I've been trying to cut down on single-use plastics for a year now, but it feels like I'm fighting a losing battle when even my 'eco-friendly' toothpaste tube has a plastic cap. The recycling bin in my building accepts everything, yet I recently learned that only about 9% of plastic actually gets recycled worldwide. So I have to ask: can individual actions like refusing straws or buying bulk really make a dent in plastic pollution, or is that just a distraction from the real problem — the corporations producing all this packaging? I want to believe my choices matter, but sometimes it seems like the system is designed to make us feel guilty instead of fixing the supply chain.