#PlasticsTreaty Shorts: Waste Colonialism with Nirere Sadrach and Sharifa Ismail

#PlasticsTreaty Shorts: Waste Colonialism with Nirere Sadrach and Sharifa Ismail

Author: Anja Krieger November 16, 2023 Duration: 7:15
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/

Anja Krieger hosts Plastisphere: A podcast on plastic pollution in the environment, a series that digs into the complex story of synthetic polymers. This isn't just a catalog of environmental damage, though that reality is confronted directly. Instead, the podcast carefully examines how these materials, foundational to contemporary life, now permeate every corner of the natural world and our own bodies. Anja guides listeners through a nuanced exploration, asking whether a sustainable coexistence is even possible. She doesn't provide easy answers but facilitates necessary conversations, bringing together researchers, activists, industry insiders, and communities on the front lines. Each episode is built on specific stories and scientific insights, moving from the deep ocean to human bloodstreams to policy halls. You'll hear about the chemistry of plastics, their journey as waste, and the cultural and economic systems that perpetuate their use. The strength of this podcast lies in its commitment to presenting a genuine spectrum of perspectives, avoiding simple blame in favor of understanding a truly global dilemma. It’s a thoughtful, sometimes surprising, and always human-centered look at one of the most defining material challenges of our time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Plastisphere: A podcast on plastic pollution in the environment
Podcast Episodes
Forever Chemicals (Teaser) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:15
Happy World Environment Day! We’ve got a treat for you. There’s a new podcast series which is really great – and we wanted to share it with you. It’s called Forever Chemicals, and it’s produced by Meg Carney and team at…
Pushing Back Against Corporate Capture at #INC4 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:08
It's Monday, April 29, 2024, and the INC4, the fourth round of negotiations for the plastics treaty, is in the final hours. Negotiators of countries from around the world are sitting in conference rooms in Ottawa, Canada…
Plastic Money - Turning Off the Subsidies Tap [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 15:17
In March 2024, negotiators and experts came together in Bellagio, Italy, for an exclusive meeting to discuss an essential topic: Plastic money. And we’re not talking about credit cards here, but the actual money we peopl…
The Indisposable Podcast: Bioplastics and Plastic Alternatives [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:03
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 unde…