5% of all plastics actually get recycled; there are lots of sources though regarding how generally ineffective recycling is in the US and that a lot of recyclers were selling the recycling (to then often have it be trashed in rivers, etc], and generally not a lot of it was actually getting recycled. [6] [7])

Questions:
- how does that plant handle number 4 thru 7 plastics that are food soiled? Those plastics are totally not recyclable at all [4]. How does that machinery identify the quality plastics and then filter them by acceptable contamination?

- how wide-spread are those plants? One per 500k people seems like not necessarily a lot (San Jose has 1M as of 2021 [1]).

- Further, San Jose has a pretty decent median income of 40k vs the national median of 30k (+30%), can lower tax municipalities deploy such plants?

- If these high quality plants are not wide-spread, what does that mean for the rest of the population with lower quality recycling plants that require for recyclables to be well prepared and well sorted in order to not be massive cost sources? (cost sources that cannot be readily afforded)

> The non-serious players talk about "green" and "eco" and want "awareness".

This seems unnecessarily condescending. The 'awareness' of recycling well is so that it is profitable and such that only high quality recyclables go to the recycling plant.

> The serious players in recycling talk about tons per hour.

The US produces 268M tons of trash per year [8]. There are 8760 hours per year. That would be 30k tons / hour. Wouldn't the really serious players need to be talking about kilo-tons per hour?

With 331.9M people in the US [9], each person produces about 1.2 tons of trash each year! Seems like it is largely a top-of-funnel / bottom-of-funnel kind of issue. Namely, reduction in trash volume would have an oversized impact (compare for example a two-order magnitude improvement in recycling compared to a 30% reduction in trash produced). This, is why 'recycling' has backfired; we feel good about doing not a lot and lost focus on what would really count 'reducing' and 're-using'; further, 'recycling' (as has been commonly done in the US since recycling started) is not nearly as efficient as it was sold - to the point that recycling plants are shutting down [10]

[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=population+of+san+jose&oq=po...

[2] https://www.google.com/search?q=US+median+income&oq=US+media...

[3] https://www.google.com/search?q=US+median+income&oq=US+media...

[4] https://www.npr.org/2022/10/24/1131131088/recycling-plastic-...

[5] https://phys.org/news/2022-05-plastic-recycled.html

[6] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/climate/recycling-landfil...

> Recycling companies “used to get paid” by selling off recyclable materials, said Peter Spendelow, a policy analyst for the Department of Environmental Quality in Oregon. “Now they’re paying to have someone take it away.”

[7] https://phys.org/news/2022-04-recycling-goesand-earth-day.ht...
> That plastic takeout container you toss in a recycling bin? Odds are you're actually doing little for the environment.

> The packaging could end up in a landfill in the U.S. or be shipped abroad and burned. The tiny plastic particles may ultimately show up in your blood, the rain and air.

[8] https://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+tons+of+trash+does+...

[9] https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+the+US+population

[10] https://www.recycleacrossamerica.org/us-recycling-collapse (note, almost certainly a biased source, but the points they make and data are not invalidated by that, eg: " For instance, the largest recycling hauler in the U.S. (who also owns many major landfills) has recently closed 25% of their recycling plants.")