Can individual recycling efforts actually make a dent in our plastic waste problem, or is that just a way to ease our guilt while corporations keep producing single-use packaging? I've been separating my plastics for years, and then I read that only about 9% of plastic ever gets recycled globally. My neighbor insists every bottle she rinses matters, but the math on that feels shaky when I see entire bins of 'recyclables' heading to the same landfill. Maybe the real change has to come from policy bans, not personal habits—does my blue bin even count for anything?