Episode 205

[FOCUS] Why Plastic Recycling Is Misleading (from previous episode The Octopus’ Gardens)

Episode Summary: This episode is focused on a discussion about the problem of plastic recycling. It is selected from episode 13 (The Octopus’ Gardens) 

Like many of us, Tonya, Kristy, and Katherine thought that cleaning plastic containers and putting them in the recycling bin would help mitigate the negative impact created by the use of plastic. 

It’s only after they’ve been working on the Almanac that they realised that they got it all wrong! While recycling plastic is an important habit, its impact is tiny compared to the magnitude of plastic pollution created at all stages of the plastic lifecycle.  

This focus is selected from episode 13 (The Octopus’ Gardens) where Tonya, Kristy, and Katherine discussed the marine environment and plastic pollution and how humans are creating problems for them.  They talk about projects that are trying to solve these problems and how personal responsibility is just a part of this.

To listen to the full episode of Octopus’ Gardens go here

For more information on the project and to pre-order your copy of the Carbon Almanac, visit thecarbonalmanac.org

 

Want to join in the conversation?

Visit thecarbonalmanac.org/podcasts and send us a voice message on this episode or any other climate-related ideas and perspectives.

Don’t Take Our Word For It, Look It Up!

You can find out more on page 78, 79 and 162 of the Carbon Almanac and on the website you can tap the footnotes link and type in 027, 346 and 256

 Featuring Carbon Almanac Contributors Tonya Downing, Kristy Sharrow, and Katherine Palmer.

Tonya is from Durham in North Carolina, she is involved in Personality-driven digital marketing for small businesses in the US.  Kristy is a journalist turned marketer and Katherine is an Aromatherapist and Workshop Coordinator.

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The CarbonSessions Podcast is produced and edited by Leekei Tang, Steve Heatherington and Rob Slater.

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Carbon Almanac

When it comes to the climate, we don’t need more marketing or anxiety. We need established facts and a plan for collective action.

The climate is the fundamental issue of our time, and now we face a critical decision. Whether to be optimistic or fatalistic, whether to profess skepticism or to take action. Yet it seems we can barely agree on what is really going on, let alone what needs to be done. We urgently need facts, not opinions. Insights, not statistics. And a shift from thinking about climate change as a “me” problem to a “we” problem.

The Carbon Almanac is a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration between hundreds of writers, researchers, thinkers, and illustrators that focuses on what we know, what has come before, and what might happen next. Drawing on over 1,000 data points, the book uses cartoons, quotes, illustrations, tables, histories, and articles to lay out carbon’s impact on our food system, ocean acidity, agriculture, energy, biodiversity, extreme weather events, the economy, human health, and best and worst-case scenarios. Visually engaging and built to share, The Carbon Almanac is the definitive source for facts and the basis for a global movement to fight climate change.

This isn’t what the oil companies, marketers, activists, or politicians want you to believe. This is what’s really happening, right now. Our planet is in trouble, and no one concerned group, corporation, country, or hemisphere can address this on its own. Self-interest only increases the problem. We are in this together. And it’s not too late to for concerted, collective action for change.