Plastisphere: A podcast on plastic pollution in the environment

It's the elephant in the room: The growth of plastic production and how that contributes to pollution. In this episode, we're taking a look at why it's important to not only tackle the waste plastic causes, but also the source of the issue itself. Anja discusses this with Melanie Bergmann, a marine biologist at Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research and a plastic pollution researcher for more than a decade, and Kristian Syberg, an environmental scientist and planner from Roskilde University. Both are members of the Scientists' Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty. Sources mentioned: - Cowger et al. (2024), Global producer responsibility for plastic pollution, Science Advances https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adj8275 - Borrelle et al. (2020), Predicted growth in plastic waste exceeds efforts to mitigate plastic pollution, Science https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aba3656 - Lau et al. (2020), Evaluating scenarios toward zero plastic pollution, Science https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aba9475 - Geyer et al. (2017), Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made, Science Advances https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1700782 - A.E. Higginson, Greater London Council (1971): The view of a local authority, in: Plastics waste in the environment. Plastics & Polymers supplement No. 4, September 1971, The Plastics Institute, London (not online, can be ordered via libraries). For a screenshot of the first pages, check out this post on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7401522510678163456?commentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A%28activity%3A7401522510678163456%2C7401528231109234690%29&dashCommentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_comment%3A%287401528231109234690%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7401522510678163456%29

You’ve probably heard the mantra of reduce, reuse, recycle. And oftentimes, it’s that last word, recycle, that we think of when looking to solve plastic pollution. But the order of that mantra has a deeper meaning, it’s a hierachy, sorted by priorities. So to reduce the waste we produce, the first and best way is to reduce what we use. If that’s not possible, the second best option is to reuse, to repair, or repurpose. Only if if that is not viable anymore should we consider recycling. We already discussed these steps towards a circular economy in our previous episode. In this follow-up, we’ll take a look at reuse with Froilan Grate, the Asia-Pacific Director of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), based in the Philippines, and Salisa Traipipitsiriwat from Thailand, a Senior Campaigner at the Environmental Justice Foundation, also part of GAIA. Intro in Thai by Salisa.

When we speak about plastic pollution, a central idea to solve it is that of the circular economy. And when this idea of circularity is mentioned, recycling is often the first thing that comes to mind. But recycling is just one of the elements in the toolbox towards a circular society, and not necessarily the most preferable one. A few months ago, I had the chance to chat about this with Arturo Castillo, an assistant professor in circular economy and circular society at Utrecht University. Arturo is a member of the Scientists Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty, and during the negotiations in Geneva, he took me on a journey through the many meanings of the circular economy.

Wouldn’t it be great to have something like guilt-free plastics? A plastic product you can just buy without worrying that you are contributing to pollution in the environment? That’s the promise of plastic credits. The idea is that if you do have to buy a plastic product, this amount of plastic is being offset or saved from the environment somewhere else. This is similar to the concept of carbon credits to tackle climate change. But there’s a lot of criticism of the idea of offsetting plastics or greenhouse gases this way. Are these credits really doing what they claim to do? In this episode we’re going to hear a story from Kenya, and more specifically, Dandora. Dandora is a neighborhood in Nairobi and the home of Kenya’s biggest dumpside - an open field with mountains of trash and waste. It’s the workplace of Dandora’s waste pickers, the people making a living from collecting anything valuable they find on the dumpsite. These waste pickers doing a hard and dangerous job, and face a lot of competition. They compete with the big machines that move the trash around, their fellow waste workers, and now, they are also competing with a new concept: Plastic credits. I learned more about this on the sidelines of the plastic treaty talks in Geneva this summer, where I met Benard Ogembo from Kenya and Conor McGlone from the UK, the two journalists who investigated the connection between plastic credits and the Dandora dumpsite. We were later joined by Arpita Bhagat, the plastic policy lead of GAIA Asia Pacific, an organization with deep insights into the situation of waste pickers. Read Benard's and Conor's story on Desmog: https://www.desmog.com/2025/08/05/new-global-market-for-plastic-credits-threatens-livelihoods-at-kenyan-dump/ Read the GAIA Smoke & Mirrors report: https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/NOV-29-2023_Smoke-and-Mirrors-the-Realities-of-Plastic-Credits-and-Offsetting.pdf Original sounds from the Dandora dumpsite in Anja's intro by James Wakibia. Intro in Dholuo by Benard Ogembo.

+++Podcast recommendation+++ There’s a concrete yard with piles of plastic, and lying on the ground is the body of a boy – grotesquely ripped apart. Who was he? And what really happened to him? A team of award-winning investigative journalists, including ENDS Report’s Tess Colley and Pippa Neill, set out to find out. Listen to all three episodes here: https://www.endsreport.com/article/1932516/listen-boy-wasted-bale-plastic-mystery-body-global-investigation ...or wherever you find your podcasts.