The Zero Waste Countdown Podcast

    Mushrooms have been eaten by people for thousands of years, or perhaps even longer. They are used as a healthy food source, as medicine, fire starter, meat replacement for vegans, and Ikea is even experimenting with using them as packaging! There is promising hope that certain types of mushrooms could help with cancer and mental health issues.       Denis Vidmar is a second-generation mushroom expert and enthusiast. He joins the Zero Waste Countdown to talk about staying healthy with mushrooms and his business TheMushHub.com .       Denis Vidmar From The Mush Hub      https://www.brianmuraresku.com/the-immortality-key

    Rick Nahmias is the founder and CEO of Food Forward, an organization based in L.A. that addresses food waste and food insecurity. In July 2021 they had their biggest month on record with 7 million pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables recovered, helping to meet the food needs of 150,000 people.       Rick joins the show to talk about the growth of the organization over 9 years, how fresh fruit is recovered on such a large scale, and why Southern California and particularly L.A. is a hub for fresh fruit recovery.

    Cuba is known as a beautiful tourist destination with colourful landscapes and beach resorts. But what is it like to live under a communist government? Is it better for the environment?     Daylin Horruitiner of Spanglish Generation is a Cuban American born in Cuba. She creates content that gathers attention to the plight of the Cuban people under such strict governing, and joins the Zero Waste Countdown to discuss what environmentalism looks like under a communist regime.      While the environmental movement in the West seems to insatiably tug further and further to the left, Daylin discusses the dangers in going too far to any side of the political spectrum. She explains environmental issues such as rolling blackouts, why the Cuban government imposed food rations that particularly targeted beef, and how environmental protests in Cuba are often organized by the government themselves in order to get foreign funding.        

            Lou Corbett works with plants in a cabin in the woods north of Toronto. She founded Northshore Apothecary where she sells her products, all made sustainably. She takes great care to ensure the natural environment around her is healthy, while creating products from the natural world that benefit us and our own health.           Lou joins the Zero Waste Countdown to talk about her processes, scent distillation, sustainable harvesting, and how we can use invasive species to our advantage.         Connecting with plants, whether that be through aromatherapy, food, bath soaks, creams, or even just learning about plants and choosing not to use them, can help us forge relationships with the outdoors and with our own health.         Check out her story on Instragram: @northshore_apothecary and if you'd like to buy one of Lou's wildcraft products for yourself or for a loved one, she gave us this discount code: WILDCRAFT10 to save 10%.                    

    Julie Cielo is the founder of Ferm Fatale, a shrub kombucha mocktail company offered in sustainable packaging. She started Ferm Fatale to replace alcoholic drinks with something much healthier for our gut.     Julie walks us through her autoimmune journey that led her into taking control of her own health and wellness while giving us tips on how to do so ourselves.         She discusses the link between gut, body, and mind health and how we can keep all of them working together harmoniously in these difficult times. Coupon code ZEROWASTE20 to save 20% if you'd like to try Ferm Fatale.

      NewLife Forest Restoration is a lumber manufacturer with sawmills located in Heber and Williams, Arizona. This lumber manufacturer prides itself on its Zero Waste Initiative and works closely with the U.S. Forest Service to ensure sustainable, healthy forests. Their mission is to protect Arizona from catastrophic wildfires by restoring the four national forests in Arizona to a healthier and more natural ecosystem.       Through their sustainable forestry approach, NewLife protects the health of the beautiful forestland and makes products such as animal bedding, wood chips, engineered wood and more while reducing the forests' ability to light up into forest fires. They are also creating skilled jobs in the area.       Jason Rosamond is the founder of NewLife Forest Restoration and he joins the Zero Waste Countdown to discuss his zero waste forestry initiatives.  

  Each year, 11 billion kilograms of dried green coffee is processed for export, but it's only a tiny portion of the plant. Over 45 billion kilograms of cascara (the fruity pulp that surrounds the coffee bean on the plant) is also produced, and 70% is thrown to waste.     Paul Evers has come up with a solution to mitigate coffee waste, support coffee farmers, and clean up the planet by using cascara for an energy drink called Riff.     If you'd like to try it, you can use discount code ZEROWASTE for 20% off within the United States at letsriff.com.

    Aura 7 Activewear is made with recycled fibers from ghost fishing nets and other ocean waste. Their mission is to clean more seas and plant more trees by donating 1% of all revenues to Healthy Seas and with every purchase, a tree is planted with One Tree Planted. The Southern California brand became a celebrity favorite worn by Kristen Bell, Gabrielle Union, Jessica Alba, Lucy Hale, and Keke Palmer to name a few. Aura7 has been featured in VOGUE, Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, US Weekly, and The Zoe Report for revolutionizing the activewear industry by bringing in some much needed changes in sustainability.     Francisksa Bray-Mezey, Aura7 Founder  Francisksa Bray-Mezey is a yoga instructor, mother, and founder of Aura7 Activewear. She joins the Zero Waste Countdown to discuss her brand and the sustainability behind it.     Host Laura Nash wearing Aura7

    Iryna Rosetti Pacheco spent many years as a chemist in the cleaning industry before developing a new cleaning product called Neatly, which comes without plastic packaging or harmful chemicals.      Her product is available on her shop's website Dew South, a zero waste shop based in Canada.        

