Subway Customer Stunned After Noticing Both ‘Recycling’ and ‘Trash’ Slots End Up in the Same Bin

There’s a cunning green game running behind the scenes in the world of advertising. Pay close attention, and you’ll spot the deception, like this man who goes by the moniker @garayua21 on TikTok. While recording a video, which has been viewed more than 11 million times, he called out Subway for “greenwashing” its customers by making them believe that they were recycling the plastic while the recycling process didn’t really exist. The video has left the viewer questioning the illusion of free choice. "Wait, What? I want to cry," one viewer lamented after watching the heart-shattering Subway scene.

According to the United Nations, greenwashing is a deceptive marketing tactic many companies use to “mislead the public to believe that a company or other entity is doing more to protect the environment than it is, Greenwashing promotes false solutions to the climate crisis that distract from and delay concrete and credible action.” Printing a nature-scape on a plastic water bottle is one thing, and actually deploying a measure that allows customers to dump or recycle their plastic bottles is another.

In this episode, the customer felt betrayed after being made to believe that he was contributing to recycling plastic. But when the truth was revealed, he found himself feeling fooled. The 9-second footage shows this man walking out of a Subway with a plastic beverage tumbler in his hand, intending to dump it. “Oh boy, can't wait to help the environment. Yeah, help the environment,” he exclaims, almost singing these words like a song lyric, as he walks to the dumpster. As he arrives at where the trash bin is sitting, he notices that there are two holes in the bin, one labelled with a recycling sticker and the other labelled as a trash bin.

The two options trigger in him the dilemma of choice. He keeps sifting the plastic cup from one hole to the other, ultimately tossing it in the hole tagged as recycling. Then comes the plot twist. While the bin seems to have two holes at the top, the door hiding both bins is the same. He unbolts the door and flings it open, almost getting jolted into a disappointing shock. There is not two, but only one bin hiding beneath the façade of two separate dumping holes. In the caption, the TikTok user tagged Subway’s official account, asking for an explanation.

Viewers also accused the leading fast-food chain of using deceptive advertising that is fooling customers into believing that they are contributing to environmental sustainability, while in actuality, there is no real recycling system that the company is deploying. Many viewers felt upset thinking that the trash they dump in the recycling bin doesn’t actually get recycled. “It does not. I worked as a sorter. can't catch most of the stuff on the conveyor belt, so it goes to the landfill,” echoed @MarleneLe. @Bf grumbled, “That’s honestly so sad.”

Reflecting on the intricacies of this short clip, @merlin.inthemaze commented, “Even if they had two separate bins in store. They probs all emptied into the same big one out the back.” Famous vlogger @Noel also shared a similar episode – “The hotel room I was in had a split trash can for that, but the cleaning lady just threw it all into the same garbage bag.”

You can follow @garayua21 on TikTok for more lighthearted video logs.