This piece is featured in Issue 25 of Works in Progress. Subscribe today to get an issue every two months delivered straight to your door. Alex Chalmers and Rob Wiblin explain why recycling isn’t quite what it seems. Every child is taught that landfill is the worst place our trash can end up. It is the sad consequence of a failure to recycle: a mountain of waste leaking chemicals and smells, blighting the land forever. What if that picture is wrong?