What looks simple hides a much stranger system.
Recycling feels like a civic ritual we all perform on autopilot. We rinse jars, flatten boxes, and hope the blue bin makes things right. Yet behind that simple gesture sits a system messier than the labels suggest. Rules change by city, plastics masquerade as recyclable, and contamination quietly dooms entire loads. Somewhere between good intentions and global markets, the story fractures. What actually gets reused, what gets burned or buried, and who decides all of that rarely enters the conversation. The confusion is not accidental. It grew slowly, layer by layer, until even experts disagree. This is where it starts.
