The Zero Waste Countdown Podcast: Recent Episodes
Laura Nash
Showcasing the best and brightest in the environmental community. Finding solutions that benefit the planet and the people.
Mushrooms have been eaten by people for thousands of years, or perhaps even longer. They are used as a healthy food source, as medicine, fire starter, meat replacement for vegans, and Ikea is even experimenting with using them as packaging! There is promising hope that certain types of mushrooms could help with cancer and mental health issues.
Denis Vidmar is a second-generation mushroom expert and enthusiast. He joins the Zero Waste Countdown to talk about staying healthy with mushrooms and his business TheMushHub.com .
Denis Vidmar From The Mush Hub
https://www.brianmuraresku.com/the-immortality-key
Rick Nahmias is the founder and CEO of Food Forward, an organization based in L.A. that addresses food waste and food insecurity. In July 2021 they had their biggest month on record with 7 million pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables recovered, helping to meet the food needs of 150,000 people.
Rick joins the show to talk about the growth of the organization over 9 years, how fresh fruit is recovered on such a large scale, and why Southern California and particularly L.A. is a hub for fresh fruit recovery.
Cuba is known as a beautiful tourist destination with colourful landscapes and beach resorts. But what is it like to live under a communist government? Is it better for the environment?
Daylin Horruitiner of Spanglish Generation is a Cuban American born in Cuba. She creates content that gathers attention to the plight of the Cuban people under such strict governing, and joins the Zero Waste Countdown to discuss what environmentalism looks like under a communist regime.
While the environmental movement in the West seems to insatiably tug further and further to the left, Daylin discusses the dangers in going too far to any side of the political spectrum. She explains environmental issues such as rolling blackouts, why the Cuban government imposed food rations that particularly targeted beef, and how environmental protests in Cuba are often organized by the government themselves in order to get foreign funding.
Lou Corbett works with plants in a cabin in the woods north of Toronto. She founded Northshore Apothecary where she sells her products, all made sustainably. She takes great care to ensure the natural environment around her is healthy, while creating products from the natural world that benefit us and our own health.
Lou joins the Zero Waste Countdown to talk about her processes, scent distillation, sustainable harvesting, and how we can use invasive species to our advantage.
Connecting with plants, whether that be through aromatherapy, food, bath soaks, creams, or even just learning about plants and choosing not to use them, can help us forge relationships with the outdoors and with our own health.
Check out her story on Instragram: @northshore_apothecary and if you'd like to buy one of Lou's wildcraft products for yourself or for a loved one, she gave us this discount code: WILDCRAFT10 to save 10%.
Julie Cielo is the founder of Ferm Fatale, a shrub kombucha mocktail company offered in sustainable packaging. She started Ferm Fatale to replace alcoholic drinks with something much healthier for our gut.
Julie walks us through her autoimmune journey that led her into taking control of her own health and wellness while giving us tips on how to do so ourselves.
She discusses the link between gut, body, and mind health and how we can keep all of them working together harmoniously in these difficult times. Coupon code ZEROWASTE20 to save 20% if you'd like to try Ferm Fatale.
NewLife Forest Restoration is a lumber manufacturer with sawmills located in Heber and Williams, Arizona. This lumber manufacturer prides itself on its Zero Waste Initiative and works closely with the U.S. Forest Service to ensure sustainable, healthy forests. Their mission is to protect Arizona from catastrophic wildfires by restoring the four national forests in Arizona to a healthier and more natural ecosystem.
Through their sustainable forestry approach, NewLife protects the health of the beautiful forestland and makes products such as animal bedding, wood chips, engineered wood and more while reducing the forests' ability to light up into forest fires. They are also creating skilled jobs in the area.
Jason Rosamond is the founder of NewLife Forest Restoration and he joins the Zero Waste Countdown to discuss his zero waste forestry initiatives.
Each year, 11 billion kilograms of dried green coffee is processed for export, but it's only a tiny portion of the plant. Over 45 billion kilograms of cascara (the fruity pulp that surrounds the coffee bean on the plant) is also produced, and 70% is thrown to waste.
Paul Evers has come up with a solution to mitigate coffee waste, support coffee farmers, and clean up the planet by using cascara for an energy drink called Riff.
If you'd like to try it, you can use discount code ZEROWASTE for 20% off within the United States at letsriff.com.
Aura 7 Activewear is made with recycled fibers from ghost fishing nets and other ocean waste. Their mission is to clean more seas and plant more trees by donating 1% of all revenues to Healthy Seas and with every purchase, a tree is planted with One Tree Planted. The Southern California brand became a celebrity favorite worn by Kristen Bell, Gabrielle Union, Jessica Alba, Lucy Hale, and Keke Palmer to name a few. Aura7 has been featured in VOGUE, Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, US Weekly, and The Zoe Report for revolutionizing the activewear industry by bringing in some much needed changes in sustainability.
Francisksa Bray-Mezey, Aura7 Founder
Francisksa Bray-Mezey is a yoga instructor, mother, and founder of Aura7 Activewear. She joins the Zero Waste Countdown to discuss her brand and the sustainability behind it.
Host Laura Nash wearing Aura7
Iryna Rosetti Pacheco spent many years as a chemist in the cleaning industry before developing a new cleaning product called Neatly, which comes without plastic packaging or harmful chemicals.
Her product is available on her shop's website Dew South, a zero waste shop based in Canada.
Sarah Midlane-Jones is the communications coordinator for Bay of Quinte Remedial Action Plan, an organization dedicated to keeping the water clean in the Bay of Quinte on the northern shore of Lake Ontario.
Photo of Moira River flowing into Bay of Quinte from https://www.greatlakesscuttlebutt.com/news/featured-destination/come-ashore-discover-the-bay-of-quinte-region/
For thousands of years rivers have been used around the world for waste removal. Cities would throw waste in and watch it head downstream where it's no longer their problem. Sadly this still happens all over the world today in developing countries. When the city of Belleville, on the north shore of Lake Ontario was settled and developed, a lot of waste ended up going down the Moira River into the Bay of Quinte. Locals here still remember when Zwick's Park was a landfill and the Bay of Quinte had a dirty reputation.
Fast forward to today and the landfill mound is a grassy hill, popular for tobogganing in the wintertime, with a few short pipes allowing any gases to escape. The water is closely monitored and usually safe for swimming. The Bay of Quinte is one of the best spots in the world for walleye fishing while turtles, ducks and swans are spotted on the surface.
BELLEVILLE, ONTARIO- AUGUST 1, 2013- South George Park. photo by Simon Wilson/ Canadian Press Images
The Bay of Quinte is an environmental success story and proof that we can restore our eco systems and waterways while continuing to grow our population in a sustainable way.
Canada has some of the most ethical and environmentally friendly processes for extracting and transporting oil and gas in the world, yet we've become a hotspot for pipeline protestors who often recruit indigenous people to strengthen their efforts. The truth is that not all indigenous people and groups oppose pipelines in Canada for many different reasons. We explore some of these reasons from an indigenous perspective, as well as the process Canada goes through to put a pipeline through or near indigenous land.
Melissa Mbarki is a Policy Analyst and Outreach Coordinator in the Indigenous Policy Program at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. She works in acquisition/divestment, environmental site assessments and abandonment/reclamation projects and has joins the Zero Waste Countdown to talk about pipelines on indigenous land.
Photo Source: https://www.commodityresearchgroup.com/us-canadian-pipelines-refineries-map-capp/
We discuss throughout this episode how pipelines are the safest mode of oil and gas transport and when environmental groups block them, it means we get our oil from countries with poor human rights and environmental records while increasing the number of dangerous rail cars and polluting diesel trucks.
Sunnking is an electronic waste recovery service in New York that recycles over 25 million pounds every year.
Adam Shine is the Vice President of Sunnking, one of the biggest electronic waste recyclers in the country.
Adam tells us how electronic recycling works, why it's so important, and what it takes to keep electronics out of landfill.
Evelina Lundqvist and Malin Leth host the Love Zero Waste Podcast and share what it's like living zero waste in Austria and Sweden.
There has been a gigantic increase in the demand for plastic food packaging since the Covid pandemic started.
Kevin Kelly is the CEO of Emerald Packaging, a family-owned plastic packaging company in the US. He's disturbed by the significant, increased demand in plastic packaging on food due to Covid. He's even been kicked out of Whole Foods for trying to bring his own grocery bags!
Kevin joins the Zero Waste Countdown to talk about the plastic packaging industry and what he feels we can do to reduce plastic waste while working with producers and consumers to come up with reasonable solutions.
Sahar Mansoor and Tim de Ridder are the co-authors of Bare Necessities: How to Live a Zero-Waste Life.
Sahar is also the founder and CEO of https://www.memphistours.com/India/india-travel-guide/festivals-in-india/wiki/festival-of-colors-in-india
Leonardo Alvarez is the Chief Executive Officer of Protera, a biotech company he founded in his early 20's alongside his colleague, now Chief Operating Officer Francia Navarrete.
Mr. Alvarez has a biotechnology engineering degree from Universidad Andres Bello in Santiago, Chile.
He joins the show to talk about how AI and biotech are helping to solve our food waste problem as well as our destructive addiction to palm oil. Palm Oil is approximately a $57 billion market, making it the largest commercialized edible oil in the world. This harvesting of palm oil for corporations to produce many household products can lead to mass deforestation and larger environmental issues that follow. Protera is working on solving this issue by developing a better alternative.
Early in 2021 Elon Musk offered $100M in prize money for new carbon capture technology and there's a company already using carbon capture tech: Aether Diamonds.
Aether Diamonds is taking that captured carbon from the air and turning it into diamonds, which also alleviates the need for massive diamond mine operations and conflict or blood diamonds.
Ryan Shearman is a mechanical engineer turned entrepreneur with a background in material science and over 10 years of professional experience in jewelry and tech. He joins the Zero Waste Countdown to tell us all about his company that makes diamonds from the air.
Liat Arad is the VP of Marketing for UBQ Materials, a company that's spent many years developing a patented process to convert unsorted waste -- everything from banana peels to yogurt containers to mixed plastics and paper -- to create a sustainable, plastic alternative that can be used in the production of everyday goods.
UBQ just unveiled the use of its material in a new sustainable McDonald's fast food tray, through a partnership with the world's largest McDonald's franchisee, Arcos Dorados. (See coverage of that partnership in Fast Company). The company has also struck deals with the State of Virginia and Daimler, among other notable customers.
Joshua M. Pearce, Ph.D., is the Richard Witte Professor of Materials Science & Engineering, Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Director of the Michigan Tech Open Sustainability Technology (MOST) Lab at Michigan Technological University. He's also the Visiting Professor of Photovoltaics and Nanoengineering at the School of Electrical Engineering at Aalto University, Finland, and the author of Create, Share, and Save Money Using Open-Source Projects.
His new book is a treasure trove of resources for anyone getting into 3D printing! How is this sustainable? Josh has figured out how to turn waste into high value products by using a plastic shredder for household plastic waste, and then he's built a recyclebot that turns that shredded plastic into filament for 3D printing.
A 3D printer can also be paired with a portable solar panel and operated anywhere in the world, an exciting implication for places with intermittent or no electrical grid at all.
Jussara Lee is a longtime fashion designer in New York City who came to New York to study fashion from Brazil and now focuses on fashion sustainability.
