Tag Archives: plastic

Lloyd Alter: Innovation in the COVID-19 Era

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Human beings are nothing if not innovative. We have invented entire disciplines concerned with design, sustainability, and urban planning. Now, however, a global pandemic is forcing experts in these disciplines to rethink, adapt, and re-innovate. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to design expert and environmental journalist Lloyd Alter about innovation and adaptation in the COVID-19 era. We talk about the hurdles we are collectively facing when it comes to things like sky scrapers, air conditioning, and commuting – things that people, including experts, not too long ago took for granted.

The Last Straw: Mark Marinozzi + Romain Troublé

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The next time you sip on a drink from a straw, you may want to think twice because humans are producing an inordinate amount of plastic waste on straws alone. Plastic straws are one of the leading contributors to ocean  trash, they take up to 200 years to decompose and they can’t be recycled.  Every year, the US alone uses enough straws to fill up nine baseball stadiums. Plastic straws are pretty much the definition of wastefulness, they serve very little purpose and are terrible for the environment.  This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to two people who are doing their best to combat plastic waste in our oceans. First, Mark Marinozzi from World Centric gives us some important facts about plastic straws and talks about the best ways to fight the problem. Then, we hear from Romain Troublé whose organization, Tara Expedition, has been making scientific ocean voyages for the past fifteen years to monitor and collect data about ocean plastic waste.

Mark Murray: California Recycling in Decline

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In 2013 California boasted a recycling rate of 85%. In 2017 that number is now 79% – that is the first time it has dipped below 80% since 2008. Why is the most populous state in the union moving in the wrong direction on this important indicator? This week on Sea Change Radio we speak with Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste, a nonprofit environmental group that was founded forty years ago to advocate for beverage container recycling in the state. He will explain this troubling trend and talk about what can be done to get California’s recycling program back on its previous trajectory.

Post-Plastic Entrepreneurs

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EbenBayerRickEye
Can you think of two everyday materials with a worse environmental rep than Styrofoam and plastic bottles? From production through disposal, these things produce toxic gasses, are major culprits in our single-use disposable culture, and are rapidly invading our oceans and destroying marine food chains. This week’s guests on Sea Change Radio are each working on eco-friendly alternatives to these environmental villains.
First, we hear from Eben Bayer, one of the founders of Ecovative, a company that has developed a mushrom-based alternative to extruded polystyrene foam (more commonly known by its copyrighted name, Styrofoam). He tells us how Ecovative’s biologically-based material is replacing packing materials, insulation and maybe soon food storage containers that were previously the exclusive domain of polluting, non-biodegradable stuff. Next, host Alex Wise talks to Rick Eye, CEO of Blue Can Pure Water, a company offering an alternative to those ubiquitous plastic water bottles: on-the-go water in aluminum cans. He explains why it has taken so long for this much better idea to spring up, and discusses how he’s doing his part to reduce plastic waste.

The Plastic Purge: Beth Terry

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The average American generates between 88 and 120 pounds of plastic waste per year. Imagine what it would mean for you to cut that down almost entirely. What lifestyle changes would you have to make? This week’s guest on Sea Change Radio asked herself that same question and then tried to answer it – embarking on a mission to reduce her plastic use as much as possible and tell the world how she did it. In her new book, “Plastic Free: How I Kicked The Plastic Habit and You Can Too” author and accountant Beth Terry provides more than an instructional manual; she illustrates how conscious behavior can blossom into advocacy for wider change.