The Zero Waste Countdown Podcast

135. Pipelines on Indigenous Land

Canada has some of the most ethical and environmentally friendly processes for extracting and transporting oil and gas in the world, yet we've become a hotspot for pipeline protestors who often recruit indigenous people to strengthen their efforts. The truth is that not all indigenous people and groups oppose pipelines in Canada for many different reasons. We explore some of these reasons from an indigenous perspective, as well as the process Canada goes through to put a pipeline through or near indigenous land.

 

Melissa Mbarki is a Policy Analyst and Outreach Coordinator in the Indigenous Policy Program at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. She works in acquisition/divestment, environmental site assessments and abandonment/reclamation projects and has joins the Zero Waste Countdown to talk about pipelines on indigenous land.

Photo Source: https://www.commodityresearchgroup.com/us-canadian-pipelines-refineries-map-capp/

We discuss throughout this episode how pipelines are the safest mode of oil and gas transport and when environmental groups block them, it means we get our oil from countries with poor human rights and environmental records while increasing the number of dangerous rail cars and polluting diesel trucks.

134.Electronic Waste With Sunnking

 

 

 

Sunnking is an electronic waste recovery service in New York that recycles over 25 million pounds every year.

 

Adam Shine is the Vice President of Sunnking, one of the biggest electronic waste recyclers in the country.

 

 

 

Adam tells us how electronic recycling works, why it's so important, and what it takes to keep electronics out of landfill.

 

 

 

 

 

133. Love Zero Waste

Evelina Lundqvist and Malin Leth host the Love Zero Waste Podcast and share what it's like living zero waste in Austria and Sweden. 

132. Emerald Packaging

There has been a gigantic increase in the demand for plastic food packaging since the Covid pandemic started.

Kevin Kelly is the CEO of Emerald Packaging, a family-owned plastic packaging company in the US. He's disturbed by the significant, increased demand in plastic packaging on food due to Covid. He's even been kicked out of Whole Foods for trying to bring his own grocery bags!

Kevin joins the Zero Waste Countdown to talk about the plastic packaging industry and what he feels we can do to reduce plastic waste while working with producers and consumers to come up with reasonable solutions.

131.Zero Waste in India

 

 

Sahar Mansoor and Tim de Ridder are the co-authors of Bare Necessities: How to Live a Zero-Waste Life.

 

 

Sahar is also the founder and CEO of Bare Necessities and joined the conversation from her home in India. 

 

 

We discuss their new book, and how the Indian entrepreneurial spirit is tackling waste. For example, spent flowers from temples and river beds are upcycled into powdered colours to celebrate Holi festival each year.

 

Photo from MemphisTours.com

 

Photo from MemphisTours.com https://www.memphistours.com/India/india-travel-guide/festivals-in-india/wiki/festival-of-colors-in-india

 

130. A.I., Biotech, & Palm Oil

 

 

 

Leonardo Alvarez is the Chief Executive Officer of Protera, a biotech company he founded in his early 20's alongside his colleague, now Chief Operating Officer Francia Navarrete.

Mr. Alvarez has a biotechnology engineering degree from Universidad Andres Bello in Santiago, Chile.

 

 

 

He joins the show to talk about how AI and biotech are helping to solve our food waste problem as well as our destructive addiction to palm oil. Palm Oil is approximately a $57 billion market, making it the largest commercialized edible oil in the world. This harvesting of palm oil for corporations to produce many household products can lead to mass deforestation and larger environmental issues that follow. Protera is working on solving this issue by developing a better alternative.

129. Diamonds From The Air

 

 

 

Early in 2021 Elon Musk offered $100M in prize money for new carbon capture technology and there's a company already using carbon capture tech: Aether Diamonds.

 

 

 

Aether Diamonds is taking that captured carbon from the air and turning it into diamonds, which also alleviates the need for massive diamond mine operations and conflict or blood diamonds.

 

 

 

Ryan Shearman is a mechanical engineer turned entrepreneur with a background in material science and over 10 years of professional experience in jewelry and tech. He joins the Zero Waste Countdown to tell us all about his company that makes diamonds from the air.

128. UBQ Materials

 

 

Liat Arad is the VP of Marketing for UBQ Materials, a company that's spent many years developing a patented process to convert unsorted waste -- everything from banana peels to yogurt containers to mixed plastics and paper -- to create a sustainable, plastic alternative that can be used in the production of everyday goods. 

 

 

UBQ just unveiled the use of its material in a new sustainable McDonald's fast food tray, through a partnership with the world's largest McDonald's franchisee, Arcos Dorados. (See coverage of that partnership in Fast Company).  
The company has also struck deals with the State of Virginia and Daimler, among other notable customers.

 

 

 

 

127. Open Source 3D Printing

 

 

 

Joshua M. Pearce, Ph.D., is the Richard Witte Professor of Materials Science & Engineering, Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Director of the Michigan Tech Open Sustainability Technology (MOST) Lab at Michigan Technological University. He's also the Visiting Professor of Photovoltaics and Nanoengineering at the School of Electrical Engineering at Aalto University, Finland, and the author of Create, Share, and Save Money Using Open-Source Projects.

 

His new book is a treasure trove of resources for anyone getting into 3D printing! How is this sustainable? Josh has figured out how to turn waste into high value products by using a plastic shredder for household plastic waste, and then he's built a recyclebot that turns that shredded plastic into filament for 3D printing. 

A 3D printer can also be paired with a portable solar panel and operated anywhere in the world, an exciting implication for places with intermittent or no electrical grid at all.  

126. NYC Fashion Designer Jussara Lee

Jussara Lee is a longtime fashion designer in New York City who came to New York to study fashion from Brazil and now focuses on fashion sustainability.

Jussara joins the Zero Waste Countdown to talk about overseas labour issues in fashion, organically grown fabrics, natural dying, and what the zero waste scene is like in New York with her friends and zero waste advocates Zero Waste Daniel and Lauren Singer.