We value recycling in our society because it finds secondary use for materials that would otherwise end up in a landfill. The biggest drawback to this from a material perspective is that the recycled products almost always diminish in quality each time they are processed (or  “downcycled”). Steel, aluminum and glass may be endlessly recyclable, but the virgin plastic in a water bottle is not. This limits the potential for reuse across a wide variety of waste streams, pre and post-consumer packaging included, to the point that the ultimate end-of-life destination is still usually the landfill or incinerator. This is a far cry from what many in the field of sustainability would say is the most ideal reuse model: a circular economy.