  Sarah Midlane-Jones is the communications coordinator for Bay of Quinte Remedial Action Plan, an organization dedicated to keeping the water clean in the Bay of Quinte on the northern shore of Lake Ontario.   Photo of Moira River flowing into Bay of Quinte from https://www.greatlakesscuttlebutt.com/news/featured-destination/come-ashore-discover-the-bay-of-quinte-region/     For thousands of years rivers have been used around the world for waste removal. Cities would throw waste in and watch it head downstream where it's no longer their problem. Sadly this still happens all over the world today in developing countries. When the city of Belleville, on the north shore of Lake Ontario was settled and developed, a lot of waste ended up going down the Moira River into the Bay of Quinte. Locals here still remember when Zwick's Park was a landfill and the Bay of Quinte had a dirty reputation.         Fast forward to today and the landfill mound is a grassy hill, popular for tobogganing in the wintertime, with a few short pipes allowing any gases to escape. The water is closely monitored and usually safe for swimming. The Bay of Quinte is one of the best spots in the world for walleye fishing while turtles, ducks and swans are spotted on the surface.   BELLEVILLE, ONTARIO- AUGUST 1, 2013- South George Park. photo by Simon Wilson/ Canadian Press Images     The Bay of Quinte is an environmental success story and proof that we can restore our eco systems and waterways while continuing to grow our population in a sustainable way.  

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.

      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.          

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

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.

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

      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.

      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.

    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.        

      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.  

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.

      Heather MacMillan from Heather's Hearth is a professional sourdough bread maker and educator, hosting sourdough classes around the Ottawa and Barry's Bay area (I took her course at MKC!).       Heather joins the Zero Waste Countdown to talk about the history of sourdough, fermentation, gut health, and lends us some tips and tricks for getting our own sourdough nice and tasty.       Sourdough bread is an important part of my family's zero waste lifestyle, because we keep the loaf in a cupboard upside down on a plate and use it for toast every morning with our own hen's eggs. We don't have to drive into town for bread and eggs, we don't have to buy bread in plastic bags or store the bread in plastic, and we don't have to ingest all those questionable ingredients that are listed on bread from the grocery store.

      Madawaska Kanu Centre (MKC) west of Ottawa is a sustainable whitewater paddling school and resort, offering guests whitewater experiences, friendly staff, and incredible food.     Stefi Van Wijk is the third generation to run operations at MKC, and she joins the show to talk about resort sustainability, the special relationship the resort has with the upstream dam, and how whitewater is a powerful way to connect with nature.   Ronin Nash, pictured above, learned how to whitewater kayak at MKC in 2020 at age 9. He can't wait to go back this summer!  

  The Canadian federal government recently announced that it would order about 19 salmon farms closed in British Columbia (BC) but without any local community consultation. Farmed salmon is BC's number one agri-food export and provides thousands of tonnes of nutrients to people around the world, so why would they do this?     Michelle Franze is the Manager of Communications, Partnerships and Community at the BC Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA) and Co-Founder and Director of BCSFA Youth Council. She joins the ZWC to explain how fish farming works, why it's so sustainable, and the reasons behind the Canadian federal government's ordered shut down.        

    Caption: A team led by researchers at the University of Washington Tacoma, UW and Washington State University Puyallup have discovered a chemical that kills coho salmon in urban streams before the fish can spawn. Shown here Edward Kolodziej (left), an associate professor in both the UW Tacoma Division of Sciences & Mathematics and the UW Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering; Jenifer McIntyre (right), an assistant professor at WSU School of the Environment in Puyallup; and Zhenyu Tian (background), a research scientist at the Center for Urban Waters at UW Tacoma, are at Longfellow Creek, an urban creek in the Seattle area. Credit: Mark Stone/University of Washington   Coho Salmon have been dying off in urban areas of the Pacific Northwest for years. Scientists have been working hard to figure out why, but have thousands of chemicals to sort through that enter creeks through storm runoff.     Caption: A team led by researchers at the University of Washington Tacoma, UW and Washington State University Puyallup have discovered a chemical that kills coho salmon in urban streams before the fish can spawn. Shown here Zhenyu Tian (left), a research scientist at the Center for Urban Waters at UW Tacoma; Jenifer McIntyre (right), an assistant professor at WSU School of the Environment in Puyallup; and Edward Kolodziej (right, background), an associate professor in both the UW Tacoma Division of Sciences & Mathematics and the UW Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, are at Longfellow Creek, an urban creek in the Seattle area. Credit: Mark Stone/University of Washington   Edward P. Kolodziej is an Associate Professor at the University of Washington with a Civil and Environmental Engineering background and currently working at the Center for Urban Waters. He was part of a study that isolated the preservative compound 6PPD found in tires as the culprit responsible for killing coho salmon.     Edward joins the Zero Waste Countdown from Tacoma to tell us all about the study, why salmon are so important to the health of our ecosystems, how the culprit was found, and what we can do going forward to prevent salmon die-offs.     Caption: A preservative in vehicle tires keeps them from breaking down too quickly. 6PPD reacts with ozone and is transformed into multiple chemicals, including the toxic chemical the researchers found that is responsible for killing coho salmon. Credit: Mark Stone/University of Washington  

