Zero Waste Trash Talk

In Episode 3 we talk about watching the new documentary The Story of Plastic on Amazon Prime and we interview our friend John Hawkins, a Nashville waste diversion specialist and musician, to get his take on the problems with recycling.

We discuss if we should stop recycling since it's broken and I think Michael might've even encouraged armed insurrection "John Wick Style". Did we mention that this isn't your normal Zero Waste Podcast with tips about crafting your garbage and stuffing everything into a jar? Oh wait, next week is about donating to TGCR who makes cool art with stuff that can't be recycled. Sustainability is complicated and as we say in Episode 1, Nothing Goes Away.

If you care about the planet and are the type of person who takes trash home with them to sort, you are the right audience for this podcast.

With world wide Covid-19 deaths in the millions, political upheaval, social unrest and a tumultuous economy, continuing the conversation about sustainability sometimes feels like some kind of privileged guilty pleasure. Michael and Maris discuss the struggles of the past year and the importance of talking about sustainability in order to engage listeners and unify our environmental efforts to slow down the impending climate catastrophe.

If plastic recycling is broken, why do we do it? It makes no sense financially or by any measure of success when it's a 90% failure rate. Even if it worked better, plastic can't be recycled more than 2-3 times before it falls apart so all we are doing is delaying the inevitable.

We invited Alex Truelove, Director of U.S. PIRG’s Zero Waste program, to discuss his recent article "The insanity of plastic recycling" where he points out that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is insane. Go to our website for show notes with full transcript and links to everything we talk about including a link to contact your Senator about the Break Free From Plastic Act.

We touch base with Zero Waste Trash Talk family member Jess Johnson to discuss her experiences with donations as a home organizer. In addition to asking what each organization is accepting before just dumping items on them, she finds out what they do with the items they can't use.

Then we have a chat with the amazing Leah Sherry from Turnip Green Creative Reuse. Her organization's goal is to divert usable materials from the landfill and from being recycled. Reuse is their mantra and their facility is an amazing resource for educators, artists and anyone doing any kind of project. If you donate but don't buy from thrift or reuse stores you are not participating in a sustainable system.