Plastisphere: A podcast on plastic pollution in the environment

Latest Episodes:

[German] "Wege aus der Plastikkrise" - a Panel Discussion on Solutions to Plastic Pollution Feb 23, 2024

Show notes

- A heads-up for all international listeners: This the first-ever episode in German. If you don't speak the language, don't despair. The next episode in English is already in the works! - This episode features an in-depth panel in German language on solutions to plastic pollution with experts in ecotoxicology, the reuse economy and politics, including the lead negotiator of Germany for the plastics treaty. Anja, host of Plastisphere, also speaks at the event organized by Exit Plastik, a German alliance of NGOs, at the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Berlin. It was part of the first German civil society conference on plastics. Wir sprechen über das globale Abkommen der Vereinten Nationen, das dieses Jahr fertig verhandelt werden soll, über Mehrwegsysteme und ihre Vorteile, die Chemikalien im Plastik und das Wachstum der Branche - und wir schauen in die Zukunft. Viel Vergnügen bei unserer Panel-Diskussion dazu, wie wir das Plastikproblem lösen können. Weitere Infos gibt es bei https://exit-plastik.de/ Transkript (bearbeitete/gekürzte Podcast-Fassung): Folgt demnächst! Mit: Alexandra Caterbow (HEJ Support) Jane Muncke (Food Packaging Forum) Axel Borchmann (BMUV) André Lang-Herfurth (Mehrwegverband und zerooo) Anja Krieger (Plastisphere Podcast) Die Exit-Plastik-Konferenz fand am 6. Februar 2024 in Berlin statt. Zum Bündnis Exit Plastik gehören: HEJSupport, Forum Umwelt & Entwicklung, Greenpeace, der Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz, Zero Waste Germany und Kiel, a tip:tap, die Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung und Women Engage for a Common Future. Exit Plastik ist Teil der globalen Bewegung BreakFreeFromPlastic.

#PlasticsTreaty Shorts: The Fossil-Fuel Lobby at INC-3 with Julien Gupta Nov 19, 2023

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Welcome again to Plastisphere, the podcast on plastics, people, the planet – and politics! Today, the INC-3, the third round of negotiations towards a global plastic treaty, will wrap up in Nairobi – and Anja received a timely message from one of the attending journalists: Julien Gupta is a freelance journalist from Germany working on climate and the environment. He says some of what he observed at INC-3 in Nairobi very much surprised him. Listen to his message from yesterday, Saturday, November 18th, 2023. You can find the CIEl report referenced by Julien here: https://www.ciel.org/news/fossil-fuel-and-chemical-industries-at-inc-3/ If you’d like to learn more about the role of science in the negotiations, listen to our episode from earlier this year, “Science over Profit”: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2023/05/12/ep13-plastictreaty/ Find out more about the Scientists 'Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty here: https://ikhapp.org/scientistscoalition/ If you are currently at the negotiations in Nairobi and have comments to share, we’d be super grateful to hear about them! Send Anja a voice message by following the instructions on the Plastisphere website: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/send-a-voice-message/ For German listeners, you can follow Juliens reporting here: https://steadyhq.com/de/treibhauspost/newsletter/sign_up https://taz.de/teamzukunft

#PlasticsTreaty Shorts: Waste Colonialism with Nirere Sadrach and Sharifa Ismail Nov 16, 2023

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For a long time, we treated disposable plastic and waste as if there was an “away” – a place, where we could safely dispose of our trash. But as we all know, nothing disappears just magically. Each year, the world produces over two billion tons of waste, and hundreds of millions tons of that are plastic. There is no away, and all this stuff goes somewhere – to landfills, dumps, incinerators, recycling facilities, or into the environment. But our plastic products don’t always end up close to where they are used. Waste is traded globally, and especially the hard-to-recycle plastics are shipped to places abroad. Often, there’s not enough infrastructure to deal with this waste plastic in a safe way. So it is openly dumped, recycled without protecting the workers’ health, or lost to the environment – with impacts for the local people and ecosystems. Listen to messages by Nirere Sadrach from Uganda, and Sharifa Ismail from Malaysia. You can read the transcript of this episode here: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2023/11/16/plasticstreaty-shorts-waste-colonialism-with-nirere-sadrach-and-sharifa-ismail-transcript/ Learn more about your country in the "Plastic Overshoot Day" episode (second half): https://soundcloud.com/plastisphere-podcast/plastic-overshoot-day WWF study on costs for low vs. high income countries: https://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/press_releases/?10004441/lifetime-cost-plastic These messages are part of the #PlasticsTreaty Shorts series. If you’d like to share a thought on solutions for plastic pollution, send Anja a voice message. Her mailbox is open for contributions until the end of the treaty negotiations. Some of the messages will be published. Please follow the recording instructions here: anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/send-a-voice-message/

