Plastisphere: A podcast on plastic pollution in the environment

What happened at the INC-2 in France? Recap 2/3. The negotiations for the global plastics treaty are haunted by major issues that have long stalled progress on other problems as well, like climate change and biodiversity loss. To understand what’s happening, Anja teamed up with Magnus Løvold, an expert in diplomacy and international law. Magnus was present at all the meetings of the Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee for the plastics treaty - the so-called “INC”. Here comes the second part of their recap of plastic diplomacy: They take you to Paris in the summer of 2023, where the second negotiating meeting took place, to learn what happened there. A note: If you haven’t listened to our recap of the first INC in Uruguay, we recommend to go back an episode and start listening there. Episode transcript: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2024/04/01/transcript-plastic-treaty-making-part2/ Music: Dorian Roy Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen All production: Anja Krieger

What happened at the INC-1 in Uruguay? Recap 1/3. This year, 2024, is the crucial year for the plastics treaty negotiations. If you haven’t heard about them, the United Nations are working on an international, legally binding agreement to end plastic pollution. It’s been called the most important environmental deal since the Paris climate accord. Many countries want it to be an ambitious agreement that covers the full lifecycle of plastics, from production to disposal. But some countries are not so keen on this, and they have held up the development of the treaty. How and why exactly did they do this, and is there still hope for a strong and effective international agreement? To explore this, Anja connected with Magnus Løvold, an expert in Peace and Conflict Studies, and advisor with Lex International and NAIL, the Norwegian Academy of International Law. In his blog „Points of Order“, Magnus describes his observations at the diplomatic meetings he attends. This is the first of three parts of the conversation. Magnus and Anja will take you back into each meeting of the treaty negotiations - INC-1 in Uruguay, INC-2 in France and INC-3 in Kenya. We’ll talk diplomacy and give you a better understanding of what’s going on on the international stage. Read our guest's blog: "Points of Order" - independent reporting on multilateral processes, treaty-making and diplomacy" by Magnus Løvold and Torbjørn Graff Hugo: https://medium.com/points-of-order Episode transcript: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2024/03/08/transcript-plastic-treaty-making-part1/ Music: Dorian Roy Cover: Maren von Stockhausen If you like this show, support the production! Go to https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/support/

You’ve probably heard of bioplastics, these new kinds of plastics that are marketed as environmentally friendly. If you’ve been following this show, you might know the episode from 2019 in which Anja tried to better understand this group of materials and the confusion around it. If you haven't listened, here it is: https://soundcloud.com/plastisphere-podcast/ep-7-bioplastics After speaking to several experts from science, industry and NGOs, Anja came away with the conclusion that bioplastics have their own issues, and that they won’t be a silver bullet for solving plastic pollution. That was five years ago. Since then, things have developed - and Anja repeatedly heard about one material that people put a lot of hope in: PHA, short for polyhydroxyalkanoates. The interesting thing is that PHAs are made by bacteria, but we only covered them shortly in our previous episode. Now the people over at The Indisposable Podcast just posted an episode that covers this in greater detail. If you don’t know their podcast yet, do check it out! The Indisposable Podcast is produced by Upstream, a change agency in the US that works on the transition from the throw-away economy to one that is regenerative, circular and equitable. You can visit them at https://upstreamsolutions.org/ They recently had Lisa Erdle on the show, who works for 5 Gyres. 5Gyres is the NGO from California that has been leading the plastic discussion since the very beginning. It was their founders who first sampled all five ocean gyres for plastic pollution. Find out more here: https://www.5gyres.org/ Lisa shares their latest research with Upstream’s host, Brooking Gatewood: They tested biodegradable products in different environments, from a desert to the sea. Enjoy listening! Find more episodes of The Indisposable Podcast here: https://upstreamsolutions.org/podcast

- 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.

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

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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: @[email protected] 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.

