It’s time for us all to stop recycling

Our childlike efforts are a distraction from the big issues, says Glenn Woodcock

DESPITE what the scenes of domesticated bliss depicted in cookbooks might imply, baking alongside a young child is far from a relaxed activity.

The task usually transforms into redecorating; changing the look of the kitchen using eggs, milk, flour and butter (rather than paint).

Finally, when the debacle can be borne no longer, something inedible is shoved into the oven as terror grips the adult over the scale of clean-up needed.

The child, oblivious to the horror they’re surrounded with, is given a paper towel and asked to help with the ‘tidy up’.

They smear work surfaces, doing little other than spreading the mess, until they’re told they’ve done an ‘amazing job’ and whisked from the kitchen to watch Dora the Explorer.

Parked on the sofa, as burning smells seep from the kitchen, the kid is content they’ve ‘done their bit’, while the adult is painfully aware the real clean-up job hasn’t even started.

I’m sorry to say it, but when it comes to recycling, we’re all that kid.

We diligently wash glass jars and rinse tins, sort paper and cardboard into the correctly colour-coded containers, all the time thinking we’ve achieved something for the environment.

Yet, it’s all one big lie. Like the kid who thinks they’ve cleaned up the kitchen, we’re happy to be placated by a futile gesture which doesn’t address the real issue.

So, I’ve a challenge for each of us: Let’s stop recycling.

If we don’t stop recycling, the issues of waste and pollution will just get worse.

Our consumer society’s push to prioritise short-term convenience has left us drowning in waste; from online deliveries where a thimble arrives in a box the size of a fridge (parcels of the same size are easier to stack in delivery vans) to canned water – for those who couldn’t possibly be seen to use a tap.

The drive towards ‘convenience’, making things slightly easier, for both manufacturer and consumer, has created (and normalised) mountains of detritus.

The momentary annoyance of ‘sticky’ bars of soap led to hand wash in single-use plastic bottles that’ll still be littering the planet in 1,000 years.

The desire to have a new TV on our doorstep, mere hours after we click ‘buy’, led to devices clad in single-use plastics, ensuring, God forbid, speedy delivery doesn’t result in our new kit getting scratched.

Gifting café and hotel customers the convenience of sidestepping the chef and spreading butter on their toast exactly as they like it, has led to billions of non-recyclable single portion wrappers going into landfill.

The scale of the problem is so large most are in total denial, so we focus on things we can get to grips with, like rinsing ketchup bottles.

What we need to do isn’t increase the percentages of existing waste that can be fed back into the system. The real solution is to reassess priorities, like the true importance of convenience, in order to reduce the amount of waste produced in the first place.

Frankly, once waste has been created, the battle is already lost; recycling is little more than an exercise in PR and damage limitation.

If enough of us stopped recycling, there’s no denying the fallout would be huge.

The righteous anger this, supposedly taboo, step would generate would push our relationship with waste and convenience into the public consciousness, for scrutiny.

Only then could we bring focused pressure onto big business – getting them to rethink their model. Currently, by recycling, we’re allowing a broken system to limp onwards, indefinitely.

I wonder how many would be happy to take this culturally unpopular step.

Perhaps, like taking a slice of that less-than-delicious (toddler created) cake emerging from the oven, it’s simply time to hold our nose and get on with it.

Glenn Woodcock is an entrepreneur and investor with a belief in better business solving the challenges of our modern world; @glenn_woodcock