Question:
What currently trendy recyclables could there be that we should just eliminate?

Recycling seems to be a big item in today's environmental solution set. Maybe it would have helped a lot more 30 years ago, when the usage rate for say, aluminum cans, wasn't so high. Have we passed the 'point of no return' on these things, where it only makes sense to stop using them altogether?

I used aluminum cans as an example because there's a huge energy output in finding and mining bauxite into aluminum, and the relationship between aluminum and Alzheimers may prove to be as harmful as that of lead for drinking goblets was for the Roman Empire. We don't 'need' aluminum cans; it's a major expense to society to manage them.

Then, the cans use up tremendous amounts of separation, washing, and other water-intensive tasks to recycle. Can't we just stop producing things not in our best interests? Like aluminum cans?

Answer: The thing is that aluminum is still in use cause is cheaper for the manufacturers to use it. The point will be then to find other alternatives that can also be cheap in order to use that info to pressure these manufacturers to do the change.

It is not an impossible task to make the big companies to make changes. For example: the documentary "Super Size Me", made the whole fast food industry to make changes in their menus to more healthy alternatives; The documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" is making our government, many private companies, and ordinary people to make changes in order to save our planet. Other campaigns against the use of tobacco, or against the contamination that certain companies cause to our enviroment are being made by private citizens that know that one voice can become many and that changes can be made. Maybe these examples appear to not be related but they are. When we talk about something and raise a concern about a problem pleople will start to meditate about it and eventually will take action about it.

So as you, I think that eventually, toxic materials like aluminum will not be use anymore cause the negative effects on the human health will grow, and more people will be againt its use.