Tag Archives: plastic bags

Kitt Doucette: From the Frontlines of the Plastic Bag Wars

In just a couple of decades the plastic bag has become ubiquitous on this planet – these “disposable” items don’t biodegrade, however, so they’ve been collecting in our oceans, killing wildlife, and eventually inspiring a movement to push back against their environmental blight. Some cities, counties and even countries have instituted bans and others have put in place policies that charge consumers a few cents per bag in order to dissuade use. But eventually the producers of plastic caught on that there was a growing trend to limit the consumption of an item that’s usually only used for a few minutes, but stays on earth indefinitely. They’ve launched their own offensive, and the fight is starting to look like an all-out war.

In this Sea Change Radio encore presentation, host Alex Wise speaks with Kitt Doucette, a journalist for Rolling Stone who recently wrote about this war over plastic bags. Doucette talks about the history of the conflict, some of the fronts on which this battle is being waged, and what we can all do to fight back against the corporate bullies gaining ground everyday in this struggle for the earth’s well-being.

Kitt Doucette: From the Frontlines of the Plastic Bag Wars

In just a couple of decades the plastic bag has become ubiquitous on this planet – these “disposable” items don’t biodegrade, however, so they’ve been collecting in our oceans, killing wildlife, and eventually inspiring a movement to push back against their environmental blight. Some cities, counties and even countries have instituted bans and others have put in place policies that charge consumers a few cents per bag in order to dissuade use. But eventually the producers of plastic caught on that there was a growing trend to limit the consumption of an item that’s usually only used for a few minutes, but stays on earth indefinitely. They’ve launched their own offensive, and the fight is starting to look like an all-out war.

This week on Sea Change Radio, host Alex Wise speaks with Kitt Doucette, a journalist for Rolling Stone who recently wrote about this war over plastic bags. Doucette talks about the history of the conflict, some of the fronts on which this battle is being waged, and what we can all do to fight back against the corporate bullies gaining ground everyday in this struggle for the earth’s well-being.

Carbon Paw Prints

It wasn’t so long ago that we didn’t even pick up after our dogs. In the U.S., we’ve made a lot of progress in cleaning up after our estimated 77 million pups but now we need to figure out what to do with the mess. With this many dogs, we’re talking about thousands of tons of dog poop being produced, picked up and thrown away in plastic bags every day that goes straight to landfills. It’s the smellier side of our love affair with man’s best friend. It’s also a significant environmental blight. But today on Sea Change Radio, we’re going to hear from some folks whose innovative project is eliminating this elimination problem. First we speak with Mark Wittig, of Cayuga Compost, whose company is taking dog waste from a nearby dog park in Ithaca, NY and composting it. Then, we speak to Leon Kochian, a professor of plant biology at Cornell University and the President of TCDOG, a local dog owners association in Ithaca that started the program. Last, we talk to Dave Williams, President of BioBagUSA, the  maker of the biodegradable plastic bags that are being used for the project.

Plastic Horizon: From Ocean Trash to A Renewable Breakthrough

“There’s so much plastic in this culture that vinyl leopard skin is becoming an endangered synthetic.”  -Lily Tomlin
We all know plastic is a problem. It has been estimated that between 500 billion and one trillion plastic bags are manufactured across the world each year. In the US alone, 12 million barrels of oil go toward plastic bag production. And with the popularity of bottled water, the number of plastic bottles disposed of every year around the world has soared to 200 billion. This massive use of “disposable” plastics creates an enormous amount of harmful waste, and exacerbates our unhealthy reliance on petroleum. So what is to be done?
This week on Sea Change Radio we speak with the leader of an organization that’s trying to raise awareness of a particular plastic problem, and with a scientist whose team is developing a new process that could help actually solve the plastic problem. First, we talk with Doug Woodring, a Hong Kong-based entrepreneur and environmentalist whose Project Kaisei is making strides to highlight the enormous floating plastic mass in the North Pacific known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Then we hear from the head of IBM’s Almaden Research Center, Chandrasekhar “Spike” Narayan, who describes his team’s latest breakthrough, an earth-friendly, endlessly recyclable plastic.