Jussara joins the Zero Waste Countdown to talk about overseas labour issues in fashion, organically grown fabrics, natural dying, and what the zero waste scene is like in New York with her friends and zero waste advocates Zero Waste Daniel and Lauren Singer.
Heather MacMillan from Heather's Hearth is a professional sourdough bread maker and educator, hosting sourdough classes around the Ottawa and Barry's Bay area (I took her course at MKC!).
Heather joins the Zero Waste Countdown to talk about the history of sourdough, fermentation, gut health, and lends us some tips and tricks for getting our own sourdough nice and tasty.
Sourdough bread is an important part of my family's zero waste lifestyle, because we keep the loaf in a cupboard upside down on a plate and use it for toast every morning with our own hen's eggs. We don't have to drive into town for bread and eggs, we don't have to buy bread in plastic bags or store the bread in plastic, and we don't have to ingest all those questionable ingredients that are listed on bread from the grocery store.
Madawaska Kanu Centre (MKC) west of Ottawa is a sustainable whitewater paddling school and resort, offering guests whitewater experiences, friendly staff, and incredible food.
Stefi Van Wijk is the third generation to run operations at MKC, and she joins the show to talk about resort sustainability, the special relationship the resort has with the upstream dam, and how whitewater is a powerful way to connect with nature.
Ronin Nash, pictured above, learned how to whitewater kayak at MKC in 2020 at age 9. He can't wait to go back this summer!
The Canadian federal government recently announced that it would order about 19 salmon farms closed in British Columbia (BC) but without any local community consultation. Farmed salmon is BC's number one agri-food export and provides thousands of tonnes of nutrients to people around the world, so why would they do this?
Michelle Franze is the Manager of Communications, Partnerships and Community at the BC Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA) and Co-Founder and Director of BCSFA Youth Council. She joins the ZWC to explain how fish farming works, why it's so sustainable, and the reasons behind the Canadian federal government's ordered shut down.
Caption: A team led by researchers at the University of Washington Tacoma, UW and Washington State University Puyallup have discovered a chemical that kills coho salmon in urban streams before the fish can spawn. Shown here Edward Kolodziej (left), an associate professor in both the UW Tacoma Division of Sciences & Mathematics and the UW Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering; Jenifer McIntyre (right), an assistant professor at WSU School of the Environment in Puyallup; and Zhenyu Tian (background), a research scientist at the Center for Urban Waters at UW Tacoma, are at Longfellow Creek, an urban creek in the Seattle area. Credit: Mark Stone/University of Washington
Coho Salmon have been dying off in urban areas of the Pacific Northwest for years. Scientists have been working hard to figure out why, but have thousands of chemicals to sort through that enter creeks through storm runoff.
Caption: A team led by researchers at the University of Washington Tacoma, UW and Washington State University Puyallup have discovered a chemical that kills coho salmon in urban streams before the fish can spawn. Shown here Zhenyu Tian (left), a research scientist at the Center for Urban Waters at UW Tacoma; Jenifer McIntyre (right), an assistant professor at WSU School of the Environment in Puyallup; and Edward Kolodziej (right, background), an associate professor in both the UW Tacoma Division of Sciences & Mathematics and the UW Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, are at Longfellow Creek, an urban creek in the Seattle area. Credit: Mark Stone/University of Washington
Edward P. Kolodziej is an Associate Professor at the University of Washington with a Civil and Environmental Engineering background and currently working at the Center for Urban Waters. He was part of a study that isolated the preservative compound 6PPD found in tires as the culprit responsible for killing coho salmon.
Edward joins the Zero Waste Countdown from Tacoma to tell us all about the study, why salmon are so important to the health of our ecosystems, how the culprit was found, and what we can do going forward to prevent salmon die-offs.
Caption: A preservative in vehicle tires keeps them from breaking down too quickly. 6PPD reacts with ozone and is transformed into multiple chemicals, including the toxic chemical the researchers found that is responsible for killing coho salmon. Credit: Mark Stone/University of Washington
2.7 million takeaway coffee cups are being sent to landfill in Australia each day. Luckily, Catherine Hutchins and Aniyo Rahebi founded a new startup called Good-Edi, making edible takeaway coffee cups to mitigate the problem of coffee cup waste.
The cups are made locally in Melbourne with the goal to one day provide edible cups to all of Australia. The cups are grain-based, vegan, and they take less than two weeks to break down.
Jocelyn Burzuik, President and Senior Construction Manager at Sundance Construction, joins the Zero Waste Countdown once again to talk about a very important issue here in Canada that she has lots of personal experience with: clean drinking water for First Nations and remote Canadian communities.
When treated water is filtered with chlorine it creates trihalomethanes (THMs), causing problems for northern communities that lead to people bathing in bottled water to avoid rashes, and sometimes people need flights into bigger cities with hospitals for treatment. We also see antibiotics being prescribed to combat H. pylori which leads to antibiotic resistance in our communities.
But can't we just drill a well and be good to go? It's not so simple. Even where I live, drilling a well for one family was complicated, problematic, and expensive. Drilling to get enough water for a whole community in the north is much more complicated and expensive when we add in the costs of getting equipment to remote places. UV with ultrasonics could be the answer.
Jocelyn discusses identity politics and how the Canadian government divides people up by race, which ends up with some communities not being able to share their federal infrastructure with other communities.
Extra Reading:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/attawapiskat-water-quality-emergency-1.5204652
https://canadians.org/analysis/attawapiskat-water-crisis-another-failure-federal-government-provide-safe-water-first-nations
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/h-pylori/symptoms-causes/syc-20356171
Jocelyn Burzuik is the President and Senior Construction Manager of Sundance Construction in Manitoba, and when it comes to her new housing development, affordability is directly related to sustainability!
Jocelyn combines her Metis heritage and First Nations concepts of community, with the physical housing designs of Icelandic culture, to build a northern Canadian neighbourhood built with wellbeing and sustainability at the forefront.
While housing developments often go up as fast as possible after a forest clearcut for the most profit possible, Jocelyn is building within nature, and using affordable designs specifically tuned to our northern climate for best efficiency, and affordability for demographics such as retirees and single parents. Concepts that promote maximum wellness and sustainable longevity for the home buyers is Jocelyn's top priority.
Canadians pay a lot of taxes and have a lot of expenses. Far too many Canadians are struggling with poverty and have very high electricity bills, our phone bills are some of the highest in the world, and our internet is expensive.
Our cities and towns were built in the spirit of American-style car culture that makes it difficult to walk anywhere. Much of these cities were designed as urban sprawl and we have to brave a 60 degree Celsius weather variation that goes from freezing cold to very hot in the summertime. It's expensive to live near our workplaces, in large part because our government allows for so much foreign real estate ownership and our immigration rates are so high, so many people get pushed out of city centres and need a vehicle to access food and employment.
The last time I was in France, a bottle of wine was 1/4 the price of the same bottle purchased in Canada, and we have to import a lot of our fresh fruit, nuts, and berries from places like Mexico, Chile, Peru, and California because it's too cold and dark to grow a lot of food here. Transporting fresh food into Canada take a lot of fossil fuels, although we do have fresh food grown during the wintertime in massive greenhouses that require lighting and heating, and our prairie provinces are star producers of many grains. We receive giant cargo ships of goods in Vancouver and Montreal from overseas that are loaded onto trains and trucks and delivered all over our massive country. Not only is it expensive to live in Canada, but we are completely dependent on oil and gas.
Dan McTeague spent 18 years in the Canadian House of Commons as a Liberal Member of Parliament and is currently the president of affordableenergy.ca. He joins the Zero Waste Countdown to talk about the trouble with Canada's carbon tax that was forced upon unwilling provinces who didn't come up with their own carbon pricing scheme. The results have not been pretty. In fact, the argument can be made that the carbon tax takes money from the poor, and gives it to the rich. For example $12M from a "climate fund" was given to the 2nd richest family in Canada to buy new fridges, and the Ontario government used to hand out up to $14,000 to wealthy people who can afford the $137,900 Tesla Model X.
I mentioned in this episode a CBC article that says the carbon tax reduces emissions. You'll notice the title is "Scheer says British Columbia's carbon tax hasn't worked. Expert studies say it has". Many people only read headlines as they scroll through social media, but when you actually read this article, it shows one year of decreased emissions then uses the excuse that population increase should erase emissions increase. Juggling data around like this is how you can lie with statistics to say whatever you like.
The CBC article says emissions have dropped in other places that have implemented a carbon tax but fails to mention any increase in efficient technology. Further in the article the CBC repeats the tagline that "most" families will get back more than they pay in carbon tax, but the trouble with using obscure words like "most" is that there's no proof, no data, and no concrete evidence.
I claim it is false that "most" families receive a bigger rebate than what they pay to the government in carbon and fuel taxes, because the carbon tax on my transportation costs is more than double my rebate, without even considering the increase in food prices and propane prices (propane heats my water and while I have an electric heat pump to heat my home, propane is required for temperatures lower than about minus 15 Celsius). If you scroll down to the bottom of the article you will see CBC felt compelled to issue a correction that the carbon tax is revenue neutral, which falls in line with what Mr. McTeague is saying, that this is just another tax that fills the coffers of greedy politicians. When you compare the title of this CBC article with the actual content, it's misleading.
Here's an article from a trustworthy source that contradicts the CBC article claiming the carbon tax reduced emissions in BC: https://www.taxpayer.com/newsroom/b.c.-emissions-up-despite-carbon-tax?id=18615. They are quoting data from the Sierra Club who explains that due to cherry picking certain data fields, BC emissions are actually 4 times higher than what they're actually reporting, so if we aren't scrutinizing this data ourselves, how do we know the truth?
Personally I'm not sure what to think with all this contradictory and politically motivated information, but it seems that emissions in BC were higher in 2015 than in 2010, indicating that emissions in BC have increased despite the carbon tax. The BC government cherry picked data to show emissions decreased by purposely leaving out BC's energy exports (coal!), and their forestry industry, demonstrating how easy it is to lie with statistics.
There are many factors to consider for increases and decreases in Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGs), such as new tech, government policies, markets, international relations, immigration, and a worldwide pandemic. If you don't know which factors were included in the charts that show increasing or decreasing emissions, you really can't tell if the article you're reading is true or not. You can see here on BC's government site the different emission charts, and you can see coal mining does have a chart, but I doubt this includes the actual usage of that coal in other countries.
You can basically say GHGs have gone up or down, depending on which information you want to cherry pick to make your argument. This is why we need to be weary of data, statistics, and even news sources we have grown up trusting, because they often have an agenda.
It's up to you, the listener, to look into the information you see, hear, and read, but I know that can be exhausting. I'm trying to uncover the truth on my show so that we can go forward making the greenest policies that work best for people, and not just line the pockets of wealthy politicians and their friends while plummeting honest working class citizens into poverty.
Extra references:
Billions could be missing from the new file of the previous Minister of Climate Change Catherine McKenna
Covid models have been wildly wrong, and so too can climate models
SNC Lavalin is very involved in Canada's nuclear industry, but remember the SNC Lavalin scandal even The Simpson's talked about?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHiQg9eadPA SNC Lavalin has done some very unethical things
Trudeau fired our first indigenous female Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould when she questioned the government's ethics over the SNC Lavalin scandal
Is SNC Lavalin trustworthy enough to be handling our nuclear waste and nuclear reactors in Canada?
