Recycle with your eyes closed

When I was young, I fell into the cauldron like Obelix. I still remember, the precise moment, the moment when I first heard about recycling. I was in first grade, in the hallway of my elementary school: gray walls, spotted floor with blue vinyl baseboards, it's still very light. I was with my teacher. I was the designated class leader for the day. We were going to take the paper to recycling. We were careful to remove the pages where we had written in blue ink, because this ink was not accepted in the process, a process which she explained to me as best she could when I bombarded her of questions. My life changed, I had just been struck by lightning!

For several years, I shouted to anyone who would listen that Holy O recycling was so important and sacred. I've converted more than one, but why exactly?

I could tell you about the evolution of recycling, the progress we have made over the years, of course, the obligatory transparent plastic bag to put it on the road, the sorting of different materials in the bin and now that the party is handle, we can mix everything. Unfortunately, it is even less expensive today to send our recycling to China than it is to recycle it here. Isn't this nonsense? Sorting at the center is done, among other things, at great expense! Everyone puts in what they want out of conscience. You know when we put plastic in it 6 knowing very well that only a tiny handful of centers in Quebec recycle it; all those individual yogurt pots, those plastic dome cups from fast food restaurants or those containers of your favorite cookies... all that slows down processing, increases costs in addition to not having the machinery to recycle them.

We can no longer bury our heads in the sand and clear our conscience simply by recycling. We have a social responsibility. We can no longer claim ignorance. I heard recently that in the last five years, we have received more information from all sides than in all previous years combined! That's saying something. So, you probably know, like me, that several continents of plastic in the ocean are harming ecosystems. It’s no longer the time to just recycle, we need to consume better!