Can We Recycle Our Way Out of the Plastic Crisis?

From the halls of government to the depths of the ocean, how deep does the plastic crisis go and can we recycle our way out of this mess?

Plastic has completely permeated our existence, and and its effects are far-reaching, from soil to glaciers. Recycling was supposed to take care of this mess — or was it?

In this episode, we’ll figure ou how the plastic industry is behind one of th biggest greenwashing schemes of all time, the current state of recycling, and why Big Oil is banning big on plastic. We’ll also hear from our plastic-perplexed-but-optimistic community and our expert, Head of Research at The Ocean Cleanup, Laurent Lebreton.

Episode Credits

• Listener contributions: Anna, Mac Hansen, Sawyer, Sobia Zaidi, Tiffany, Valli Divya, Rachel Radvany
• Episode expert: Laurent Lebreton, Head of Research at The Ocean Cleanup
• Editing and engineering: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

• (00:17) - Intro
• (08:12) - How does our community handle plastic recycling?
• (12:31) - Interview with Laurent Lebreton, Head of Research at The Ocean Cleanup
• (32:22) - How Big Oil is banking on plastic.
• (39:54) - Outro