Oysters from Chesapeake Bay, Library of Congress
Oysters are little nutritional bombshells. They're packed with vitamins, minerals, protein, fatty acids, and particularly of note during Covid: Vitamin D and Zinc. More than 80% of hospitalized Covid patients were found to be lacking Vitamin D, and those with low zinc levels tended to fair worse with the virus than those with healthy levels.
Solar Oysters has designed a solar powered barge that will farm oysters vertically through the water column in the Chesapeake Bay area. Elizabeth Hines is the Vice President of Maritime Applied Physics Corporation engineering firm that's working on the design.
While solar panels aren't usually the best option for electricity grids, due to their intermittency and need for fossil fuel or nuclear backup, off-grid solar panels produce clean, free energy once built and installed. Oysters are a sustainable source of protein and nutrients that require little inputs.
Justen Garrity founded Veteran Compost over a decade ago after his military service. The company focuses on two things:
- Employing veterans and their family members; and
- Turning food scraps into high-quality compost.
Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans have an unemployment rate that exceeds the national average. That means that a combat vet has a harder time getting a job than the average person. Justen is not only compassionate about helping veterans, he's also helping the environment significantly by reducing landfill and making an eco friendly compost for healthy soils.
https://www.veterancompost.com/
Susanne Khün holding up a fulmar Susanne Khün has a Ph.D from Wageningen Marine Research in the Netherlands where she has put years of research into her thesis called "Message in a belly - Plastic pathways in fulmars".
Tune in to hear all about Susanne's research on whether seabirds are ingesting plastic from fish, what's happening with toxicants from plastic once in their guts, and how ships are contributing to a fulmar's diet.
There's even some really good news about plastic pollution in the North Sea you won't want to miss!
Scott Coffin has a Ph.D in environmental toxicology from the University of California Riverside and works for the California State Water Resources Control Board.
Scott has done many studies on toxicants in plastic that involve some fascinating scientific techniques. He found that estrogen receptors are being activated by many different toxicants in plastic, not just BPA, and discusses how this is not only worrisome for fish populations but also for humans.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3404660/
For this year's holiday episode I've collaborated with three sustainable Canadian companies with eco friendly gift ideas for the holiday season!
Dave O'Connor from Genuine Tea won best tea in Toronto in the Now Reader's Choice Awards and offers high quality teas without plastic tea bags, as well as a new line of ready to drink teas.
Madeleine Tan (pictured below with her sister) from the Rose Company in Vancouver offers a number of sustainably packaged self care products and has offered the discount code ZEROWASTECOUNTDOWN for 20% off your online purchase.
Kathryn Hogan is the founder of KMH Touches, a company offering silk and vegan dental floss that's plastic and PFAS free, so good for your body and good for the planet.
Lisa Zimmermann is a Ph.D researcher in the Department Aquatic Ecotoxicology at Goethe University Frankfurt and part of the PlastX Research Group.
She recently conducted a study that was published in September 2020 called: Are bioplastics and plant-based materials safer than conventional plastics? In vitro toxicity and chemical composition.
Lisa discusses what she found in the study, and the implications those findings have on our choices as a consumer when it comes to packaging. She was also featured on episode 102. Toxins In Our Plastic Products.
Further comments from Lisa after recording:
1) On the question whether plants can contain toxins:
Yes, some plants naturally produce toxins, e.g., as a natural defense mechanism against predators, insects or microorganisms. In a usual balanced, healthy diet, the levels of natural toxins are well below the threshold for acute and chronic toxicity. For instance potatoes contain solanines and chaconine but especially in the sprouts and green parts, that are not eaten nor used to extract starch for bio-based plastics. Compared to these single natural compounds, in the production process of conventional and bioplastics many synthetic compounds are intentionally added (e.g. additives) or get unintentionally in the product (e.g. reaction products). Some of these might be toxic at certain concentrations.
2) On how the study transfers to human health:
The results of the study cannot be transferred on humans directly. Reasons include that in vitro tests were performed. Here isolated cells are used that can give first hints of effects but don’t reflect the complexity in the human body. Besides, the study examined the intrinsic chemical toxicity present in the products. In a next step, migration studies with food simulants are needed in order to identify the toxicity and chemicals migrating under real-world conditions and to estimate the human exposure to those. Thus, the study is a first step and demonstrate that the chemical mixtures contained in the analyzed plastic product have the potential to be toxic to human health (if exposure concentrations are high enough).
Paul Acchione is an engineer and management consultant in Ontario who has worked in the nuclear and fossil fuel industries for over 48 years and has a wealth of knowledge about how nuclear power works, how nuclear waste is stored here in Canada, and the benefits nuclear power brings to an electricity grid.
Darlington Nuclear Power Station
We discuss how public opinion of nuclear energy has changed over time during his career, the current issues around renewables, and why it's unlikely we can save the Pickering nuclear station here in Ontario, which means one of the cleanest grids in the world is about to get a lot dirtier.
According to Hazel Technologies, the U.S. wastes more than 25 billion pounds of post-harvest fruits and vegetables annually, which amounts to over $86B in wasted resources.
Aidan Mouat is the CEO of Hazel Technologies, and they have developed small biodegradable packaging inserts that are dropped into boxes of avocados during shipping. By time-releasing temporary ethylene blockers, Hazel's tech slows the fruit's aging process. The USDA-supported solution is entirely atmospheric, does not touch the produce, and leaves no residue. Further, the technology has been tested by the country's top agricultural universities (UC Davis, Cornell, Oregon State).
Hazel has more than 150 customers (across 12 countries) which include Zespri (the world's largest kiwi distributor, based in New Zealand), Oppy (Canada's largest produce distributor), and many more. Hazel's tech is projected to be used with 3.2 billion pounds of fresh produce in 2020, preventing more than 270 million pounds from going to waste.
The Olio sharing app from the UK is reporting record numbers of users sharing food and other items during the Covid pandemic.
Tessa Clarke joins the Zero Waste Countdown to share food waste statistics and explain how her sharing app works with over 2 million users.
Emily Thorn Cortha is founder & president of Thorn Associates, an energy and carbon management consulting corporation, and one of Canada’s top industrial energy efficiency experts. She joins the ZWC to discuss how our electricity grid works in Ontario - it's actually very clean!
Emily currently chairs the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers’ (OSPE’s) Energy Task Force and is a past elected director of the Board of OSPE. She is also co-founder and chair of the Board of Directors of StepUp, an organization dedicated to breakthrough energy management performance through improved gender equity, and past director of Energy Optimization and Management at Hatch Ltd., an international engineering consulting firm.
A laureate of the 2018 RelèveTO Young Professional Award and the 2020 International Energy Engineer of the Year Award, Emily has been a project manager, technical reviewer, and energy engineer for over 70 energy projects, resulting in over $100 million in implemented energy savings.
One of five Canadian instructors for the Certified Energy Manager course, and a Certified Measurement and Verification professional with a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Emily has been featured in a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) video, on Radio Canada and on multiple podcasts. She has published 10 articles in respected journals such as Chemical Engineering Progress and has been a keynote speaker at multiple energy conferences.
Lauren Gregor is the founder of Rent A Romper based in LA, which is a monthly clothing subscription service for young children who tend to grow out of their clothing extremely quickly.
Lauren joins the ZWC to talk about the environmental benefits of a clothing subscription model for kids, as well as the convenience for busy parents with growing children.
Zion Lights is the UK Director for a group called Environmental Progress, which is a research and policy organization fighting for clean power and energy justice to achieve nature and prosperity for all.
She was previously a spokesmen for Extinction Rebellion, and she’s the author of the book: The Ultimate Guide to Green Parenting, she’s written for the Huffington Post, and you can find her Ted Talk on YouTube here.
We discuss the value of nuclear power, and why it's important to talk with people you may not agree with.
Dr. Denise Hardesty is a principal researcher at CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere in Hobart, Tasmania. She's done extensive research over the years on marine plastic debris by studying sea birds, sea turtles, and waste reduction campaigns.
We discuss what happens when certain marine animals digest plastic, whether it's safe for us to eat seafood that contains plastic, and what it's like to be a distinguished scientist in the field of marine debris research.
Bob Powell is the CEO of Brightmark, a disruptive and innovative company based in San Francisco who's turning plastic waste into Renewable Natural Gas (RNG), while also recycling all types of plastic.
For this “Call for Plastic Waste” - Brightmark is working to procure 1,200,000 tons per year of ALL post-use plastic types 1 through 7 from the Eastern half of the United States for recycling at its existing and soon-to-be-built plastics renewal plants nationwide.
Brightmark’s Ashley, Indiana plastics renewal facility, where the plastic will be processed and transformed, is the nation’s first commercial-scale plastics-to-fuel plant. The financing for the facility includes $185 million in Indiana green bonds, which were underwritten by Goldman Sachs.
BEYONDPLASTIC has announced the 2020 award winners to those who have come up with viable alternatives to plastic pollution.
Ulrich Krzyminski is the founder of BEYONDPLASTIC and he joined the ZWC to tell us all about the award program and the 2020 winners.
The BEYONDPLASTIC Award honours the innovation and creativity in sustainable product and packaging design in four categories:
I. Most practical impact II. Most innovative approach III. Most beautiful solution IV. Best Initiative
For each category there is a Gold, Silver and Bronze Award with trophies and cash prizes of more than 7,000 Euros in total.
BEYONDPLASTIC received over 100 entries in total from 30 countries around the world. Students, designers, charities and businesses all took part to create a world with less plastic. You can find out more about the 85 nominated entries by clicking here.
Lisa Zimmerman is a Ph.D researcher in the Department Aquatic Ecotoxicology at Goethe University Frankfurt and part of the PlastX Research Group.
She conducted a study called Benchmarking the in Vitro Toxicity and Chemical Composition of Plastic Consumer Products. Lisa and her team took 34 products from German supermarkets like food containers, a water bottle, and a shampoo bottle, and cut them into pieces, then used an organic solvent to determine the toxic chemicals in the plastic packaging.
Lisa discussed the findings of her study, how it was conducted, and provided us some insight into what we can do to avoid harmful substances that may be in contact with our food. We discuss bioplastics, and how they might not be as healthy as we think, and I got to ask Lisa if it's true that plastic can act as a sponge by absorbing toxins.
The Study: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b02293
Plastx Group: http://www.plastx.org/https://www.facebook.com/PlastX-1735826773399950/?fref=nf
Michael Shellenberger joins the ZWC to talk about his new bestselling book Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All.
We discuss the problem of ocean plastic, highlighted in his book, but from an unusual angle - some animals have been saved from human hunting because plastic has replaced valuable animal parts. While we know plastic waste is a big problem, Michael has found some intriguing information about ocean plastic through his research.
Bernadette from the Congo, one of the featured women in Michael's new book
The main focus of the book is how development and progress ultimately saves the environment. We can save wild spaces by using cleaner energy, advanced technology, and therefore put less pressure on wildlife and wild lands. We discuss the hierarchy of energy which starts at wood, (even whale oil at one point!), coal, liquid natural gas, and finally nuclear. As we go up the ladder in clean energy, will it be possible for developing nations to skip the dirtier stages and go right to the cleanest energy, which is nuclear?
Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Station, California
Why are people so against nuclear, and what about all that nuclear waste? What about the bomb?
