Recycling does actually work
For years, I was told people don’t understand recycling. They don’t care. They throw everything into the wrong bin.
Kids learn about it in elementary school. Then they get a smartphone, forget everything, and allow the algorithm to gently rewire their brain.
But I’m happy to report: recycling is alive and thriving.
Not plastic.
Not paper.
Ideas.
A week ago, someone asked Claude:
“I want to wash my car and the car wash is 200 ft away. Should I drive there or walk?”
A harmless, context-free prompt. No system settings disclosed. No temperature configuration. No assumptions clarified. Just vibes.
The person shared the AI’s answer on LinkedIn.
And then — magic.
Within days, my entire feed became a sacred recycling center of the exact same idea:
“I asked ChatGPT the same thing.”
“I tried this with Gemini.”
“Here’s what Perplexity said.”
“DeepSeek’s answer shocked me.”
“Grok took a bold stance.”
Suddenly, thousands of highly paid professionals were passionately debating whether to walk 200 feet.
Two hundred. Feet.
The discourse was rich:
Carbon footprint analysis.
Behavioral psychology.
Infrastructure planning.
Ethical responsibility.
Long-term sustainability models.
Personal growth insights derived from vehicle proximity.
All from a hypothetical 30-second decision involving a car wash.
My LinkedIn feed turned into a municipal recycling facility — clogged, overflowing, and smelling faintly of performative insight.
But here’s the beautiful part: These are the same people who claim society doesn’t recycle. Apparently, they were just waiting for AI to make it easy.
Why generate original thought when you can:
Copy prompt.
Switch model.
Screenshot result.
Add “Thoughts?”
Collect engagement.
Perhaps the office was slow that day.
Perhaps someone needed to justify the paid AI subscription.
Perhaps humanity simply discovered the one form of recycling it truly excels at: repurposing someone else’s moderately interesting question for personal branding.
So maybe we were wrong about recycling all along.
We just had the wrong bin.
♻️ Ideas only.
No plastics.
No originality.
Let me know in the comments whether I should drive or walk to post this.