When I was growing up, the mantra was "reduce, reuse, recycle". The order was important. It was one of those government promoted national sayings in Australia,

When I was growing up, the mantra was "reduce, reuse, recycle". The order was important. It was one of those government promoted national sayings in Australia, along with 'slip slop slap'. Unfortunately my current impression is that there is a strange blindness to these first two: reducing waste in the first place seems ignored if the item is recycable. And if you couldn't avoid packaging, choosing to use that item again makes no difference - just recycle it! It is like 'recycle' has some ultimate environmental positive power on people's attitude. If something is recycled, or recyclable, we don't need to worry about anything else. Quite concerning.