Tune in and listen to one of the biggest names in the environment discuss science, ideas, and personal experiences in his new book, Apocalypse Never.
Suparti, who worked at the Barbie factory in Philippines
Michael Shellenberger, Founder and President of Environmental Progress
The Breakthrough Institute
Christian Shaw is one of the founders of PlasticTides.org, an organization that matches youth interested in sustainability with mentors from around the world. His goal is to combine adventure and science through SUP (stand up paddle board) expeditions, researching ocean plastics with a device they tow behind their boards.
We discuss how to get youth involved, as well as SUP (stand up paddle boarding), and how getting out on the water for an adventure helps people care about these natural places.
There's still room to sign up students for the 2020/2021 season!
Find out more:
Plastic Tides
The Microbead-Free Waters Act
Anato
Bad Fish SUP
Glass is very popular in the zero waste world. We know it's BPA free, and we know it's not going to end up as microplastic in our environment, or leaking out into our hot beverages. But glass is difficult to recycle, it's expensive to collect and reuse glass bottles, and glass is easily breakable. How can we increase recycling and reuse rates of glass?
Ionut Georgescu is the CEO of a non-profit called End of Waste Foundation, a blockchain service platform that's funded by environmentally conscious citizens and businesses. The funds are used to develop new technologies and offset costs associated with glass recycling.
Ionut has been a waste management expert for more than 15 years, he's worked closely with the European Commission as a Waste Director for the Romanian Ministry of Environment, and as the Chief of Staff of the President of the United Nations Environment Program.
Cora Young is an atmospheric and analytical environmental chemist from York University in Toronto. Chemical and News Engineering Magazine has named her to the Talented 12 list, which recognizes up-and-coming chemistry researchers and innovators who are tackling some of the world’s most pressing issues.
Cora went to the Arctic on a scientific research trip to take samples and found forever chemicals PFAS (per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances) in the Arctic.
CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbons) as an aerosol propellant were banned when we discovered they were breaking apart our planet’s ozone layer, but they were replaced with other forever chemicals that can cause problems as well. These chemicals keep getting replaced again and again as we discover the damages they are causing.
Cora and Laura discuss ways to reduce using these forever chemicals in everyday items around our home.
CEO of Pika Diapers Alon Cohen joins the ZWC to talk about his company's new diaper washing machine, making it easier for parents to use cloth instead of disposable diapers.
Rich Razgaitis is the co-founder and CEO of FloWater, a company determined to stop the horrific flow of plastic from bottled water into our environment.
Find out why Rich says bottled water is the new cigarette, and how his machines are filtering out tap water problems to bring the cleanest drinking water in the world to where we work, rest, and play.
You may not eat seafood, but for nearly a billion people worldwide, seafood is their primary source of protein.
Teresa Ish is the Program Officer for the Environment Program at the Walton Family Foundation and an advocate for sustainable fisheries.
The Mississippi River is the 4th longest in the world, and the 3rd largest watershed, stretching from as far away as Montana and draining into the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana. Part of the watershed is even in Canada, in the southern provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta! The watershed is a water source for millions of people and many different species in the U.S.
Moira McDonald is the Interim Environmental Program Director for the Walton Family Foundation and an expert in wetlands. She joins the ZWC to talk about conservation efforts on the Mississippi and the current projects happening with the foundation. Moira is committed to a world that's both good for people, and the environment.
Environmental talk show host and producer Betsy Rosenberg started her career at KCBS San Francisco and became a network news anchor and started a Trash Talk segment back in 1997, offering waste reduction tips on the CBS network.
In 2004 she expanded into America's first syndicated sustainability show on commercial radio, Eco Talk Radio, and has interviewed some of the biggest names in the environmental movement such as Al Gore, Bernie Sanders, John Kerry, and David Suzuki.
Betsy currently lives in Austin, Texas with her husband.
Kathryn Kellogg is the founder of Going Zero Waste a lifestyle website dedicated to helping others live a healthier and more sustainable life. She’s a spokesperson for plastic-free living for National Geographic, Chief Sustainability Officer at the One Movement, and author of 101 Ways to Go Zero Waste which breaks eco-friendly, sustainable living down into an easy step by step process with lots of positivity and love.
Kathryn joined Laura from her home in San Francisco to discuss what she's been up to since her first book and had a surprising announcement for us - a second book is coming out soon!
Elsbeth Callaghan hosts and produces the Practical(ly) Zero Waste Podcast and funny enough, she lives an hour and a half away from Laura!
Elsbeth and Laura talk about the difficulties of trying to live a zero waste lifestyle during COVID, what it's like living so close to each other, and what got Lisbeth into the zero waste movement.
You can listen to her podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast app.
David Hill joins the ZWC to talk about the company he works for, Power Knot, and how their machines digest food waste in a matter of hours, saving companies money and time, but most importantly, the environment!
Cannabis Digester
Power Knot America
Power Knot Canada
Garik Himebaugh is the founder of Eco-Stylist.com, a marketplace for sustainable men's fashion. Garik joins the ZWC to discuss fast fashion, price per wear, the benefits of tailoring, how to choose sustainable brands, and even Billie Eilish!
Check out Garik's fantastic blog on sustainability in the fashion world here: Eco-Stylist Blog
Zack Kong has designed the first and only compostable alternative to single-use plastic utensils you can compost in your own backyard. His new company, based in San Diego, is called TwentyFifty named after the year 2050 - the year the population is projected to reach 10 billion and when it’s estimated that the amount of plastic waste in the ocean will exceed the amount of fish. Zack's brand has one mission: to stop, or at least significantly reduce, plastic pollution.
Max La Manna is the author of the new book: More Plants Less Waste, bridging the gap between vegan food and waste-free cooking.
Max is on a mission to turn the tide on plastic waste while eating healthy, and saving money. His cookbook offers 80 recipes with stories and photos in between.
Ashwin Ramdas cofounded Denver's first zero waste grocery delivery service in October 2019 and joins the ZWC to talk about his journey.
Beer is a fermented, antimicrobial, sustainable beverage that has been consumed for thousands of years. Daniel MacKinnon sat down with Laura to discuss sustainable beer making practices on his Canadian farm that's been in his family since 1784, using their own barley and local hops, and they take care of their waste responsibly.
Right from the growing process to the reusable kegs being sanitized for decades of reuse, beer can be a sustainable beverage from start to finish.
Every year the MacKinnon farm hosts a large party for thousands of people, that also operates with minimal waste.
Dana O’Brien, Executive VP of Food and Agriculture at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, and Andy LaVigne, President and CEO of the American Seed Trade Association discuss the biotech industry from an environmental perspective.
Andy LaVigne, President and CEO of the American Seed Trade Association
Dana O’Brien, Executive VP of Food and Agriculture at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization
Biotech is important for feeding the world with nutrients, mitigating food waste, and developing crops that are more resilient for climate change.
Riggs Eckelberry is the founder and CEO of the water technology company, OriginClear, which is delivering water solutions for industrial customers worldwide. OriginClear has developed and licensed an invention that treats industrial and agricultural waste water with very little energy, and no chemicals. Industrial users can treat their water right where they use it, using prepackaged “point of use” water treatment systems that have a life cycle of up to 100 years or more.
Riggs is driving the disruption of the trillion-dollar big water industry that has fallen behind the times and is affecting the health of millions. Our billion-dollar centralized water systems aren’t coping with demand, and water quality is getting worse, but the solution is for businesses to do their own water treatment, using modular, prefabricated systems that are trucked right on site. They get better water quality, lower rates through recycling, and even improved environmental grades. Ten years after launching public company OriginClear, Riggs and his team are offering those truck-in-place modular systems in the USA, while licensees are building products internationally using OriginClear’s low-energy, chemical-free innovation.
Matt Daigle joins the ZWC to talk about his company Rise, a place where we can see home rebates and incentives from every province and state across America!
We talk about sustainability in New Brunswick, construction waste, efficient choices for renovations, and what it takes to become a Certified B Corp.
What does fermentation have to do with zero waste living? Quite a bit, actually! Fermenting foods allows us to store and preserve fresh local food so we can eat healthy and reduce the packaging we'd otherwise need to buy.
Sandor Katz is a native of New York City and a graduate of Brown University, currently living in Cannon County, Tennessee. Since 2003 when Sandor's book Wild Fermentation was published, he's taught hundreds of fermentation workshops and has empowered others to reclaim this important transformational process. The New York Times calls Sandor “one of the unlikely rock stars of the American food scene.” His latest book, The Art of Fermentation (2012), received a James Beard award and was a finalist at the International Association of Culinary Professionals.
Scott Cooney is the Founder and CEO of Pono Home Essentials, an organic zero waste company born on Oahu that has recently expanded to Las Vegas, and the energy efficiency company Pono Home in Hawaii.
His mission is to reduce waste and teach the world (not just Hawaii) on how to live in a healthier and greener home. Pono Home Essentials has a unique zero waste mission for customers to return their empty product bottles to use and Pono Home Essentials will BUY them back (this also helps customers recycle more while reducing waste).
Scott discusses the current litter situation in Hawaii, what it's like being sustainable in the middle of the ocean, and how his company operates without waste.
Chloe Debois, co-founder and president of Ocean Legacy Foundation, joins the ZWC to talk about her work cleaning up beaches and shorelines around the world.
They recently released a program called E.P.I.C.- Education, Policy, Infrastructure & Cleanup - a management strategy aimed to support ecologically sensitive areas and communities that are in a plastic pollution crisis.
John Morris lives in Hong Kong and hosts his own podcast called Zero Waste Money. John gives us a glimpse into Hong Kong through a zero waste perspective and discusses his own personal purchases, and the cultural aspects of Hong Kong and waste.
Coffee cup litter is a big problem in Canada and almost all municipal recycling facilities in Canada do not accept coffee cups in blue bins, because there's a thin layer of PET plastic on the inside of the paper cup to make it waterproof. There's a company who does recycle them though, and produces products made of recycled paper.
Renée Yardley is the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Sustana Group, who produces sustainable, recycled fibres and paper products. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce and MBA from McGill University, and an M.A. in General Management from Harvard University.
Renée joined the ZWC in Philadelphia at the Sustainable Brands New Metrics conference in November 2019 to discuss the world of recycled paper and fibres.
More and more companies are reporting on sustainability and some stock exchanges around the world even require it to be listed. Alyson Genovese from Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) sat down with Laura at the Sustainable Brands Metrics conference in Philadelphia to discuss sustainability reporting, why it matters, and why it's gaining in popularity across the world.
This episode was recorded at the Sustainable Brands Metrics conference in Philadelphia 2019.
Music Credits: Open Those Bright Eyes Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Do you ever visit a city you've never been to before, and wonder how sustainable they are? One of the first things I do when I go to a new city is Google the city name plus "zero waste" to see if there are any zero waste shops!
Philadelphia didn't have one November 2019 when I was there, but I met Julie Hancher who cofounded Green Philly and hosts City Rising Podcast and got to hear all about Philadelphia's efforts to be a sustainable city with many different initiatives.
Glass has been used to transport and store goods for thousands of years, and Egyptian glass is still around today that was used during the time of the pharaohs. Unfortunately we live in a time where companies prefer to produce and pay for new glass bottles instead of collecting, washing, and using the bottles they already bought.