#PlasticsTreaty Shorts: Production Caps and Moratoriums with Andrés Del Castillo Nov 13, 2023

Show notes

Today, you’ll hear a message from Andrés Del Castillo in the #PlasticsTreaty Shorts series. Andrés is a Senior Attorney from Columbia working with CIEL, the Center for International Environmental Law in Switzerland (https://www.ciel.org/). CIEL is a non-governmental organization that has long pointed out the broader implications of plastic pollution. They have published reports on the connection between plastics and climate change, human health, and and the petrochemical industry and fracking. Andrés says that we need to regulate the precursors or building blocks, just like the plastics and chemicals they are turned into. But we don’t need to wait for the global community to agree on production caps. There’s another way to halt the growth in production. Hear more from Andrés - and don't miss Rebecca Altman's excellent essay "On Vinyl" in Orion Magazine: https://orionmagazine.org/article/east-palestine-train-derailment-plastics-history/ Find the transcript of this episode here: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2023/11/13/plasticstreaty-shorts-production-caps-and-moratoriums-with-andres-del-castillo-transcript/ Dear listener, if you have a thought to share, you can send me a voice message. Please follow my recording instructions: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/send-a-voice-message/

#PlasticsTreaty Shorts: The Planetary Boundary with Bethanie Carney Almroth Nov 10, 2023

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We have exceeded six of the nine planetary boundaries. In her message to Plastisphere, Bethany Carney Almroth from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden tells us about one of them - the planetary boundary of novel entities which include plastics and chemicals. The only planetary boundary we have been able to move away from is the ozone depletion in the upper atmosphere. And why? Because when a ‘hole’ – or a thinning - in the ozone layer was discovered in the 1980s, countries from around the world acted quickly and signed a treaty to phase out the CFCs, the chemicals which were destroying the ozone layer. Let's hope that the plastics treaty follows in the footsteps of this success story! Read the transcript of this episode here: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2023/11/10/plasticstreaty-shorts-the-planetary-boundary-with-bethanie-carney-almroth/ If you’d like to share a thought or demand for the plastics treaty, you can contribute too. My mailbox is open for your voice messages until the end of the negotiations. I will pick some of these messages for a short podcast episode like this one. You can find recording instructions here: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/send-a-voice-message/

#PlasticsTreaty Shorts: Unknown chemicals with Walter Waldman Nov 09, 2023

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Similar to how food products contain a list of ingredients, we need to know which chemicals plastic products contain. This is not an easy task, but it would be a huge step if producers lifted the secret around the chemicals they use. Right now we are blindly dealing with a cocktail of chemicals we don’t really understand. Scientists have to reverse engineer to find out what’s in these products, and this is expensive and tedious. Knowing about the chemical ingredients of plastics would give us the chance to decide which risks we are willing to take or not – as a society, and as individuals. Hear more from chemist Walter Waldman from Brazil in his message to Plastisphere. Read the transcript of this episode here: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2023/11/09/plasticstreaty-shorts-unknown-chemicals-with-walter-waldman-transcript/ This episode is part of the #PlasticsTreaty Shorts series. If you’d like to share a thought on solutions for plastic pollution, send Anja a voice message. You can contribute until the end of the treaty negotiations. Selected messages will be published. Find the recording instructions here: anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/send-a-voice-message/

#PlasticsTreaty Shorts: Consumption Reduction with Kristian Syberg Nov 07, 2023

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Recycling is often seen as a golden standard for minimizing plastic pollution. And while recycling definitely does play a role in the future, it should not be the first priority. Kristian Syberg, an associate professor at Roskilde University in Denmark working on the circular economy, and the environmental impact of plastics, tells us why. Read the transcript of this episode here: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2023/11/07/plasticstreaty-shorts-consumption-reduction-with-kristian-syberg/ This message is part of the #PlasticsTreaty Shorts series. If you’d like to share a thought on solutions for plastic pollution, send Anja a voice message. Her mailbox is open for contributions until the end of the treaty negotiations. Some of the messages will be published. Find the recording instructions here: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/send-a-voice-message/

