Recycling in Puerto Vallarta.

For decades, talking about recycling seemed like a domestic issue, a practice taught in public schools or in local campaigns with colorful drawings and separate bins. However, in the 21st century, recycling is no longer a decorative option but a planetary emergency. And in this responsibility, the elites—economic, social, and cultural—cannot continue to stand aside.

Many of them may never have received ecological training. Perhaps their private schools talked more about the global economy than local waste. Or perhaps, out of convenience or misinformation, they have never felt that recycling is also their problem. But it is. Because this world, so wounded by excess, does not distinguish between classes when it shows the consequences: air pollution, oceans saturated with plastic, diseases derived from collapsed ecosystems.

The rich and the poor breathe the same air, drink the same water, live under the same sky. And although the elites can afford air conditioning, purification systems, or even move away, environmental disaster knows no walls or premium rates.
So why is recycling necessary?

Because recycling is recognizing that everything has a limit. That the planet's resources are not infinite, and that every package, every bottle, every box can have a second life if we choose. It is a symbolic but also concrete act. It is giving value to waste, understanding that what is discarded can be transformed, and that what is transformed can save us.

Recycling reduces the need to extract new materials, which lowers the environmental impact, decreases the energy used in production, and helps us take care of forests, oceans, and communities that live near mines, factories, or landfills. It is a way to reduce our ecological footprint and, with it, the damage we cause to the world.

But recycling also educates the heart. It forces us to observe what we consume, to think before we buy, to be responsible after we use. It is a humble act: it reminds us that everything comes back, that everything counts, that trash also speaks to who we are.

And this is where the elites have a fundamental role to play. Because if they recycle, they influence. If their children learn to separate waste, it sets a trend. If well-managed recycling systems are installed in their luxury homes, designer hotels, and exclusive restaurants, the message spreads. Recycling ceases to be “a poor person's thing,” something for extreme environmentalists or school campaigns. It becomes conscious fashion, luxury with purpose, wealth with soul.

In Puerto Vallarta—a beautiful city but also vulnerable to climate change, excessive tourism, and waste—this is more urgent than ever. And even more so today, when poor decisions by the local government have led to the privatization of garbage collection services, weakening the public's ability to manage our waste in a dignified and sustainable manner. Given this scenario, the responsibility no longer lies solely with the authorities: the duty to protect Puerto Vallarta and the entire planet belongs to everyone, and with greater force, each person must do their part.

Because caring for the planet is not charity, it is intergenerational justice. It is not activism, it is survival. And although many still do not understand it, in the future there will not be enough wealth to buy a new planet.
That is why recycling is about starting to make amends, with small daily actions, for the great mistake of living as if the Earth were disposable.