THE PARADIGM SHIFT: Reduction, Recycling, & Technology – Plastic Plague Pt. 6

THE PARADIGM SHIFT – EcoJustice Radio explores how plastic pollution reduction, recycling, and technology can create a paradigm shift that is solution oriented, equitable, and achievable. This is Part 6 of a special seven-part series  called, “The Plastic Plague: Connecting the Dots between Extraction, Inequity, and Pollution.” Check out Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5 — Part 7

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Marcus Erickson from 5 Gyres explains creative approaches to solving the plastic plague.

Our guests include Claire Arkin, from GAIA (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives), Marcus Eriksen of 5 Gyres Institute, and Keng Baloco, of Athens Services.

There is too much plastic production for recycling to be the end-all-be-all solution to our problems, not to mention the inequity from its creation to disposal. However, waste-to-energy, chemical recycling, and plastic-to-fuel also have their concerns and might not be the winning silver bullet. Solutions best laid are community oriented and do not compromise the needs of future generations. So who is responsible for shifting the norm? Is it consumers, business, or manufacturers? How do we create community-based solutions? And how do these solutions around reuse and recycling weather issues and concerns related to virus spread and pandemics like COVID-19. Tune in to hear from the experts.

STORY: Waste Colonization, Plastic Pollution and the Pacific Gyre

Claire Arkin is the Communications Coordinator at GAIA (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives) [http://www.no-burn.org]. Her work has been featured in such outlets as The Guardian, Resource-Recycling and the San Francisco Chronicle. She recently coordinated a global investigative project called “Discarded” that documented impacts of the global plastic waste trade on communities in Southeast Asia.

Marcus Eriksen, 5 Gyres Institute [https://www.5gyres.org] – Research Director and Co-Founder. As an environmental scientists publishing the first global estimate of plastics in the world’s oceans, and co-discovering microbeads in the Great Lakes, Marcus and his team use research to inform campaigns aimed at changing the systems that pollute the planet and communities.

Keng Baloco, Commodity Sales and Logistics Manager, Athens Services [https://athensservices.com/] has 13 years of experience in the waste and recycling industry. She currently markets commodities to domestic and international markets, finding homes for post-consumer plastic, fiber, metal, glass and other commodities.

Jessica Aldridge, co-host of EcoJustice Radio, is an environmental educator, community organizer, and waste industry leader. She is a co-founder of SoCal 350, organizer for ReusableLA, and founded Adventures in Waste. She has worked for 15 years as a Zero Waste professional, a former professor of Recycling and Resource Management at Santa Monica College, and is a recipient of the inaugural Waste Expo 40 Under 40 award.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/
Podcast Blog: https://wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/
Support the Podcast: https://socal350.org/contribute-to-socal-350-climate-action/

Hosted by Jessica Aldridge
Engineer: Blake Lampkin
Executive Producer: Jack Eidt
Producer: Georgia Tunioli
Show Created by Mark and JP Morris
Music: Javier Kadry
Episode 64

Photo Credit: Adam Dean/GAIA

Updated 3 March 2021