by Ruth Aluma Dan, YourPace Contributing Writer

Recycling—ever heard of it? Most people have, and it’s a big discussion in the context of climate change and how people can help reduce it through waste management. However, recycling is not a fix to the problem. Many people think that the recycling they do has a bigger impact than it does, but unfortunately, there are many misconceptions about recycling. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, about 430 million tons of plastic are produced each year, of which a third is single-use plastic. And most of this plastic ends up in landfills. According to a report from the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, only 9% of plastic is recycled, while 22% is mismanaged. That plastic that doesn’t get recycled or reused doesn’t disappear. It becomes microplastics and ends up in the food we eat, our rainfall, our blood, and our lungs. It’s not just about climate change; it’s also about health.

Another issue with plastic recycling is that it places the responsibility on individuals rather than corporations. Companies aren’t as pressured to make things sustainable if they can just put a recycling triangle on their plastic, and now they shift the blame to the consumer. But that’s harmful because the individual clearly isn’t making much of a difference, and companies know this. They just needed to shift the blame so that they wouldn’t have to take responsibility. It’s not about reducing the plastic we use. That has some effect, but overall, not a big enough one. It’s about reducing the plastic we make.
According to Marcus Erikson, a marine scientist, “there has to be a drastic cut in production.” MIT Technology Review argues that dozens of studies and institutional reports conclude that continued increases in plastic production will overwhelm efforts to combat the problem.

So what can we do? First of all, researchers are saying not to stop recycling. Although it is small, it still affects the amount of plastic that ends up in landfills. 9% of 430 million is still 47.3 million tons of plastic being recycled. There are also many organizations that combat plastic waste, such as Nipe Fagio in Tanzania, which runs a waste management and recycling system that has reduced landfill waste by 75% across several neighboring cities. Reusing is the best way to combat waste. Refilling glass bottles instead of using single-use plastic ones, using reusable bags, etc.

However, the world needs to overhaul the entire system and shift behavior and production.
Stopping the manufacturing at the root by introducing alternatives will make a much bigger
impact and might even solve the problem.