Rebecca Davies is one of the founders of Remark Glass operating out of the Bok Building in Philadelphia, and she sat down with Laura at the Sustainable Brands Metrics conference and took her on a tour of the Bok building. Rebecca and the team at Remark Glass are leading the way to sustainable glass by repurposing bottles otherwise bound for landfill, and they are a certified zero waste studio.
Beer bottles in Canada are reused an average of 15 times in Ontario.
Laura sat down with John Lanier, the Executive Director of the Ray C. Anderson Foundation, at the Sustainable Brands Metrics event in Philadelphia.
The foundation supports and funds projects that ensure future generations inherit a world where healthy and functioning natural systems support all life. John is the grandson of Ray C. Anderson, so he talks about his grandfather's business, the book they wrote, and some of the projects the foundation is currently involved in.
Fats, oil, and grease (FOG) are a major problem for municipal systems around the world when they clog pipes and sewer systems and cost tax payers millions of dollars to clean up.
Brian Levine joins the ZWC to talk about how his company Greasezilla is filtering out this waste before it enters problem areas and converting that waste to useful biofuel.
We even talk about the future potential for tankers and cruise ships to use their own FOG waste for power! This would ultimately save FOG from being dumped in landfills and the ocean, while saving on dirty bunker fuel needed to operate massive ships, even if just while in port.
Bloomberg writer Adam Minter takes readers through a series of stories from around the world, of people whose lives revolve around the thriving secondhand industry, in his new book Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade.
Adam lives with his wife and son in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.
Find on Amazon
Darryl James, the bassist for the award-winning Canadian band The Strumbellas, joins the ZWC to talk about the challenges of staying sustainable while on tour, playing shows all over the world, and having a busy schedule in the music industry.
The Strumbellas won the Juno Award for Single of the Year in 2017, and the Juno Award for Roots and Traditional Album of the Year in 2014.
When companies have a product or service to sell, they focus on that product or service and may not have the time or knowledge to manage their waste streams too, and that's where Elytus comes in.
Matthew Hollis is the co-founder and president of Elytus, a sustainable waste technology company that has partnered with big brands to save them over $11 million dollars, and conserve over 20 million trees.
Elytus uses proprietary software to audit and improve all facets of a brand's waste streams (solid food, oil/grease, recyclables, and others), and is an innovative waste management company that helps clients save time & money on waste removal while becoming more sustainable in the process. Additionally, Matt has renovated his company headquarters to be a totally zero-waste facility.
Martin Stephan, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, CARBIOS, Clermont-Ferrand, FRANCE
Martin Stephan is the Deputy CEO of Carbios, a French biotech startup developing a biological solution to be able to fully recycle plastics.
Carbios’ technology leverages enzymes that fully break down PET plastic waste, and successfully produce consumer-grade, 100% recycled plastic as a result. The process enables an infinite recycling loop for waste, and accepts all forms of PET plastic, (e.g. soda bottles, colored plastics, polyester).
For context, these forms of plastic generally fall victim to landfills, or spill over into our oceans. Major corporations, such as L’Oreal, Nestle, and PepsiCo, each recognize the value of Carbios’ tech and have all entered into a four-year consortium with the company.
Dr. Melanie Bergman, from the HGF-MPG Group for Deep-Sea Ecology and Technology at Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung joins the ZWC to talk about her recent study showing that microplastic is now in our atmosphere.
Studying snow samples near cities, up in the Arctic, and in the Alps, Dr. Bermann and her team have demonstrated that microplastic is migrating through our air. In 1998 microplastic was found in human lung tissue but we don't exactly know what it's doing to our lungs. Plastic production has significantly increased since then and plastic air pollution is only going to get worse.
Teflon is all over the ocean floor too, and it's not healthy for us, so it's a good time to use cast iron or stainless steel cooking pans just in case it's getting into our oceans through our kitchen sinks, although this pathway hasn't been studied.
For more on Dr. Bergmann, you can read about her study here: https://www.awi.de/en/about-us/service/press/press-release/microplastic-drifting-down-with-the-snow.html
Episode Music Credits: Open Those Bright Eyes Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Denise Braun is the Principal and Founder of All About Waste. She currently lives in LA but is originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil, and she focuses on improving buildings to be more liveable, which includes zero waste operation and certification.
Living in Brazil, Denise began organizing beach cleanups and began researching ocean currents to find out why so much plastic pollution from Asia was ending up on her Brazilian beaches. Her environmental activism work led her to jobs in the sustainability field where today she's providing WELL Certification, Fitwel Certification, Healthy Materials Consulting, Sustainability Workshops, and Corporate Program Development.
"Trash is directly related to issues around greenhouse gas emissions and social equity", says Denise, and in San Francisco that's a big issue. She's helped certify the world's largest zero waste building there and recommends Americans visit the following websites to show support for waste issues in California:
California SB54 https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB54
https://www.cawrecycles.org/sb-54-ab-1080-bill-page
Episode Music Credits: Open Those Bright Eyes Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
In August 2019 Swedish icebreaker Oden conducted a research expedition to the Northwest Passage. Disturbingly, what they found in ice core samples in the Arctic, was plastic.
Hear from scientist Jacob Strock from the University of Rhode Island's Oceanography Department about the research expedition, what they found, and what it means for all of us.
Episode Music Credits: Open Those Bright Eyes Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
David Rachelson is the Vice President of Sustainability at Rubicon Global and he works with businesses of all sizes, municipalities, and smart cities to find solutions to their waste.
Rubicon Global is a technology company that powers a digital marketplace, provides a suite of SaaS products for waste, recycling, and smart city solutions, and collects and analyzes data for businesses and governments worldwide. Using technology to help turn businesses into more sustainable enterprises and neighborhoods into greener and smarter places to live and work, Rubicon’s mission is to end waste in all of its forms by helping its partners find economic value in their waste streams and confidently execute on their sustainability goals. The company is a Certified B Corporation, affirming that Rubicon meets the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance. Through its technology, Rubicon is transforming the entire category of waste and recycling.
Rubicon Global is headquartered in Atlanta, GA, and has core teams in New York, NY, San Francisco, CA, St. Louis, MO, and Tinton Falls, NJ. Rubicon has been named a Great Place to Work in 2018 and 2019 and was awarded as one of Glassdoor’s “Top Ten Companies with Seriously Impressive Benefits” in 2018. David accepted an award in Davos on behalf of Rubicon Global in the Digital Disruptor category in 2017.
Episode Music Credits: Open Those Bright Eyes Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
"Stop eating beef, you're killing the planet!" is a message we see nonstop. But is beef really killing the planet?
Large factory farms have a negative impact on the environment and so do cattle grazing on burnt out rainforest so we know that a lot of beef production is harming the planet. But what about Canadian beef?
Quinn Curran is a 4th year biology student at Queen's University who has a keen interest in nutrition and works for a naturopath. Her father, John Curran, is a sustainable family farmer located a few hours east of Toronto. His herd is part of a natural cycle that arguably benefits the land while providing nutrition with hardly any carbon footprint.
This episode explores the other side of beef, the sustainable side, and discusses how beef farming, if done right, can actually be beneficial for not only people but for the planet too.
Fergus Moore joins the ZWC to talk all about his company Revive Eco that he founded with Scott Kennedy, in order to divert coffee waste from the garbage across Scotland.
Coffee grounds are still rich in uses after they make coffee, and Fergus is working on a way to extract oils from used coffee grounds that could one day replace palm oil.
Have you ever seen a cyclist biking through the city in the dead of winter when there's snow on the ground and it's freezing cold?
If you're from Ottawa, that might have been JP Torunski, an avid cyclist who also lives a zero waste lifestyle.
Deep in the Amazon jungle, scientists have found soil called terra preta, thousands of years old, made from human waste that's still fertile for growing crops today! Everything ancient civilizations used went into a midden heap after they were done with it - pottery, fish bones, food scraps, human waste - and then once it was burned, the midden created such valuable soil that it's still thriving at least 3,000 years later.
What a different waste management system the ancients had, compared to our toxic landfills and incinerators of modern times. But, the ancients never had to deal with plastic.
Biochar is charcoal made from organic matter instead of charcoal from fossil fuels, and it has some surprisingly valuable uses. Tom Miles is the Executive Director of U.S. Biochar Initiative, Chair of International BioChar Initiative, and the president of TR Miles Technical Consultants Inc., and he joins the show from Portland to talk all about biochar and healthy soils.
If you're interested in building your own healthy soil this episode is for you!
Ken Burns' Dust Bowl documentary on PBS
Jocelyn Moroneaux has a bachelors in business and a masters in applied environmental science and has used both to create Waste Not Farms, a closed loop company collecting food scraps from offices in Toronto. Jocelyn brings the food scraps back to her farm north of Toronto and feeds all of it to her worms. The worms, in turn, eat the food scraps and excrete worm castings, a highly viable growing medium.
Laura and Jocelyn discuss the worm business, detrimental farming techniques, microbes in soil, tilling vs. no tilling, ancient growing knowledge, and how to have a healthy garden soil.
If you're interested in buying some of Jocelyn's Soil Booster, you can use the discount code Jocelyn gave us zerowastepodcast for 20% off soil booster bags and soil-aid tea bags.
Don’t Skip The Dishes… EAT The Dishes!
Marissa Bergeron lives in Vancouver and creates vegan soups and hot chocolate in cups we can eat afterwards.
These aren’t just any cups and bowls – soups are served in delicious bread cups people just can’t get enough of.
Plastic waste is a big problem that spans our entire planet – from Mt. Everest down to Marianas Trench, and everywhere in between. Marissa offers an alternative that happens to be delicious, vegan, and good for us and the planet.
MUSIC CREDITS: Open Those Bright Eyes Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/About P&G’s Approach to Citizenship.
Do you want to help the environment but aren't quite sure what to do? Have you thought about starting a Zero Waste Group in your local community? Kristina Mattson is a nurse, mom, wife, and co-founder of the group Zero Waste Saint Paul Minnesota and she's been successful in passing packaging ordinance in her city, engaging with councillors, and hosting popular meetups for the zero waste community.
Music Credits:
Johnny Cash. (1964). Big River. Sony Entertainment.
Open Those Bright Eyes Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/About P&G’s Approach to Citizenship.
Larissa Rose is the Director & Senior Environmental Consultant at Glowing Green Australia. She is a passionate advocate for environmental education, sustainability, renewable fuels, and environmental management across the country.
Larissa has spent extensive time advocating and engaging government, regional and rural communities, lecturing at universities and teaching at schools on the economic, social, health and environmental benefits of renewable fuels. She has led environmental education programs in Queensland schools, devised sustainability plans and environmental auditing for schools and companies nationally.
Glowing Green Australia provides services for clients in environmental auditing, advisory for development approval applications, waste management plans, carbon impact assessments, sustainability plans, ecological reporting and facilitation and embedding environmental education programs into schools.
Larissa has represented Queensland and Australia speaking on a numerous global conference stages from United Nations COP level, through to significant domestic speaking roles in Australia from public community forums to national conferences all within her respective knowledge themes.
As Managing Director and Founder of the Queensland Renewable Fuels Association (QRFA), and the Senior Environment Consultant and Director of Glowing Green Australia, Larissa is evidently committed to delivering outcomes for industry and offers her drive to succeed, her practical and theoretical knowledge and experience to her industries.
Filmmaker Julia Barnes joins the ZWC for another episode to talk about her new upcoming film, Bright Green Lies.
