Outside:

can’t tell you how often I’ve peered into the recycling bin with a questionable item in hand, likely made from a complicated blend of materials that left me hesitant yet hopeful, and then dropped it in with a shrug. This is called “wishcycling,” and it refers to the act of wrongly putting a material into curbside bins with the hope that it will be recycled. My go-to attitude was: Let them figure it out. That’s their job. But in these days of awakening one’s self to better habits and spreading the light, wherever we find it, a nagging discomfort lurked.

So I began to investigate. What actually happens to this stuff? And what could I do to maximize my positive contribution? What I found amid the tangles of a sometimes complicated industry was simple in essence. It isn’t their job. It’s mine, and it’s yours. The onus to understand and ease the processes we take part in is ours. For the outdoor gearheads among us, we can start with the packaging our toys come in.

While it’s likely slightly different in every area, this start to finish journey is still interesting. We are “forced” to do recycling in our small community and there are fines if you don’t. But I disagree with the premise that it’s “our” job so much as corporations and governments have discovered they can put the onus on individual consumers for recycling and alleviate the responsibility of business to do more.