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: @[email protected] Follow occasional posts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram: @PlastispherePod

Baldeep Kaur is a doctoral fellow at the University of Potsdam, studying the afterlives of discarded colonial technologies. Last November, they invited Plastisphere creator Anja Krieger to a live listening session at the Minor Cosmopolitan Assembly, an event organized by the research training group with the same name. Together with the audience, Baldeep and Anja listened to and discussed short excerpts from the podcast's episodes, each highlighting a different dimension of human relationships with plastics at various stages of their life-cycles. Hear more about the production process and behind-the-scenes research stories from both sides, that of the podcast producer and that of the listener. Recorded November 12, 2022, at Silent Green in Wedding, Berlin, Germany Note: The original recording was 85 minutes, this is a 30 minute edited version. More about Baldeep: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/en/minorcosmopolitanisms/team/fellows/baldeep-kaur-grewal More about Minor Cosmopolitanisms: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/de/minorcosmopolitanisms/ More Plastisphere excerpts (event page): https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/podcast-excerpts/ Music: Dorian Roy (Theme), Blue Dot Sessions (Excerpts) Literature mentioned: - "Pollution is Colonialism" by Max Liboiron of CLEAR lab: https://civiclaboratory.nl/publications/ - "Wasteocene" by Marco Armiero: https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/abs/wasteocene/714CA45E810E6437D5EBB4B71E6C8F71 Special thanks to - Sofia Varino for co-organizing the event. https://www.uni-potsdam.de/de/minorcosmopolitanisms/team/fellows/sofia-varino - Yael Attia and Kathleen Samson for setting up the recording. Check out their own podcast, Minor Constellations: https://minor.hypotheses.org/podcast - Lucas Jenss (photos), Abiral Kumar(lights), Sofie Fingado(sound)and Ricarda Theobald (door) for making this event possible.

A new guest episode to inspire your ears, mind and heart, kindly shared by Upstream. Plastic pollution is not just a waste issue. It starts with production, continues during use, and in the end, a lot of it ends up dumped or in the environment. But the problems plastics cause from production to disposal are not distributed equally. They impact some communities more than others, especially those already at a disadvantage and with little political power. One of the people fighting this environmental injustice is Tiza Mafira. She’s a lawyer and environmental activist from Jakarta, Indonesia, and one of the heroes of the documentary “The Story of Plastic”. She recently met up with Matt Prindiville on The Indisposable Podcast, a show produced by Upstream, a US-based non-profit. Hope you enjoy their conversation as much as I did! About Upstream: Upstream is a US-based non-profit organization that sparks innovative solutions to plastic pollution by helping people, businesses and communities shift from single-use to reuse. They are conveners, content creators and curators, and solutions ideators – all in the interest of helping to advance a new reuse economy. Some of their offerings include several networks and forums for policymakers, activists, and businesses; Chart Reuse – a first-in-industry foodware reuse analytics platform - and the Annual Reuse Awards, The Reusies®, live and streaming online on June 7, 2023. Learn more at www.upstreamsolutions.org, www.chartreuse.eco, and www.thereusies.org. Link to the episode page https://upstreamsolutions.org/podcast/story-of-plastic-in-indonesia Mentions and links: Tiza Mafira: https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/people/tiza-mafira/ Plastic Bag Diet Movement: https://dietkantongplastik.info/tentang-kami/ The Story of Plastic Doc https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/the-story-of-plastic-documentary-film/ Stiv Wilson: https://peakplasticfoundation.org/ Break Free from Plastic: https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/ BFFP Brand Audits: https://brandaudit.breakfreefromplastic.org/ Froilan "Froi" Grate: http://www.froilangrate.com/ Plastic Island Doc https://www.netflix.com/de-en/title/81597205 PR3 with Amy Larkin: https://www.resolve.ngo/blog/Meet-the-PR3-Team.htm Algramo: https://algramo.com/en/

Remember our episode a few months ago on the history of the plastics treaty? To recap: In March, the United Nations Environmental Assembly decided to negotiate a global agreement to tackle plastic pollution. The ambitious plan is to develop a binding treaty covering the full lifecycle of plastics within the next two years, by 2024. This week, this process is moving forward at an international meeting in Uruguay. From November 28 to December 2nd 2022, the first session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee – INC1 for short – will take place in the city of Punta del Elste. Anja will be sharing updates on Mastodon, where you find her as @ plastisphere @ podcasts.social. Here on the audio feed, we present an introduction of what’s to expect in Uruguay - a guest episode by the Environmental Investigation Agency, a Nongovernmental Organization involved in the plastic treaty negotiations. Their podcast ahead of INC1 in Uruguay is really insightful, and they kindly shared it with us. Link to the podcast website: https://eia-international.org/news/eia-podcast-what-can-we-expect-from-negotiations-for-the-first-global-plastics-treaty/ Thanks to EIA Ocean Campaign Leader Christina Dixon, EIA Ocean Campaigner Jacob Kean-Hammerson and EIA Senior Press and Communication Officer and podcast host Paul Newman for sharing this episode.

