Something I’ve been thinking about, especially with yesterday being Global Recycling Day:
Are we expecting too much from recycling?
Today, only about 6.9% of materials used globally come from recycled sources.
And even with improvements, studies suggest recycling rates may struggle to go much beyond ~20–25%, because of material complexity, contamination, and system limits.
At the same time, global material use has crossed 100 billion tonnes per year, and is still growing.
So even if recycling gets better, it’s trying to catch up with a system that keeps expanding.
Which raises a bigger question.
Instead of asking
“How do we recycle more?”
Should we be asking
“How do we reduce the need for new materials in the first place?”
That’s where a lot of newer innovations are heading:
• Turning emissions into usable materials
• Producing polymers through fermentation
• Growing materials from waste streams
These approaches don’t just deal with waste, they change where materials come from.
Recycling is still very important.
But it might not be enough on its own.
Curious to hear how others here see it!
Is recycling the foundation of circularity, or just one part of a much bigger shift?