system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: We are doomed

Ok, I may be a bit cynical at the moment, having witnessed several "recycling" bins filled with general trash but this has been festering for a while. I grew up thinking about our impact in the world (thanks Captain Planet!) and have always been careful about my buying and consumption habits. I try to be careful about my recycling ensuring it is properly segregated with the hope that the majority of the world does so too.

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I've been feeling all of this is like pissing into a fan.

a) People don't give a shit. In my workplace, my educated colleagues can't seem to be able to differentiate between a bag with a half eaten sandwich and a drink bottle and dispose both the general waste and recycling bins. It's as if the bins do not have a colour or a label.

I keep my recycling bins out for collection and when I sneak a peek the next morning before the trucks arrived, they're filled up with some mystery junk from the people renovating their house the next door who can't be half arsed to dispose of their construction waste responsibly.

I see recycling dumpsters filled with general waste outside supermarkets and restaurants. "We recycled 1000 tons last year". Nope, that was a 1000 tons of garbage that went to the recycling centre and gummed up the works. 

b) Companies don't give a shit. For all the feel good stories about reducing plastic by banning straws etc., there are tons of cheap and poor quality stuff produced that is bought for short term use and does not last. Every single day, my news feed has some article about "The 10 things from \*Mart that you must buy". Hell no. None of this is needed. I saw a "news" article about cheap pans from KMart that were must haves because they look like $150 designer ones but don't quite last that long. The lady said these last about a year with decent care so it's best to stock up. Nothing about the hundreds of thousands of pans that will go to the tip in a years time.

We use virgin paper to wipe our asses and flush it down the toilet. Virgin plastic to make bottles which get used once and thrown away. Why? Is it so hard to recycle materials?

c) All the stuff we "recycle" goes to the waste collection centre where they to do deal with the mess that we cause \[a\]. Most are ill equipped to sort stuff in a manner that results in a high quality recyclable mass which makes sense for a processor to recycle. We used to send all of this to China and other countries but they've had enough and there's enough of the same stuff they have to deal with anyway. All of this is now piled up in giant warehouses, waiting for the next toxic fire "accident" or is just being dumped into the landfill.

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... I'm sorry. I can't think straight and didn't intend for this to be a rant that started with recycling and ended up with consumption. I like to think that the people in charge have long term plans for our survival but apparently, long term is relative. All we can think of is the next 5, 10 or even 100 years. We have lived for over 200,000 years and in the span of two centuries, we have screwed up our land, air, water and almost every other species. We've somehow managed to exhaust oil at a planetary level and have barely enough to last for the next 50 years. It would be a fitting end if our only hope for survival rests in some future technology that requires oil and we have none of it.

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Please change my view. Please do.
gpt
Manufacturing engineer here. If it makes you feel any better, plastic recycling is a net environmental negative and most recycling in the US goes to landfills anyway. The majority of plastic in the ocean most likely came from 90s style plastic recycling efforts. The 90s got environmentalism all wrong. 

What would actually have a positive impact is carbon taxes, and modern energy positive incineration. We're starting to figure it out—but clinging to 90s style recycling isn't helping.