Greta Thunberg

Capitalism as currently practised has imperilled the existence of millions of planetary species, as well as the health and well-being of billions of humans. It also threatens the prosperity that it was intended to create.

The cheap and convenient packaging omnipresent in our daily lives is plastered with claims of recyclability or compostability, encouraging us to buy more and feel good about it. But worldwide, our waste management systems remain both leaky and incapable of recycling many of the products on the market. The lack of regulation of package labelling encourages the phenomenon of ‘aspirational recycling’, which contaminates the waste stream and results in plastics that might otherwise be recycled ending up in landfill or worse. Meanwhile, a lack of accountability in multinational waste export systems results in a global flow of post-consumer plastics to countries where regulation and law enforcement are insufficient to prevent mismanaged waste entering the environment.

The cheap and convenient packaging omnipresent in our daily lives is plastered with claims of recyclability or compostability, encouraging us to buy more and feel good about it. But worldwide, our waste management systems remain both leaky and incapable of recycling many of the products on the market. The lack of regulation of package labelling encourages the phenomenon of ‘aspirational recycling’, which contaminates the waste stream and results in plastics that might otherwise be recycled ending up in landfill or worse. Meanwhile, a lack of accountability in multinational waste export systems results in a global flow of post-consumer plastics to countries where regulation and law enforcement are insufficient to prevent mismanaged waste entering the environment.