The meaningless ritual of recycling

Is recycling an essential tool in the armoury of a responsible citizen to reduce the pressure on our ailing planet? Or, as Timothy Cooper argues in this week's Green Room, is it a meaningless ritual that fails to get to grips with the real problems of copious consumption?

"What the revival of recycling has really done, like the myth of "ethical consumerism", is to give the impression that the environmental crisis presented by global capitalism can be indefinitely delayed if only we all do our bit."

"It places the blame for environmental problems not on those who make the profits, but on a faceless mass of "consumers". "

"It prevents us asking the important question of capitalism: how much longer can this go on, and if it is to end then how?"