We can’t be the only ones responsible for plastic pollution. It’s time for producers and distributors of disposable plastic to take responsibility for where their packaging goes. Plastisphere presents an episode from Sustainable Asia’s “Mapping Asia’s Plastic Crisis” series on producer responsibility and packaging design, featuring experts from Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore, hosted and produced by Marcy Trent Long and Bonnie Au. Transcript: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2022/05/01/plastisphere-presents-sustainable-asia-producer-responsibility-and-packaging-design/ Guests: Helen Panangung, Von Hernandez, Miko Alino, Ashwin Subramaniam Music: Sustainable Asia theme: Alexander Mauboussin, Blue Dot Sessions www.sessions.blue/, Plastisphere Theme: Dorian Roy Thanks to: Lili Fuhr, Clemens Kunze, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Berlin/Hong Kong Video credit: Break Free From Plastic Philippines Project Updates on Twitter: @SustainableAsia Listen to more podcasts from Sustainable Asia here: - in English: https://www.sustainableasia.co/listen-in-english/ - in Chinese: https://www.sustainableasia.co/chinese/

Eight years after first flagging plastics as an issue, the United Nations Environment Assembly met in March 2022 for a historic decision. Delegates from more than 170 nations agreed on a mandate to put together a legally binding global plastics treaty within the next two years. Despite some lobbying against it behind the scenes, the draft for a strong resolution prevailed with just a few cuts. The treaty can now cover plastic pollution across the full lifecycle of the material, from production to consumption and disposal. Learn more about the path that led up to this landmark decision from Brooke Bauman, who hosts this episode of Plastisphere. She explores the concept of waste colonialism and compares the impacts of recycling and incineration in conversation with Alexis McGivern and Claire Arkin of GAIA (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives). Transcript with videos, links and photos from Kenya by James Wakibia: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2022/03/12/transcript-ep12-plastics-treaty/ Plastisphere is a research podcast by Anja Krieger. Brooke Bauman reported this episode, based on episode 3 of her “Guilty Plastics” series: Go to https://soundcloud.com/guiltyplastics to hear more. You can support our production via www.plastisphere.earth/support/ Guest voices: Alexis McGivern, Claire Arkin Thanks to: Kevin Fisher, Nils Simon, Karen Raubenheimer, Baldeep Kaur Grewal, Eva Vander Giessen, Tridibesh Dey, Luisa Beck, Inés Blaesius and all the Plastic Tweeps Subscribe: www.plastisphere.earth
 Music: Dorian Roy and Blue Dot Sessions www.sessions.blue/ Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen

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Plastisphere is back with Brooke and Anja! For the tenth anniversary of #PlasticFreeJuly, we dive into solutions to plastic pollution. Hear about Anja’s waste audit and DIY projects during the pandemic year, from home-made milk and laundry detergent to fresh pasta. Making stuff from scratch can be fun and empowering, but what’s the impact of these lifestyle changes? Anja’s packaging bin is a bit lighter now, but still full of plastic - far away from the ideals of Zero Waste. How much influence do individual consumers really have on a systemic issue like plastic pollution? And what are possible scenarios for tackling plastic pollution in the coming years on a global scale? Hear more from biologist Stephanie Borrelle. Transcript with videos and links: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2021/07/30/ep-11-transcript/ BONUS TRACK: How to make your own barista oat milk with Dorian and Luisa: https://soundcloud.com/plastisphere-podcast/barista-oat-milk-recipe Learn how to turn horse chestnuts into laundry detergent with Shia Su: https://wastelandrebel.com/en/make-laundry-detergent-out-of-chestnuts/ Read more about future scenarios to tackle plastic waste on a systemic scale: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6510/1515 Plastisphere is a research podcast by German audio producer Anja Krieger. Brooke Bauman is the co-host and assistant editor for this episode. Support the production: https://plastisphere.earth/support/ Guest voices: Stephanie Borrelle, Kate Nelson, Dorian and Luisa Thanks to: Wastelandrebel Shia Su, Lisa Bryan for the oat milk recipe Subscribe: www.plastisphere.earth
 Music: Dorian Roy and Blue Dot Sessions www.sessions.blue/ Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen

 Updates on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram: PlastispherePod