#PlasticsTreaty Shorts: Three Principles with Chris Dixon Nov 05, 2023

Show notes

The global plastics treaty is currently being drafted by the global community - an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment. One of the experts attending the meetings is Christina Dixon from the Environmental Investigation Agency. The EIA is an NGO which has campaigned against environmental crime and abuse since the 1980s, from whaling to ivory trade, to ozone depletion and climate change. Chris Dixon is their expert on plastic pollution at the London office, and she sent me food for thought with a voice message. How do we get to a successful plastics treaty? Chris says there are some fundamental principles that can guide us there. Read the transcript of this episode here: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2023/11/05/plasticstreaty-shorts-three-principles-with-chris-dixon-transcript/ If you’d like to share a thought or demand for the plastics treaty, you can contribute too. My mailbox is open for your voice messages until the end of the negotiations. I will pick some of these messages for a short podcast episode like this one. You can find recording instructions here: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/send-a-voice-message/

What Day is Plastic Overshoot? Jul 09, 2023

Show notes

The global plastics treaty is in the making, and the discussions around solutions to plastic pollution are gaining traction. To give you more food for thought, Anja tries out a new format, the Plastisphere Conversations with interesting people in the field. And this is the first one, with Sarah Perreard and Julien Boucher from the Plastic Overshoot project. Wait, isn’t it called the Earth Overshoot? Well, true - Sarah and Julien took inspiration from that. In 2023, the Plastic Overshoot Day falls on July 28th, and the calculations behind it reveal the different challenges for countries around the world. But first, Sarah and Julien tell us their own stories, which are very insightful when it comes to the issue and its solutions. Link to the Plastic Overshoot Day website and reports: https://plasticovershoot.earth/ Plastisphere is a research and interview podcast by Anja Krieger, published in the spirit of the gift economy. Please rate and review the podcast and support the production costs. PayPal: www.plastisphere.earth/support/ Subscribe: www.plastisphere.earth Follow regular updates on Mastodon: @plastisphere@podcasts.social Follow occasional posts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram: @PlastispherePod Theme song: Dorian Roy Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen Sound Effect CC-0 from Freesound: ttps://freesound.org/people/qubodup/sounds/182794/ Transcript: On request.

Science over Profit - Demands for the Plastic Treaty May 12, 2023

Show notes

On March 2, 2022, countries from around the world agreed to establish a global treaty to end plastic pollution. After the first meetings in Senegal and Uruguay, the discussions around the treaty are in full swing. Next, the country’s representatives are heading to Paris, France, in May 2023. They’ll meet for the second session of the INC, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee, which is the forum where the treaty is debated. After that, three more of these INC meetings are scheduled. If all goes well, the diplomats could agree on the plastics treaty at the final conference in the summer of 2025. So that’s the rough timeline – pretty ambitious, compared to how slow politics often move. But speed isn’t everything. How will the delegates make sure to actually get a treaty that tackles plastic pollution effectively, and in a fair way? Who gets a seat at the negotiating table, and who doesn’t? And what does the treaty need to contain and cover? In the past months, Anja asked scientists and experts to send her their thoughts and demands. In this episode, you’ll get to hear messages from Richard Thompson, Bethany Carney Almroth, Sonia Dias, Tridibesh Dey, Martin Wagner, Trisia Farrelly, Rebecca Altman and Lesley Henderson. Plastisphere is a research and interview podcast by Anja Krieger, published in the spirit of the gift economy. Please rate and review the podcast and support the production costs via PayPal: https://plastisphere.earth/support/ Transcript with links to music and sources: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2023/05/12/ep13-plastictreaty/ Subscribe: www.plastisphere.earth Theme song: Dorian Roy Music: Blue Dot Sessions www.sessions.blue/ UNEP video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28mNomsFsFY UNEP video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_GSIL0lLDs Thanks for kind permission, additional audio and images to Miranda Grant, Ahmed Yusuf and the UNEP press team. Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen Thanks to: Baldeep Kaur Follow regular updates on Mastodon: @plastisphere@podcasts.social Follow occasional posts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram: @PlastispherePod

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