Her last film, Sea of Life, took Julia around the world to point out the mass extinctions currently happening in our oceans. In her new film, Julia exposes the myths that solar and wind will save us from climate change.
Justine Burt is the author of The Great Pivot: Creating Meaningful Work to Build a Sustainable Future and leads an environmental sustainability firm called Appraccel in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a climate optimist who focuses on implementing energy efficiency, alternative transportation, and waste prevention projects to reduce an organization’s environmental impact.
The Great Pivot describes 30 sustainability projects in five areas – advanced energy communities, low-carbon mobility, the circular economy, food waste reduction, and nature restoration – that will create millions of meaningful jobs.
Sustainable Brands is the first worldwide community of innovation and sustainability brands and organizations. ZWC attended SB19 Detroit and this is the eighth and final episode of the series.
Music Credits: Open Those Bright Eyes Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
This episode features Suzanne Lindsay Walker, Director of Sustainability North America at Brambles CHEP, a company that provides over 590 million pallets, crates and containers. The company specializes in the sharing and reuse of those containers, while taking part in a few other sustainable initiatives too.
Zero Waste World is an innovative approach that brings all different kinds of companies together to eliminate physical waste, eradicate empty transport miles and cut out process inefficiencies.
The Zero Waste World initiative is a working collaboration of multi-company coalitions and open innovation events to create smarter and more sustainable supply chains. There's a dual challenge of businesses needing to meet growing consumer demand faster, easier and cheaper, while simultaneously shrinking the environmental impact of their operations.
Sustainable Brands is the first worldwide community of innovation and sustainability brands and organizations. ZWC attended SB19 Detroit and this is the seventh episode of the series.
Music Credits: Open Those Bright Eyes Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
From the World Wildlife Fund, Sheila Bonini, Senior Vice President of Private Sector Engagement, Erin Simon Director of Sustainability R&D, and Linda Walker Director of Responsible Forestry and Trade sat down with Laura at the Sustainable Brands conference 2019 in Detroit to talk about their plastics initiative.
ReSource: Plastic is a newly launched WWF activation hub to help companies realize their plastic waste commitments and turn those commitments into meaningful and measurable action. According to the WWF, as few as 100 companies can prevent 10 million metric tons of plastic waste!
The WWF’s vision: No plastic in nature by 2030 – but that doesn’t mean completely getting rid of plastic.
At the same time, Linda Walker is focusing on trade offs – ensuring we aren’t creating new problems when solving for one (i.e. solving for plastics with unintentional consequences for forests).
Sustainable Brands is the first worldwide community of innovation and sustainability brands and organizations. ZWC attended SB19 Detroit and this is the sixth episode of the series.
Music Credits: Open Those Bright Eyes Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/About P&G’s Approach to Citizenship
The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) serves consumers around the world with brands including Always®, Ambi Pur®, Ariel®, Bounty®, Charmin®, Crest®, Dawn®, Downy®, Fairy®, Febreze®, Gain®, Gillette®, Head & Shoulders®, Lenor®, Olay®, Oral-B®, Pampers®, Pantene®, SK-II®, Tide®, Vicks®, and Whisper®. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide.
Virginie Helias, P&G's first Chief Sustainability Officer, joins the ZWC to talk about their forward-looking framework and innovative strategies to inspire responsible consumption for the five billion consumers served by P&G each day.
P&G's products available with Loop
Sustainable Brands is the first worldwide community of innovation and sustainability brands and organizations. ZWC attended SB19 Detroit and this is the fifth episode of the series.
Music Credits: Open Those Bright Eyes Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Damien Perriman, Vice President, Specialty Products for Genomatica – a leader in bioengineering and naturally sourced ingredients – sat down with Laura at the Sustainable Brands ‘19 Detroit conference to talk about how fermenting sugars can replace fossil fuels in the plastics and skincare industries. New technologies are under development targeting textiles and fibers.
Genomatica is leading the transition to more sustainable products for consumers with its safe and sustainable fermentation-based process technology – which is being used today to produce biobased ingredients for compostable plastic bags, coffee capsules, food packaging and a range of more natural cosmetic and personal care products.
This episode is fourth in the Sustainable Brands Detroit 2019 series.
Music Credits: Open Those Bright Eyes Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Ned Monroe, CEO of the Vinyl Institute, joins the ZWC to talk about how his organization helps recycle 1.1 billion pounds of vinyl annually in the US and Canada. They work within target areas from the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals, selecting arenas where the U.S. vinyl industry can make the most impact.
The Vinyl Institute launched an aggressive initiative to advance the vinyl industry’s sustainability practices at SB’19 Detroit. +Vantage Vinyl commits companies in the vinyl value chain to annual sustainability goals in areas like landfill diversion, health and safety, and emissions. Oxy, Shintech, Westlake Chemical, Formosa Plastics, Sika, Chemours, Mexichem, and PolyOne have already signed on.
About the Vinyl Institute (VI) The Vinyl Institute, founded in 1982, is a U.S. trade organization representing the leading manufacturers of vinyl, vinyl chloride monomer, and vinyl additives and modifiers. The Vinyl Institute serves as the voice for the vinyl industry, which encompasses nearly 3,000 vinyl manufacturing facilities, more than 350,000 employees and an overall economic value of $54 billion. About the Vinyl Sustainability Council (VSC) The Vinyl Sustainability Council is a self-funded council created by the Vinyl Institute in 2016 to advance the efforts of the vinyl industry as it addresses sustainability and related advocacy, communication, and technical issues in North America. +Vantage Vinyl is a collaborative initiative of the VSC dedicated to best practices and innovations for a sustainable world for current and future generations. This episode is third in the Sustainable Brands Detroit 2019 series. Music Credits: Open Those Bright Eyes Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
The ZWC travelled (sustainably!) to Detroit for the 2019 Sustainable Brands conference and Laura had the opportunity to sit down with Dimitar Vlahov, the Director of Knowledge & Insights for Sustainable Brands.
Sustainable Brands is the premier global community of brand innovators who are shaping the future of commerce worldwide. Since 2006, their goal has been to inspire, engage, and equip business leaders and practitioners who see social and environmental challenges as an essential driver of brand innovation, value creation, and positive impact.
Dimitar and Laura discuss the highlights of Sustainable Brands Detroit 2019, the regrowth around Detroit, and sustainable legislation in Dimitar's home state of California.
Music Credits: Open Those Bright Eyes Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Ellen Jackowski, Global Head of Sustainability Strategy & Innovation for HP Inc, joins the Zero Waste Countdown at the Sustainable Brands Conference 2019 in Detroit to speak about her work in Haiti and HP's recycling program.
Find out how HP is solving our ocean plastic crisis and creating jobs in the recycling industry through ink cartridge recycling that's saving millions of plastic bottles from entering the oceans every year, and keeping HP ink cartridges out of landfills.
This episode is the first of the Zero Waste Countdown Sustainable Brands 2019 Detroit series.
Music Credits: Open Those Bright Eyes Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Sangwon Suh is a professor in industrial ecology at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California in Santa Barbara. He has a PhD in Environmental Science & Engineering from Leiden University in the Netherlands, and spent 20 hears contributing to the “theoretical foundations and practical applications of life cycle assessment and industrial ecology“.
In 2019 Suh co-wrote an article called “strategies to reduce the global carbon footprint of plastics” in Nature, which pointed out that greenhouse gas emissions from plastic could reach 15% of our total carbon budget by 2050 if we keep increasing plastic production.
Lawrence Speelman explains how their UK company is transforming unused fresh bread leftover from bakeries into Laura's favorite beverage: beer!
Callee Ackland started the first zero waste shop in South Dakota, called Bestowed Essentials, and hosts her own podcast called Hippie Haven. She's working on a book that will help others start their own zero waste companies.
Laura speaks with Sarah King, Head of Greenpeace Canada's Oceans & Plastics campaign, to learn more about their efforts fighting plastic.
Greenpeace is proposing an Oceans Treaty to protect international waters - currently countries are only responsible for their economic zones surrounding their coastlines, so later this year (2019) Greenpeace will be sending a ship from the Arctic Ocean to the Antarctic Ocean through the Atlantic to raise awareness for our international waters which could definitely use more regulation.
Sarah is currently working on banning unnecessary single use plastics in Canada, and she's been an integral part of organizing brand audits during beach cleanups. Brand audits determined the top five polluters of trash in Canada and helped raise awareness of bad habits of both businesses and consumers.
Meet Alex Currie, from Pyramid Ferments - him and his wife Jenna Empey have created a fermentation company in Prince Edward County on the north shore of Lake Ontario, where they produce sauerkraut, kimchi, beet kvass, gut shots, and different flavours of kombucha, almost entirely from local ingredients.
Laura had the opportunity to ask Alex questions about home fermenting, about running a fermentation business on a large scale, and questions about why fermented foods are becoming so popular.
Meet Lauren and Kelly from Toronto - they live minimalist lifestyles and host the popular podcast Millennial Minimalists.
Minimalism and zero waste go hand in hand - we're all trying to live with less, and to live happier, healthier lives. While millions around the world are trapped in the cycle of overconsumption, Lauren and Kelly and finding ways to disconnect from the overburden of having too much stuff, so they can focus on being healthy and happy, while using their time for what they enjoy most.
Their goal is to help listeners become inspired to live a simpler, more intentional every day.
The conversation continues with Meera Jain, better known on Instagram as the GreenMum, as she discusses zero waste living in Toronto. Laura and Meera talk about shopping habits, accessibility issues, and returnable container programs.
Meera Jain, better known as thegreenmum on Instagram, lives in Toronto with her husband and two children. She focuses on reducing her carbon footprint, keeping herself and her family healthy, and living low waste.
In part one of our conversation, Meera and Laura speak about Toronto's new initiative to compost diapers (!) and we find out what Meera uses around her house to live without producing trash.
Open Those Bright Eyes Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Bite Toothpaste Bits started with two questions: Why does toothpaste come in plastic tubes and what exactly are we putting in our bodies when we brush our teeth? More than one billion toothpaste tubes end up in landfills every year, but Lindsay McCormick has come up with a better solution! Her company, Bite Toothpaste Bits, replaces the need for non-recyclable tubes. The ingredients are good for you, the tabs taste good, and they come in ethical packaging too.
Alex Bruce is a champion cocktail maker from Toronto who's competed on the world stage. He wanted to serve healthier versions of the classics, with less sugar and less waste, so he opened The Lark restaurant with his wife Celine LePache, and serves healthy and organic options both on the menu and drink list. Their daily operations are sustainable too, and close to zero waste.
Find out how Bruce and Celine run a sustainable restaurant on this episode of The Zero Waste Countdown.
Ross Beaty is a geologist and entrepreneur in the international minerals field. He currently Chairs Pan American Silver Corp., Equinox Gold Corp., and has founded and divested many other resource companies. He is also an environmental philanthropist, primarily through The Sitka Foundation.
He Chairs the BC Parks Foundation, serves on the Advisory Board of the Nature Trust of BC, he's a Director of The Pacific Salmon Foundation and Panthera, and is a patron of the Beaty Biodiversity Center at the University of BC.
Mr. Beaty was appointed to The Order of Canada in 2017 and the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame in 2018.
