Learn Russian: Если бы мы перерабатывали пластик, мы бы спасли океан. - If we recycled plastic, we would save the ocean.

In Russian, unreal or counterfactual conditions always use the past tense combined with the particle бы. Even though the sentence means 'If we recycled (now/in general)', the grammar requires the past tense forms перерабатывали and спасли to show it is a hypothetical scenario rather than a real event.

Why use the imperfective verb перерабатывали in the first half, but the perfective verb спасли in the second half?

The aspects match the type of action. We use the imperfective перерабатывали because recycling is an ongoing process or a repeated habit. We use the perfective спасли because saving the ocean is viewed as the final, successful result of that process.

Could the second бы go somewhere else in the phrase мы бы спасли?

Yes, the particle бы is quite flexible in the main clause. It often follows the pronoun (мы бы спасли), but it can also attach directly after the verb (мы спасли бы). Both options are correct and sound completely natural.

Does the prefix пере- in перерабатывали carry a specific meaning?

Yes! The prefix пере- often implies doing something over again, transferring, or transforming something, very much like the prefix 're-' in English. Here, it turns a base verb for working or processing into 're-process' or 'recycle'.