Don't take too much comfort from your recycling bin.

I found this video to be very disturbing. As a big supporter of recycling, it made me realize that instead of remaining comforted by the "warm and fuzzy" feeling of taking my blue bin to the curb, I need to focus on decreasing my consumption and demand for plastic products. Recycling may keep a small percentage of items from floating in the Pacific Ocean, but it does not guarantee any less of a negative environmental impact in the long run. Unfortunately for most companies, financial shortcuts don't usually fall well below genuine environmental concern on a list of priorities, so the only way to guarantee that the plastic bottle you threw in the recycling bin won't end up in the ocean or a landfill in China is to never purchase it in the first place.