Take a break from plastics to explore the soil - a hidden world beneath your feet. It's the world of earthworms, springtails, fungi, and bacteria. We hardly ever see these little creatures, but their impacts are huge. Soil stores more carbon than the atmosphere and all plants together, filters water, is pivotal for biodiversity and at the center of agriculture and food security. This winter, Anja Krieger, host of Plastisphere, teams up with soil biologist Matthias Rillig and his lab to bring you "Life in the Soil", a podcast mini-series supported by the BiodivERsA research network. Tune in to hear more from some of the world’s best soil scientists, starting World Soil Day, December 5, 2020. Learn more and subscribe: https://rilliglab.org/podcast/ Platforms iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/life-in-the-soil/id1541030670 SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/mrillig Produced by: Anja Krieger and the Rillig Lab https://rilliglab.org Experts quoted in this teaser: Madhav Thakur, Bala Chaudhary, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Johannes Lehmann, Matthias Rillig Theme music: Sunfish Moon Light/Future Ecologies https://www.futureecologies.net Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen http://marenvonstockhausen.de Funded by: Digging Deeper/BiodivERsA https://www.biodiversa.org

When it comes to solving the issue of plastic pollution, who would you say is responsible? Is it individuals like you and me, is it the corporations that produce plastics or products made from it, or is it the government with its rules and regulations? That’s the question Brooke Bauman asks in her 4-part podcast series “Guilty Plastics”. Brooke is a student in environmental science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an amazing young audio storyteller. Anja chats with Brooke about plastic pollution, and you’ll get to listen to a special edit of Guilty Plastics. It features environmental activist Rob Greenfield, who grows his own food to avoid packaging, and chemistry professor David Tyler with a surprising answer to the question: Paper bag or plastic bag? You can listen to all 4 parts of Brooke’s series here: https://soundcloud.com/guiltyplastics The Plastisphere is a research and interview podcast by German freelance journalist Anja Krieger. Transcript: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2020/07/27/ep10-transcript/ Subscribe: www.plastisphere.earth Updates on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram: PlastispherePod Music: Dorian Roy and Blue Dot Sessions www.sessions.blue/ Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen

Plastic pollution seems to be a pretty new issue, right? In the past few years, the topic has been all over the media. But if you explore the history of science, it turns out that the problem really isn’t all that new. Some scientists have been aware of plastic in the ocean for over half a century. So, how was plastic pollution first discovered? And why didn’t we hear about it earlier? In this episode, Anja speaks to scientists who called attention to the problem long before it was widely discussed. What happened back then, and how did we get to where we are now? Ed Carpenter, Steve Rothstein, Elizabeth Venrick, Arne Holmström, Hans van Weenen and Peter Ryan share their stories. The Plastisphere is a research and interview podcast by German freelance journalist Anja Krieger. Transcript: https://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2020/07/17/ep-9-transcript/ Subscribe: www.plastisphere.earth Updates on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram: PlastispherePod Music: Dorian Roy and Blue Dot Sessions www.sessions.blue/ Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen
 With: Adam Huggins and Mendel Skulski of https://www.futureecologies.net/ podcast and http://www.terencemickey.com/ of Memory Motel Sound credits: Ingrid Pollet, Yle Arkisto and Klankbeeld on Freesound.org (CC-BY-Attribution 3.0): https://freesound.org/people/YleArkisto/sounds/271524/ https://freesound.org/people/klankbeeld/sounds/192297/ Thanks to: Max Planck Institute for the History of Science: Hansjakob Ziemer, Stephanie Hood, Jürgen Renn, Christoph Rosol, Matthias Schwerdt, Ruth Kessentini, Ellen Garske, the library team and Anthropocene group; Ingrid Pollet, Jeffrey Meikle, Cindy Gierhart, Tim Howard, Deborah Blum, Christian Schwägerl, Luisa Beck, Brooke Watkins, Keridwen Cornelius, Eva Vander Gießen, Ines Blaesius, Rebecca Altman, Peter Spork, the people at Netzwerk Recherche and the Schöpflin Foundation, Erica Cirino, Chris Rose, Linda Godfrey, John Farrington, Kara Lavender Law, Gilbert Rowe, Bruce Burns, W.R.P. Bourne

