REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE?

There’s a dance I do in the kitchen. You know the one. You’re standing in front of your kitchen recycling bin. You’ve confidently dealt with the food waste, after attending a composting workshop that was pitched to your husband as a fun date night. All you’re left with are the plastic recyclables.

Suddenly your movements become slow and tentative like you’ve been asked to perform Odette’s solo in Swan Lake. A light sweat breaks out across your brow. Is it a 1, a 2 or a 7? A soft plastic? Are you in Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, or elsewhere? Should you squash the bottle? Peel the label off? What about the lid? What used to feel like an easy way to do “your bit” has turned into a full-blown existential crisis. And you haven’t even begun to think about where all this plastic ends up.

Recycling has been a mainstay of individual and household environmentalism efforts in New Zealand