Also: What is the lesser evil for pre-packaged vegetables?

Welcome to Temp Check, Mic's new climate advice column. We know that news about climate change can be very overwhelming, so we invited Devi, author of the book "1,001 Voices of Climate Change: Daily Stories of Floods, Fires, Droughts, and Displacements from Around the World" Devi Lockwood provided help. She will be partly an ethicist and partly a knowledgeable friend, here to provide you with guidance, as we all do our best to prevent climate disasters. Please continue reading this week’s recommendations, and then submit your questions to tempcheck@mic.com.

I recently heard that recyclable plastic is a myth created by oil and gas companies, which completely destroyed me. I think I am environmentally conscious, and I have been recycling, but now I feel guilty about using plastic. It is difficult for me to accept it. Are all my recycling in vain? If recycled plastic is ultimately not true, how can I move forward? Is there anything I can do?

In the recycling dump

Dear Down in the Recycling Dumps,

Facing the fossil fuel industry, and realizing that you are just a small problem-the problem is systemic. Although you have tried your best for many years to sort, clean and separate recyclable plastics and other forms of waste, more than 90% of it Is it never recycled? Yes, this is a good reason for despair. Frankly, if you have other feelings, it's too weird.

For the unfamiliar, here is the problem. Sorting and melting plastics is very expensive, and the material degrades every time it is reused. In contrast, new plastics made from oil and natural gas are cheaper and of better quality. For decades, Big Oil has misled the public by paying for advertisements about the benefits of recycled plastic, knowing (even in the 1970s!) that recycling plastic is more or less futile. Companies such as Exxon Mobil, Chevron and DuPont have invested tens of millions of dollars in these ads. The result was that we were deceived collectively.

These companies have a lot of money. The oil industry makes more than 400 billion U.S. dollars in profit from plastics each year. With the rise of renewable fuels, they see the plastics industry as a way to hedge their bets. Analysts predict that plastic production may triple by 2050. The impact of plastic pollution on the environment is terrible. It is estimated that since the early 1950s, more than 8.3 billion tons of plastic have been produced, about 60% of which end up in landfills or into the environment.

Now, the easiest way to get rid of this fear is to stand up and do something. You don't have to go alone. Join an organization like Plastic-Free July, which has organizations all over the world and can host plastic-related film screenings, plastic-free picnics, or park cleanups. You can also organize a team to remove plastic pollution from local beaches or waterways. If you are more willing to donate to or join organizations that solve the plastic waste problem, there are many organizations to choose from, including the Plastic Pollution Alliance, 5 Gyres, Algalita, and the Plastic Soup Foundation. You can also read about efforts to design plastic waste by creating a circular economy for plastics.

If you are excited about taking action closer to home, you can check with your local recycling center about the types of plastic they accept and discuss with local authorities how to improve their waste management. You can also put pressure on your town or city to ban the use of single-use plastics. It is important to remember that systemic failures are not your fault. However, if you start to act and join like-minded people in the community, you can be part of the solution.

I really will buy food in bulk or smallest packages as much as possible, but sometimes it just doesn't work. Take spinach as an example: Our family eats a lot of baby spinach. Bundles of fresh spinach sold in the grocery store take more time to prepare than pre-washed and packaged leaves. I temporarily let myself accept the latter, but I am not sure whether the smaller of the two evil packages is: a fragile plastic bag or a stronger plastic container. If I recycle it anyway (I try to take the bag to the plastic bag recycling station at the local grocery store), are they equivalent, or should I choose one?

Dear green environmental protection,

Isn't this the ugliest trade-off? I hate that the simplest choice is often the least sustainable. Really (see above), it was the big oil company's fault that we got into this predicament in the first place. But I digress. Let's talk about spinach.

Even though it may be printed with a recycling logo, spinach bags are almost never recycled, so in this case, a stronger plastic box is the winner. But let's consider the clamshell box. Is it made of recycled plastic? If not, please call the company and make a request, or choose to transfer your business to another company that uses recycled materials. You should also call your recycling center to make sure they accept clamshell packaging.

Another environmental impact that needs to be considered is water. Pre-cleaned greens use a lot of water, and if cleaning occurs in arid areas, that’s bad news. Of course, the best option is to bring a reusable bag or container to the grocery store or farmer’s market and buy unpackaged spinach in bulk. Then, go home, cut off the dry ends, take out the salad spinner, and make sure the leaves are completely dry, then put them in a glass jar in the refrigerator, a Tupperware container, or a reusable product (such as The Swag Bag). In short, it only takes about five minutes. Although it is not as fast as putting a plastic flip into the refrigerator, it lets you know that you are doing your best and gives you peace of mind. If you are curious about other reusable products, Package Free is a store in Brooklyn that provides a variety of reusable items for the kitchen.

And don’t forget to freeze the extra spinach on hand before it spoils. No one wants to be an agricultural product salesman.