Open Those Bright Eyes Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Arid Foothills Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Star of the television show Free Ride on the Discovery Channel, Rob Greenfield, joins the Countdown to talk about his journey from South America, his bike ride across the United States, his book Dude Making A Difference, and his philosophy on consumption.
Rachel Revoy joins the Countdown for her third episode as we talk about Christmas trees, Christmas travel, and even Christmas food. Warning: we talk a little bit about meat! Not that much though. We also talk about the commercial from Iceland that was banned for being "too political", because it shows how destructive palm oil can be.
Music Credits:
“Christmas Rap” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Rachel Revoy from Quinte Waste Solutions joins us again to speak about her own personal countdown to zero waste from a holiday perspective!
Join the countdown as we talk about zero waste and low waste options for Christmas this season, including everything from wrapping paper to flying over the holidays.
Stay tuned for an upcoming part two episode next week.
Music Credits:
“Christmas Rap” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Meet Shane Price, the founder and CEO of Green Circle Salons, and find out how this Canadian from Toronto has changed the way American, and Canadian, salons get rid of their trash.
Did you know that our hair can be used to make absorbent pads that can clean up oil spills?
That's a much better end of life for hair, rather than ending up buried in plastic garbage bags underneath our soil, in landfills, emitting methane into our atmosphere and contributing to global warming for what could possibly go on for centuries.
Not only does Green Circle Salons collect hair and divert it from landfill, they also collect leftover hair dye chemicals and divert them from going down the sink and into our waterways. They're also working with Virginia Tech to develop some exciting new initiatives.
Kyle Calian founded the Regeneration Magazine, a collection of environmental stories and interviews with climate leaders and entrepreneurs who are making positive, sustainable change.
The magazine is biannually available in digital or print, and Issue No. 4 of The Regeneration Magazine will be published this winter and will feature green energy and politics.
https://theregenerationmag.com/
Kristin Lawless (previously published as Kristin Wartman) is a Certified Nutrition Educator, an author, and an independent journalist focusing on the intersections of food, health, politics, and culture. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Newsweek, VICE, Huffington Post, and Civil Eats, as well as in academic journals such as The Black Scholar, Critical Quarterly, and The New Labor Forum.
Her new book is called Formerly Known As Food: How The Industrial Food System Is Changing Our Minds, Bodies, and Culture. Throughout human history women have played a strong role in providing food for their families but today people typically rely on giant corporations to feed themselves - and those corporations could be putting profit over our health. Food has changed over the past 100 years and nutritional content has deteriorated due to industrial farming. Thousands of chemicals have been added to our diets from pesticides to packaging. We simply no longer know what we’re eating but there is strong evidence that it's changing our bodies and even our genes.
Kristin Lawless
CNN calls her the mother of the zero waste lifestyle movement and The New York Times calls her the priestess of waste free living. Her book Zero Waste Home has been printed in over 20 different languages, she's spoken in 55 different countries, and her family of four only produces one jar of trash per year.
Join the ZWC as we find out what Bea's been up to since her book was published and learn a few zero waste tips on traveling and how to refuse items we simply don't need.
Matt Wilkins is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Vanderbilt's Center for Science Outreach who works as the Resident Scientist at Head Magnet Middle School, developing and teaching STEM curriculum. He collaborates with science, math, English, social studies, and Spanish teachers to build rigorous, engaging, interdisciplinary lessons that help students master abstract concepts, become more curious, and develop critical thinking skills.
Matt's previous and ongoing research involves multimodal sexual selection, acoustic divergence, and speciation. For his PhD he studied barn swallows in North America, Europe, and Asia to quantify variation in feather ornaments and song resulting from different targets of sexual selection across populations. As a postdoc at the University of Nebraska he extended this work by developing a 'phenotype network' approach for visualizing and analyzing the functional evolution of sexual communication signals in barn swallows and Schizocosa wolf spiders.
On July 6, 2018, Matt's article called More Recycling Won't Solve Plastic Pollution: It’s a lie that wasteful consumers cause the problem and that changing our individual habits can fix it was published in Scientific American. Matt takes a real world approach and critical look at the American system that punishes individuals for littering but not the companies who create that unnecessary litter in the billions.
Matt's Website
Scientific American Article
The Tennessee Bottle Bill Project
Host of The Zero Waste Countdown Laura Nash met up with revolutionary fashion designer Daniel Silverstein, better known as Zero Waste Daniel, at his design shop in Brooklyn.
Fast fashion is quickly causing our planet a lot of problems - it's using too much water, too much oil, too many petroleum-based dyes, dumping too much effluent into rivers, synthetic clothing causes trillions of microfibres to enter our aquatic systems, it's wrapped in too much plastic, and then the quality just isn't there so after a year or so of being worn, fast fashion is wrapped in plastic garbage bags and trucked away to landfill where it will sit for the next few centuries buried under our soil. How can we get away from this system?
Zero Waste Daniel is changing the way fashion looks and feels - his designs are inclusive, genderless, they come in all sizes, and they represent conscious forward thinking that's very much needed in today's world. Tune in as we learn all about off-cuts and how Daniel is removing millions of them from landfills and spreading a positive message around the world that fashion is about to change for the better.
Meet Linn Frisinger, co-founder and CEO of Swedish Stockings who joins Laura in episode 26 of the ZWC to talk all about her sustainable company.
Their high quality stockings are made from polyamide reclaimed from a big problem in our oceans - fish nets.
Often called ghost nets, loose fishing nets tangle up and kill marine life and release microplastic into the ocean but Linn's company is reclaiming them and turning them into a durable and fashionable product that can be recycled after its use once customers opt into their return program when the stockings are all worn out. That means Swedish Stockings is sustainable and closed loop.
Laura tested out a few pairs and they are stronger and longer lasting than typical stockings that only get one or two uses before being sent to landfill for the next century and made from the oil and gas industry.
Use coupon code zerowastecountdown to save 15% on their website.
Swedish Stockings
Do you know what's in your makeup, or what to do with the container and packaging once you're finished with it?
Meet Melodie Reynolds, CEO and founder of Elate Cosmetics from Victoria, British Columbia. Her products are ethical and sustainable with bamboo packaging and only ingredients that are good for your skin and healthy for the environment.
Discount code: zerowastecountdown at elatecosmetics.ca one per customer.
In Australia food waste is estimated to cost the Australian economy around $20 billion dollars each year.
Australians throw away about 5.3 billion tonnes of edible food each year.
In the United States it’s estimated that 415 kilograms (or about 915 pounds) of food is wasted per person each year and in Mexico it’s about half that.
In Canada, $31 billion dollars worth of food ends up in landfills or composters each year which weighs about 1.3 billion tonnes, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Yet 850,000 Canadians use food banks every month.
In 1994 the Canadian province of Ontario passed the Donation of Food Act that releases food donors from liability when giving away food. This makes food sharing and food donation possible through redistribution programs like Food Sharing Ottawa who aims to feed the hungry while sending less food to landfills.
Jay Sinha cowrote the book Life Without Plastic: The Practical Step-by-Step Guide to Avoiding Plastic to Keep Your Family and the Planet Healthy with his partner Chantal Plamondon. They also have their own store Life Without Plastic where we can find healthy alternatives to items typically made from plastic.
Well researched and scientific, Life Without Plastic is a reference guide for different types of plastic in our everyday lives as well as alternatives. Find out the best plastics to avoid and why in this episode of The Zero Waste Countdown.
Do you ever walk into a supermarket and get that sinking feeling in your stomach, as you look around at all that wasteful plastic and unnecessary packaging? Imagine getting your groceries in a plastic free environment with no plastic bags and no plastic single use containers. A place with fresh fruit and vegge, friendly staff, plenty of vegan options, and a scale to tare your own jars.
Canada's capital city is home to Valerie LeLoup's zero waste grocery store Nu Grocery. Started in 2017 Valerie has made her vision a reality - a place where we can buy food without destroying the planet with all that packaging.
Tune in to find out what it takes to run a zero waste grocery store and learn more about co-founder Valerie as Laura stops into her shop for a visit in Ottawa.
Have you ever heard of collective action? It's basically when a bunch of people make a change in their own lives that, collectively, ends up making a big difference.
The average female will use approximately 11,000 sanitary products in her lifetime. So what if one person switches to reusable period products, but then another woman switches, and another woman... suddenly millions of bags of garbage would be saved from being produced and sent to landfill. Single use sanitary pads and tampons may be small but they pack a nasty environmental punch. Not only are they made with chemicals from the oil and gas industry but they end up in our water systems once used.
Meghan Adams is an environmental engineer from the American midwest who wrote a paper on sanitary products. She created a survey that received over 1,200 responses all about sanitary product knowledge and use. Her results may surprise you!
In the U.S. alone Meghan's research estimates over 20 billion sanitary period items go to landfill every year. Join Meghan and Laura as we discuss our research we found and also our own experiences with using different period products over the years.
Further Reading
DeVito & Schecter Dioxins In Tampons
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention: Toxic Shock Syndrome
Girls Missing School Study
Meet Joanna Ruda.
Her company Jo Kaminska Ethical Jewelry has been funding the Jo Kaminska Foundation for years, which focuses on educating others about the dangers of single use plastic overconsumption.
Originally from Poland she’s spent many years living in Sri Lanka and she’s spoken to the UN multiple times regarding plastic pollution. But lately she’s been frustrated as the world keeps pumping out single use plastic with disregard for the consequences – and those consequences are adding up.
Tune in to episode 20 as Joanna tells us of her travels, the sights she’s seen in Sri Lanka, and how she’s put together an action plan to combat unnecessary plastic.
http://jokaminska.com/
Canada has entered the world stage when it comes to the environment and plastics recovery and reduction.
Member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre and Minister of Environment & Climate Change Catherine McKenna knows what's up when it comes to reducing single use plastics - she's also a diver and a swimmer and has seen first hand that the oceans are filled with plastics.
In June 2018 she attended the G7 Summit in Charlevoix, Quebec, where The Charlevoix Blueprint for Healthy Oceans, Seas, and Resilient Coastal Communities was created.
Find out what Canada is doing on the world stage, who's leading our Canadian government to a healthier world, and what the Charlevoix Blueprint means going forward not only for Canada but for our world's oceans and our entire planet.
The Charlavoix Blueprint
Catherine McKenna swims to celebrate the C3 Ship that sailed Canada from coast to coast to coast
CBC article about the shrimp industry
Meet Josh Walters (front right), one of the men behind the new Feedback App sweeping Toronto’s quick service restaurant scene.
When a restaurant gets close to throwing out leftover food they post a discount on the Feedback App instead. Hungry deal seekers can use the app to find restaurants close by offering discounts in realtime, thus decreasing food waste sent to landfills.
Not only can restaurants make more money by offering quick discounts instead of wasting food, customers can save money too, and get to know more local restaurants and find new favorites. Feedback even donates meals to charity - find out how on this episode of ZWC.
Feedback App
The Ontario Government’s Donation of Food Act, 1994
Kupfert & Kim
What is BPA, where is it found, how is it getting inside us, and why is it potentially dangerous to human health? Which age group is most exposed to BPA?
Lorna Harries is an Associate Professor in Molecular Genetics at University Exeter Medical School.