For this episode, Anja tried something new: She asked listeners, researchers and podcasters to send her audio comments on what is happening now during the coronavirus pandemic. In this episode, you’ll hear some of the messages that arrived in her inbox the past weeks. With input from Justine Ammendolia, Wade Roush, Brooke Bauman, Sedat Gündoğdu, Jacqui Kidman, Susanne Brander, Rebecca Altman, Sydney Harris, Tridibesh Dey and Merijn Tinga. Audio from Hong Kong by Gary Stokes. The Plastisphere is a research and interview podcast by German freelance journalist Anja Krieger. Subscribe: www.plastisphere.earth Transcript with links and (coming soon!) images: http://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2020/04/29/ep-8-transcript-covid-19-plastics-in-times-of-the-coronavirus/ Additional resources on Covid-19 and plastics: http://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2020/05/06/ep-8-list-of-resources/ Music: Dorian Roy and Blue Dot Sessions www.sessions.blue/ Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen
 Thanks to: Mendel Skulski, Marcy Trent Long Sound credits: Wind by TRP on freesound.org under the CC-By license https://freesound.org/people/TRP/sounds/203239/ Updates on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram: PlastispherePod

What happens if bioplastics end up in the environment? In this episode, Anja takes a closer look at synthetic polymers marketed as more environmentally friendly. Can they contribute to a healthier planet, and in what way? Anja talks to Frederik Wurm, a chemist developing biodegradable plastics, Constance Ißbrücker of the industry association European Bioplastics, Zero Waste expert Enzo Favoino, marine microbiologist Linda Amaral-Zettler and ecotoxicologist Lisa Zimmermann. Though biodegradable plastics might not fullfill our hopes, it turns out that they might make sense in some niche applications. The Plastisphere is a research and interview podcast by German freelance journalist Anja Krieger. Subscribe: www.plastisphere.earth Support the production: patreon.com/plastispherepodcast or riffreporter.de/plastisphere Transcript with links and images: http://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2019/07/14/ep7-transcript/ This episode was inspired and partly supported by Ensia, the solutions-focused nonprofit media outlet reporting on our changing planet. Learn more at www.ensia.com/ Read more about bioplastics on Ensia: https://ensia.com/features/bioplastics-bio-based-biodegradable-environment/ Music: Dorian Roy and Blue Dot Sessions www.sessions.blue/ 
Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen
 Thanks to: Ines Blaesius, Stephanie Hood, Luisa Beck, Sirine Rached, MPIWG, University of Plymouth, Marcus Anhäuser German post on RiffReporter: riffreporter.de/plastisphere/bioplastik Updates on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram: PlastispherePod

Plastic pollution also affects the soil, the thin layer of ground that feeds all of us. For a long time, this terrestrial plastic has been overlooked. Now scientists are starting to investigate the extent and impacts of plastic pollution in the soil and in the ground. What do we know about them? In this episode, Anja talks to artist Saša Spačal from Slovenia, soil biologist Matthias Rillig from Germany, Brazilian environmental scientist Abel Machado and geologist Reinhold Leinfelder. She learns more about the potential impacts and traces plastic leaves behind in the ground. The Plastisphere is a research and interview podcast by German freelance journalist Anja Krieger. Subscribe: http://plastisphere.earth Support the production: http://patreon.com/plastispherepodcast or http://riffreporter.de/plastisphere Transcript with links and images: http://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2019/04/19/ep-6-transcript/ Music: Dorian Roy and Blue Dot Sessions www.sessions.blue/ 
Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen
 Thanks to: Julie Comfort, Brooke Watkins, Sedat Gündoğdu, Sam Athey, and Joachim Budde for editing the German post on RiffReporter Updates on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram: PlastispherePod

Chris Jordan has taken some of the most iconic pictures to shape our image of plastic pollution. He traveled to Midway Island on his quest to photograph the evasive "Great Pacific Garbage Patch", which is really a soup of microplastics. There, he documented albatross chicks who had died with their guts full of plastic. His images went viral, but they also haunted him so much that he decided to return to the island. In this episode of the podcast, Chris tells Anja how working on his film "Albatross" transformed him and his view on tackling plastic pollution. The Plastisphere is a research and interview podcast by German freelance journalist Anja Krieger. Transcript with links, images and tweets: http://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2018/12/30/ep-5-transcript/ Twitter, Facebook, Instagram: @PlastispherePod Subscribe: anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/ Support: www.patreon.com/plastispherepodcast 
Support (German): www.riffreporter.de/plastisphere/?accounting=open Music: Dorian Roy and Blue Dot Sessions www.sessions.blue/ 
Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen
 Thanks to: Markus Knigge, Kim Gruetzmacher of the Berlin Ocean Dinner and Ines, Susie, Volkart, Sara, Craig, Wicki and James at the Sonic Soirée Berlin German post on RiffReporter: https://www.riffreporter.de/plastisphere/albatross/

