The term Wish-Cyclingcoined in 2015, refers to the act of throw objects in the bins of separate collection without being sure that they can actually be recycled. This practice arises from a good intention: contribute to recycling and reduce the environmental impact.
However, the desire to do the right thing can have contrary effects, hindering the effectiveness of the recycling process and increasing costs. In practice, desire that an object is recycled does not mean that it can be treated correctly, thus risking contaminate the flow of materials intended for recovery.
The Wish-Cycling It is a global phenomenon, present in various countries, even if official data are not yet available for Italy. For example, in 2018 the Department of the Environment, Food and British Roral Affairs revealed that 500,000 tons of recycled material ended up in landfills due to the contamination by non -recyclable objects.
The situation is equally critical in Australiawhere 58% of plastic packaging and 23% of the glass ones have been disposed of incorrectly. These errors not only compromise the effectiveness of the system waste sortingbut they risk increasing waste management costs.
Too complex symbols and information that vary from municipality to municipality
The system of environmental labeling introduced in Italy with the Legislative Decree 116/2020 It was designed to help consumers correctly identify the destination of waste. However, despite the positive intention, this provision has highlighted some difficulties, such as the complexity of the symbols and the interpretation of the information, that often vary from one municipality to another. This has increased the burden on citizens, which often find themselves disoriented between different collection methods.
According to the sociologist Rebecca Altmanthe responsibility for this confusion should not only fall on citizens. Industries and infrastructures they have to do their part, producing less plastic and packaging difficult to recycle, and improving waste treatment technologies.
The criticism of Wish-Cycling must therefore also be extended to the system which, while aiming at recycling, continues to produce materials difficult to recover. The real challenge for an effective circular economy It is therefore greater collaboration between producers, institutions and citizens, with the aim of simplifying and improving the process of disposal and recovery of waste.