“She developed an interest in gene regulation and alternative messenger RNA processing in endocrine disease and human ageing. She now heads the ‘RNA-mediated mechanisms of disease’ group at UEMS. She has written over 90 peer-reviewed articles and was awarded the Diabetes UK RD Lawrence Prize Lectureship in 2011. She is co-ordinator of the annual UEMS ‘Men in White’ school outreach with Dr. John Chilton. This event brings in year 9 students from schools stretching from South Devon to North Somerset and gives them hands-on experience of work in a research laboratory. Lorna is a STEMnet ambassador and also an Exeter Catalyst Champion for Public Engagement.”
Read more at https://medicine.exeter.ac.uk/people/profile/index.php?web_id=Lorna_Harries#W5JBmbcALyr5Ffs4.99
Lorna recently headed a research study about BPA levels in the diets of teenagers.
Read her full study here: An engaged research study to assess the effect of a ‘real-world’ dietary intervention on urinary bisphenol A (BPA) levels in teenagers.
Change petition for BPA labelling in packaging:
https://www.change.org/p/uk-parliament-stop-unavoidable-plastic-pollution-of-human-bodies-from-food-packaging
The flower industry packs a large carbon footprint by using airplanes for transport, refrigerated trucks, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, plastic packaging, cellophane, little plastic trinkets, and balloons and ribbons that end up on our beaches and can strangle wildlife. What a mess!
Local farmer Melanie Harrington of Dahlia May Flower Farm doesn't use any of these harmful aspects of the flower industry yet her blooms are healthy, beautiful, and bountiful.
Find out how Melanie grows and sells flowers sustainably in the Bay of Quinte region and why her business is booming.
Dahlia May Flower Farm
The Director of Environmental Defence Canada, Tim Gray, joins the Countdown to speak with us about legislation in Canada that's leading to waste reduction on a massive provincial scale.
Five cent plastic bag charges have shown to be more than 85% effective in reducing plastic bag use and Environmental Defence is pushing Ontario to introduce a bottle return program that will see bottles returned for 10 cents - it's proven to work! Ontario produces about 3 billion plastic bottles a year but only 1.5 billion make it into the recycling system. A bottle return program will see upwards of 90% of those bottles returned.
Did you know that there are lobbyists in this world who want to DOUBLE OUR PLATIC PRODUCTION to increase their sales? If the plastic industry doesn't take more responsibility for plastic recovery then citizens may get so fed up with plastic pollution that we push for single-use bans in general.
Laura also gets the chance to ask Tim what Canadians, as a freezing cold and large nation, can do to curb our carbon footprint when we have long distances to travel and homes we need to significantly heat just to survive our cold winters.
This is Tim's article in the Toronto Star on how Canada can lead the way forward against plastic waste at the G7 Summit.
We talk about the Great Lakes, Canada's microbead ban, and how governments can take action to reduce waste by setting targets and introducing penalties.
If you're interested in paving out an environmental career for yourself Tim gives some valuable advice for those wanting a meaningful, purposeful job that helps the environment and reduces needless waste.
Environmental Defence Canada
Our mindless overconsumption is out of control on a planetary scale and our oceans are being emptied at an alarming rate. A lot of fish that are taken from our oceans today lose their lives but aren’t actually consumed by humans – what’s happening to our oceans?
Julia Barnes is the award-winning filmmaker behind Sea of Life. For as long as she can remember Julia has been passionate about the natural world, but it wasn’t until she was 16 that she realized the world she loved was in jeopardy. After watching Rob Stewart’s documentary Revolution and learning that the world’s coral reefs, rain forests and fisheries are expected to be gone by the middle of the century she was compelled to take action to protect the world she loved from human destruction. Film was the most powerful weapon she could imagine so at the age of 16, with no film experience, she picked up a video camera and set out to make a documentary to raise awareness about the biggest threats facing the planet and inspire audiences to turn things around.
Sea of Life Movie
Sustain makes healthy, sustainable clothing from organic, natural fibers that are good for your body and good for the world. Unlike traditional manufacturing processes they avoid using petroleum-based dyes and toxic chemicals that harm the environment and can absorb into your skin. Sustain's selection of plant-dyed clothing is made with certified organic materials and traditional ayurvedic processes. Also, by using pesticide-free plants for both fabrics and dyes, Sustain actively reduces harmful chemicals in the atmosphere. Together we can help reverse the cause of global climate change and save our own skin.
Kat, the founder of Sustain, has given us coupon code ZEROWASTE for a 15% discount
Sustain Clothing
Join Laura in Toronto as she speaks with Jessica Panetta, the Marketing and Communications Manager for TerraCycle Canada, as we talk about how TerraCycle started, how it works, how you can participate, and how you can get your workplace involved.
A Zero Waste Box on top of a bench made from TerraCycle recycled plastics
TerraCycle is Eliminating the Idea of Waste® by recycling the “non-recyclable.” Whether it’s coffee capsules, pens from school, or plastic gloves from a manufacturing facility, TerraCycle can collect and recycle almost any form of waste. They partner with individual collectors such as yourself, as well as major consumer product companies, retailers, manufacturers, municipalities, and small businesses across 21 different countries. With your help, they are able to divert millions of pounds of waste from landfills and incinerators each month.
There are many free programs to participate in or you can actually purchase a zero waste box to mail in items that cannot be collected curbside. Use coupon code COUNTDOWN on TerraCycle.ca if you’re Canadian, or TerraCycle.com if you’re American to save 10%.
Keya Chatterjee speaks with us from Washington D.C. about her book The Zero Footprint Baby: How to Save the Planet While Raising a Healthy Baby. We discuss how she calculated her baby's carbon footprint during his first year of life, the difference between cloth and disposable diapers, her experience with elimination communication, and she gives us tips on how to reduce waste after having a child.
Keya is Executive Director of The US Climate Action Network and has been quoted in dozens of media outlets including USA Today, the New York Times, Fox News, the Associated Press, The Washington Post, and NBC Nightly News.
Keya previously served as Senior Director for Renewable Energy and Footprint Outreach at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and before that she worked at NASA headquarters for four years, communicating research results on climate change. Keya was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco from 1998 to 2000 and currently serves on the board of the Washington Area Bicycling Association. She received her Master's degree in Environmental Science, and her Bachelor's in Environmental Science and Spanish from the University of Virginia.
The Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency (OCRRA) is in charge of facilitating the proper disposal of solid waste in the county. Proper disposal is a constantly evolving term, and OCRRA has been a leader in this evolution, having won numerous national awards; most recently the 2017 Solid Waste Association of North America’s Gold Award for Composting Systems.
Dale Cocca is a recycling specialist with OCRRA, closely involved in building local markets for recycled organic matter (namely compost and mulch), with concurrent responsibilities in educating the business community and the community at large on proper practices for handling waste. Join us as we discuss the benefits and challenges of outgoing compost in the Syracuse area and beyond.
https://www.facebook.com/OCRRA/
http://ocrra.org
China recently announced it will no longer accept contaminated plastic recycling from the West, leaving municipalities in England and North America scrambling. Why isn't Quinte Waste Solutions affected?
Quinte Waste Solutions was one of the frontrunners of the blue box program in Ontario, Canada, going strong now for 28 years.
More than that, Quinte Waste Solutions showcases the importance of community involvement and how recycling is one piece in a process, and one process in overall environmental improvement. Find out the whys and hows of one of the best curbside recycling programs in Canada with Rachel Revoy, the Communications Coordinator at Quinte Waste Solutions.
How does your municipal recycling program compare?
QuinteRecycling.org
Facebook.com/QuinteRecycles
Twitter: @QuinteRecycles
Instagram: @QuinteRecycles
Children's clothes are bought cheap these days with dire consequences for the environment and foreign workers. Cheap clothing often ends up in landfill sooner than we expected and while it's briefly worn by our children, cheap clothing, especially waterproof outerwear, gives off toxins that were used in its production. Enter: Faire Child, from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, who raised money on Kickstarter to purchase specialized fabric made with yarn spun from used plastic bottles in Italy that can be woven into children's raincoats, rain pants, rain caps, and backpacks. Perfect for our Canadian climate and rainy days around the world.
Faire Child is designed and made right here in Canada by Tabitha Osler, a fashion designer, teacher, and parent working toward a sustainable future. The best part? Once the garments are no longer needed, Faire Child takes them back and recycles them, officially closing the loop on this company's cradle to cradle production.
Faire Child Website
Daniela is a personal chef from Ottawa who's perfected healthy, often waste-free meals on a budget. She grew up in an Italian-Canadian household where it was important not to waste food. She helps her clients meal plan, reduce their waste, reduce their meat consumption (if they choose), reduce unnecessary plastic, and reduce stress on working parents who want to feed their families smart, healthy meals. Daniela gives us advice on food storage, herbs, broths, kitchen equipment, and healthy waste-free eating. Check out her website at MmmChef.com.
Meet Kaveri: she recently started a social enterprise called Texiles in the Washington, D.C. area that's aiming to remove clothing from landfill.
Americans send 13 million tons of clothing to landfill each year where material decomposes slowly and releases harmful greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. In fact, the annual environmental impact of a household’s clothing equates to 1,000 bathtubs of water and the carbon from 6,000 miles of driving a car. That's a lot of waste!
95% of this material can be recycled if the right channels are put in place; find out how Kaveri is paving the way for those channels and changing the way Americans purchase and dispose of their clothing one scheduled pick-up at a time.
TEXILES.COM
Have you ever heard of the Pacific Crest Trail, spanning all the way from Mexico, through the western United States, all the way to Canada? Dariya and Dominic from Ottawa recently hiked the entire trail: and they've come back on a mission to reduce their waste, live sustainably, and help others do the same.
Dariya and Dominic are avid adventure seekers with degrees in Environmental Science and an unstoppable passion for conscious living. From city day walks to weekend warrior hikes to 6 months trekking the Pacific Crest Trail, they have refined their gear and style to have as little impact on the environment as they venture off into the backcountry. After endless debates, research, compromises, ounce counting and of course failures, they are proud to share with you their knowledge on ultralight and minimalist gear, healthy backcountry cuisine, and overarching Leave No Trace philosophy.
Oil and gas production creates a lot of heat that could be harnessed and used in Canada, along with heat produced by the earth itself. Kim Vinet, pro big mountain skier and geologist from Revelstoke, British Columbia, works for Epoch Energy and is leading the way forward when it comes to renewables in Canada. Are dams a green source of energy? We compare the proposed Site C Dam to geothermal and discuss other options in a zero waste context.
kim-vinet-ski.com
Jay Brandes, professor and researcher of Chemical Oceanography at the University of Georgia's Department of Marine Sciences in Savannah, is currently conducting a study on microplastics in marine life off the coast of Georgia. He's already made a startling discovery! Should you still be eating seafood? We discuss microbeads and bag ban legislation with a scientist who has dedicated his life to studying the health of our oceans.
Join Kim Vinet, pro big mountain skier and geologist who recently made a career switch from the oil and gas industry into renewables. We talk about how the love of skiing and the outdoors leads us to care for the environment and work to preserve those outdoor spaces for the future. Kim gives us tips to reduce our energy footprint and a unique perspective into her own journey to make the planet a better place.
http://www.kim-vinet-ski.com/
http://www.kim-vinet-ski.com/
The convenience of single-use plastics, from water bottles, take-out utensils, and straws to food wraps and grocery store containers has taken over our way of life.
Studies are beginning to warn us that plastics contain chemicals leaching into our food and drinks with potentially devastating consequences for our children's health as well as our planet's.