Two regulatory instruments — one certifying compostable packaging, one routing it to landfill. Both valid on their own. Read them together and they create a dead end nobody intended.

In this episode, we debate: are recycling rules badly written, or does nobody check whether separately valid rules actually work together in the real world?

We unpack 5 concepts you will need before reading the article: the phantom 37 count in Schedule 1, EN 13432 and the thermodynamic dead end, the compostable caddy liner paradox, EPR enforcement asymmetry, and working memory capacity versus categorical complexity.

This is episode 1 of The Simpler Recycling Problem series.

Topics: recycling confusion, waste sorting, recycling rules, household recycling, what can be recycled, waste categories

Read the full article: youreanatural.com/consumer-intelligence/the-37-things