Consumers are more environmentally conscious than ever, and we often make purchasing decisions based on a product’s packaging. We choose items that look like they are made from paper or other “eco-friendly” materials, assuming we can simply toss them in the recycling bin. However, many of these products are a form of “greenwashing.” Their packaging is actually made from a complex mix of materials that cannot be processed by most municipal recycling systems. This leads to a frustrating phenomenon known as “wish-cycling,” where we hopefully put something in the bin that is destined for the landfill.
