Trash Talk

8 episodes

Curated by:
User profile picmm

Waste. Garbage. Trash. There's way too much of it. Recycling might not be much better and could be worse. Then what's the solution and how do we play a part in it? Learn more about what happens when we throw things away. This history and future of trash is more complicated than it looks.


  • 1

    The Litter Myth

    Throughline

    35:48 | Sep 5th, 2019

    9 recommendations

    How one organization changed the American public's relationship with waste and who is ultimately responsible for it.

    mm recommended:

    This was so good. I’m so mad that how we learned to throw plastic in the garbage and not is due to corporate interests all around. All of our plastic consumption and behaviours were due to education c...Show More

  • 2

    We’re entering the biggest shopping season of the year. For many people, that means online shopping — packages piled on doorsteps, delivery cars and vans whipping down streets. But what do we do with...Show More

    mm recommended:

    Amazon’s plastic bubble wrap is wreaking havoc in the recycling system because it’s not recyclable. Amazon isn’t doing anything about the negative externalities and city governments are devolving the ...Show More

  • 3

    Should we burn our recycling?

    Today, Explained

    27:19 | Jan 3rd, 2020

    3 recommendations

    The vast majority of our plastic isn’t being recycled. It might be time to consider lighting it on fire. (Transcript here.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    mm recommended:

    Think that when you throw plastics in the recycling bin, you're doing good for the environment? Actually no. It's worse than dumping it in the trash. There's so much about recycling that I have to unl...Show More

  • 4

    341- National Sword

    99% Invisible

    41:13 | Feb 13th, 2019

    3 recommendations

    Where does your recycling go? In most places in the U.S., you throw it in a bin, and then it gets carted off to be sorted and cleaned at a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF). From there, much of it is ...Show More

    mm recommended:

    Garbage collection and recycling in America is made to be as invisible and least bothersome as possible making us ignorant to the issues with garbage and recycling. So what do we do? Purchase very exp...Show More

  • 5

    Plastisphere Ep.1: Welcome to the Plastisphere

    Plastisphere: Plastic pollution in the environment

    26:57 | Sep 2nd, 2018

    2 recommendations

    In this introduction to the Plastisphere podcast, Anja takes the listener on a journey back in time, from a remote plastic beach on the Big Island of Hawaii to the factory of a big chemical producer m...Show More

    mm recommended:

    Bioplastics sound recyclable and biodegradable, but it’s not unless it’s processed in very specific conditions in specialized plants. So they’re definitely not going to degrade naturally when it’s swi...Show More

  • 6

    The Problem With Banning Plastic Bags

    The Indicator from Planet Money

    09:54 | May 8th, 2019

    1 recommendation

    Plastic bags are no boon to the environment — but banning them might be worse.

    mm recommended:

    More people bought garbage bags with more plastic after California’s plastic bag ban plus how many times you need to use a cotton bag before you can offset the environmental costs. @yskevinhuang

  • 7

    The reuse and refill revolution

    People Fixing the World

    23:08 | Apr 23rd, 2019

    1 recommendation

    Should we reuse and refill plastic packaging to limit the amount being thrown away? Nick Holland looks at different ways people are trying to make this happen. One idea is to take used containers ba...Show More

    mm recommended:

    On-the-ground look at zero waste solutions and the challenges it faces when it comes to getting consumers and corporations to change their behaviours at scale.

  • 8

    Waste Land

    Planet Money

    24:02 | Sep 11th, 2020

    1 recommendation

    For 30 years, oil companies convinced the public that all their plastic trash could be, and would be, recycled, when they knew it wasn't true.

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