Plastic pollution might be the most visible environmental issue we face today. But there are other kinds of pollution, and they are far harder to see. One of the most dangerous is the huge amount of greenhouse gases that we emit into the atmosphere. In this episode, Anja explores the connections between plastic pollution and climate change. She talks to ocean expert and publisher Nikolaus Gelpke, youth activist Lilly Platt, oceanographer Sarah-Jeanne Royer and climate expert Gunnar Luderer to understand whether plastic and climate are buddies or enemies. As with many relationships: It’s complicated. The Plastisphere is a research and interview podcast by German freelance journalist Anja Krieger. Transcript with links, images and tweets: http://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2018/12/07/ep-4-transcript/ Twitter, Facebook, Instagram: @PlastispherePod Subscribe: anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/ Support: www.patreon.com/plastispherepodcast Support (German): www.riffreporter.de/plastisphere/?accounting=open Music: Dorian Roy and Blue Dot Sessions www.sessions.blue/ Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen Thanks to: Eleanor Platt, Ines Blaesius, Kathleen Mar, Sasha Chapman and Christian Schwägerl, Marcy Trent Long and Sustainable Asia, Melanie Bergmann, Laura Markley, Simon Hirsbrunner, Martin Wagner, Kennedy Bucci, and Alicia Matteos. German post on RiffReporter: https://www.riffreporter.de/plastisphere/plastik-klima/

In this episode, Anja calls up Dr. Jenna Jambeck and Amy Brooks from the University of Georgia on a research trip in Vietnam to learn about their research on waste management and plastic pollution. In many Asian countries, a booming economy is coupled with more and more people using throw-away items. Informal recyclers and waste pickers who have traditionally sorted the waste cannot keep up. But, like millions of people around the world, they depend on waste as a resource for their livelihoods. How can the systems be reformed without leaving the people behind? To find out more, Anja calls Dr. Sonia Maria Dias, a garbologist from Brazil, who tells her about how waste management should include the working poor. The Plastisphere is a research and interview podcast by German freelance journalist Anja Krieger. Transcript with links and pictures http://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2018/10/06/ep-3-millions-of-waste-pickers/ Twitter, Facebook, Instagram: @PlastispherePod Subscribe: anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/ Support: www.patreon.com/plastispherepodcast Support (German): www.riffreporter.de/plastisphere/?accounting=open Music: Dorian Roy and Blue Dot Sessions https://sessions.blue/ Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen Thanks to: Ines Blaesius, Luisa Beck, Daniella Cheslow, the Wiego staff, and Karl Urban for editing the German version for RiffReporter https://www.riffreporter.de/plastisphere/muell-asien/

Anja goes on a lab tour with Alexandra ter Halle from Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse. The chemist and her team were the first to detect nanoplastic in the open ocean - plastic so small that it is comparable in size to a virus. What do we know about these very tiny pieces, and how do researchers try to detect and understand them? The Plastisphere is a research and interview podcast by German freelance journalist Anja Krieger. Transcript with links and pictures: http://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2018/09/14/ep-2-transcript/ Twitter, Facebook, Instagram: @PlastispherePod Subscribe: anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/ Support: www.patreon.com/plastispherepodcast Support (German): www.riffreporter.de/plastisphere/?accounting=open Music: Dorian Roy and Blue Dot Sessions https://sessions.blue/ Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen Thanks to: Ines Blaesius, Luisa Beck, Tim Howard, Melanie Bergmann, Deborah Blum and the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT, and Joachim Budde for editing the German version for RiffReporter: https://www.riffreporter.de/plastisphere/makro-mikro-nanoplastik/

In this introduction to the Plastisphere podcast, Anja takes the listener on a journey back in time, from a remote plastic beach on the Big Island of Hawaii to the factory of a big chemical producer making bioplastics. She shares what she has learned about the issue of plastic pollution in the past years. The Plastisphere is an interview and research podcast by German freelance journalist Anja Krieger. Transcript with pictures: http://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2018/09/02/ep1-transcript/ Twitter, Facebook, Instagram: @PlastispherePod Subscribe: http://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/ Support: https://www.patreon.com/plastispherepodcast Support (German): https://www.riffreporter.de/plastisphere/?accounting=open Music: Dorian Roy and Blue Dot Sessions https://sessions.blue Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen Thanks to: Ines Blaesius and Susie Kahlich of http://www.artipoeus.com