(GUF) GLOBAL RECYCLING DAY

If all that happens on 'Global Recycling Day' is an endless flood of LinkedIn posts with stock photos of clean, colourful recycling bins and vague commitments to a "greener future," then the day is nothing more than a corporate virtue signalling stunt.

Recycling isn’t a belief system; it’s a mindset; a mechanical process, and if the process isn’t improving, what’s the point of celebrating it?

If companies aren’t increasing their recycling rates, investing in better waste management infrastructure or addressing the reality that much of what they claim is “recyclable” never actually gets recycled, then the day is just a hollow shout out to the boys.

We're better than this. There are areas of improvement and real technical advancement within the waste industry truly worth celebrating but let’s do it by benchmarking rather than twee self back-patting alerts about a day nobody actually bothers to find out 'who says' it's Global Recycling Day? It’s the equivalent of a fast-food chain tweeting about “eating healthy” once a year while continuing to push oversized, ultra-processed gut busting stodge for the other 264 days.

If Global Recycling Day had real impact, it would:

• Force companies to publicly disclose their actual recycling rates and waste reduction progress.
• Demand accountability from businesses still peddling non-recyclable packaging.
• Call out the fact that plastic recycling is mostly a myth - especially given that less than 10% of all plastic ever made has been recycled.
• Focus on reducing waste at the source, rather than pretending recycling is the solution to overconsumption.

But no, instead, we get companies throwing up a post with a hashtag, a few vague commitments, and absolutely no change in behavior. So is GRD totally pointless? Possibly, unless, of course, you work in a PR department and need a feel-good moment to break up the usual corporate monotony. More like this (bandwagons) - link - more like this (recycling) - link