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Wasteland

Human beings aren’t very good at recycling plastic. About 5% was recovered in 2021, down from 9% in 2014. Another 12% was incinerated in waste-to-energy facilities, and the rest ended up in landfills, rivers, and oceans. When I read that plastic fibers were found at the 27,000-foot level on Mount Everest, I imagined the view when climate change has melted the glaciers and mountain snowpack, leaving a thin layer of plastic.