Let’s face it, the planet is side-eying us. We are surrounded by our own discarded pizza boxes. We have one-for-each-use armies of plastics. The soundtrack is less “circle of life” and more like “landfill of existential despair.” Recycling will be mandatory. It’s not just about cleaning up. It’s about acknowledging a simple truth. We are on the precipice of ecological faux pas. Our so-called individual choice to recycle the aluminum can has unexpected un-individualistic consequences.

Remember: globally, waste production is on track to increase by a staggering 70% by 2050 if we don’t change our current trajectory. Bring the trash monster home for good, essentially. And where do all of those fabulous bites of rubbish go? Too many times into the landfill, the big memorials of our throwaway lifestyle, by the way, big methane generators, 25 times as powerful as carbon dioxide as a green gas over a 100-year time frame. So, next time we throw a recyclable into the regular bin, we align with climate change. It is like doing a little victory handshake. Not a happy, feel-good moment.

But wait, there’s more! Our insatiable hunger for “new” is depleting the Earth’s resources rapidly. This situation is more than alarming. Take aluminum, for instance. To recycle it, it only takes 5% of the energy needed to make new aluminum from bauxite ore. That is equivalent to deciding to walk across the street rather than riding a rocket ship to do the same old thing! And its impact on forest destruction? Suffice it to say, recycling paper keeps our trees standing, such critical lungs of the world that inhale a fair share of our carbon emissions. Deforestation is responsible for providing about 15% of greenhouse gases globally. Each recycled newspaper is a small “not today, lumberjack” moment for our trees.

Then others will protest, “But mandatory? Is that, like, stripping me of my freedom to build my little personal dumpster empire?” Yes, well, the same way traffic laws restrict your freedom to drive your car through a mall. Sometimes, we must find consensus. It helps the greater good and supports our polar bear friends’ ability to survive.

And don’t even start me on the surprise economic benefits. The recycling industry does more than dig through our discarded yogurt containers. It is expanding and generating jobs. It ranges from advanced materials science to the actual process of taking old things and making them new. Scientists determined that for each 10,000 tons of waste sent off to a dump, one job is created. But six jobs can be created from the same volume of waste that is recycled. Six times as many jobs, folks! It is making waste worth its weight in treasures -and jobs.

And, as usual, envision the collective moment of epiphany of recycling as the norm. Not so much sorting paper from plastic, of course, but heightened awareness of our consumption. Confronted by the sheer volume of our own rubbish, we might stop and think. Do we really need to order that fifth useless thing from Amazon? It is a group effort, a collective pat on the back for being mostly not eco-ignorant. Is forced recycling a freedom-suppressing, draconian decree? Perhaps. But is it a necessary step? Is it a financially wise one? It is essentially the least we can do for a planet that is increasingly gazing up at us with the weary eyes of an exasperated mother. Certainly. It is not for a cleaner tomorrow, it is for embracing our interdependence on nature and on each other. It is for transcending the “my detritus, my problem” way of thinking. We must embrace a vaguely higher thinking. You know, perhaps we are all swimming around together in a cosmic garbage can. And would not it be wonderful if it did not smell so disgustingly?