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 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 out how the plastic industry is behind one of the 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

Overcoming Fear