PBS Terra explains 'How Big Business Broke Recycling (And Blamed You)'

I told my readers "I'm sure PBS Terra will upload more in this series for Earth Month. Watch for me to share upcoming episodes here" at the end of For Earth Day, PBS Terra asks 'Stop Saving the Planet?' Change the world instead. As promised, here is the next episode, How Big Business Broke Recycling (And Blamed You).

Recycling has been the gold standard for fighting pollution for decades. But most plastics can’t be recycled and the companies that push for recycling are the ones often generating the most emissions and waste in the first place. Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant looks at how we have been told to “reduce, reuse, recycle” to shift the responsibility from companies to the individual.

This makes up for the unpleasant surprise I wrote about to open 'Last Week Tonight with John Oliver' returns after winning two Emmy Awards with 'A History of Chuck E. Cheese,' a tale of the Retail Apocalypse.

I found that the video I wanted to feature today, Plastic Recycling is a Myth – Here’s How We Fix That, had playback on other sites disabled by PBS Terra. Shoot! I was looking forward to revisiting the plastic questions from Treasures of the Earth: Power.

I ended up examining those questions in PBS NewsHour and SciShow explain the difficulties of recycling plastic and plastic pollution.

The ubiquity of plastic is one of the topics I ask my students in the Worksheet for 'Treasures of the Earth: Power', which I'm showing this week. Here are two of the questions:

15. What uses are there for plastic? Name five uses or products.

The video lists cosmetic cases, chairs, phones, clothes, and toilet seats, or if it doesn't, I'll accept them as answers. The video shows lots more, including bottles and bags.

16. Why is plastic a challenge for disposal?

The video says that plastic doesn't break down and burning it creates greenhouse gases. In the way paper decomposes, it doesn't, although it does break down physically. Students also point out that the sheer variety of plastic complicates recycling. That's the point of the second video above, but it's not part of "Treasures of the Earth: Power." Still, it's true.

Students can also use plastic as an example of some of Commoner's Laws, Everything is connected to everything else, everything must go somewhere (there is no away), and there is no free lunch along with climate change.

This concludes today's episode of stories I tell my students.

Since I plan on recommending this series of videos to my students, it also makes this an episode of blogging as professional development. Yay, I finally got to write the post I wanted in February, when PBS Terra disallowing embedding of the Far Out video frustrated me!

Stay tuned for a Sunday entertainment feature for National Superhero Day. Superhero winners at the Critics Choice Super Awards Super Awards Awards, anyone?