        2.7 million takeaway coffee cups are being sent to landfill in Australia each day. Luckily, Catherine Hutchins and Aniyo Rahebi founded a new startup called Good-Edi, making edible takeaway coffee cups to mitigate the problem of coffee cup waste.       The cups are made locally in Melbourne with the goal to one day provide edible cups to all of Australia. The cups are grain-based, vegan, and they take less than two weeks to break down.    

    Jocelyn Burzuik, President and Senior Construction Manager at Sundance Construction, joins the Zero Waste Countdown once again to talk about a very important issue here in Canada that she has lots of personal experience with: clean drinking water for First Nations and remote Canadian communities.   When treated water is filtered with chlorine it creates trihalomethanes (THMs), causing problems for northern communities that lead to people bathing in bottled water to avoid rashes, and sometimes people need flights into bigger cities with hospitals for treatment. We also see antibiotics being prescribed to combat H. pylori which leads to antibiotic resistance in our communities.   But can't we just drill a well and be good to go? It's not so simple. Even where I live, drilling a well for one family was complicated, problematic, and expensive. Drilling to get enough water for a whole community in the north is much more complicated and expensive when we add in the costs of getting equipment to remote places. UV with ultrasonics could be the answer.   Jocelyn discusses identity politics and how the Canadian government divides people up by race, which ends up with some communities not being able to share their federal infrastructure with other communities.       Extra Reading:       https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/attawapiskat-water-quality-emergency-1.5204652   https://canadians.org/analysis/attawapiskat-water-crisis-another-failure-federal-government-provide-safe-water-first-nations   https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/h-pylori/symptoms-causes/syc-20356171  

Jocelyn Burzuik is the President and Senior Construction Manager of Sundance Construction in Manitoba, and when it comes to her new housing development, affordability is directly related to sustainability! Jocelyn combines her Metis heritage and First Nations concepts of community, with the physical housing designs of Icelandic culture, to build a northern Canadian neighbourhood built with wellbeing and sustainability at the forefront. While housing developments often go up as fast as possible after a forest clearcut for the most profit possible, Jocelyn is building within nature, and using affordable designs specifically tuned to our northern climate for best efficiency, and affordability for demographics such as retirees and single parents. Concepts that promote maximum wellness and sustainable longevity for the home buyers is Jocelyn's top priority.

    Canadians pay a lot of taxes and have a lot of expenses. Far too many Canadians are struggling with poverty and have very high electricity bills, our phone bills are some of the highest in the world, and our internet is expensive.   Our cities and towns were built in the spirit of American-style car culture that makes it difficult to walk anywhere. Much of these cities were designed as urban sprawl and we have to brave a 60 degree Celsius weather variation that goes from freezing cold to very hot in the summertime. It's expensive to live near our workplaces, in large part because our government allows for so much foreign real estate ownership and our immigration rates are so high, so many people get pushed out of city centres and need a vehicle to access food and employment.     The last time I was in France, a bottle of wine was 1/4 the price of the same bottle purchased in Canada, and we have to import a lot of our fresh fruit, nuts, and berries from places like Mexico, Chile, Peru, and California because it's too cold and dark to grow a lot of food here. Transporting fresh food into Canada take a lot of fossil fuels, although we do have fresh food grown during the wintertime in massive greenhouses that require lighting and heating, and our prairie provinces are star producers of many grains. We receive giant cargo ships of goods in Vancouver and Montreal from overseas that are loaded onto trains and trucks and delivered all over our massive country. Not only is it expensive to live in Canada, but we are completely dependent on oil and gas.     Dan McTeague spent 18 years in the Canadian House of Commons as a Liberal Member of Parliament and is currently the president of affordableenergy.ca. He joins the Zero Waste Countdown to talk about the trouble with Canada's carbon tax that was forced upon unwilling provinces who didn't come up with their own carbon pricing scheme. The results have not been pretty. In fact, the argument can be made that the carbon tax takes money from the poor, and gives it to the rich. For example $12M from a "climate fund" was given to the 2nd richest family in Canada to buy new fridges, and the Ontario government used to hand out up to $14,000 to wealthy people who can afford the $137,900 Tesla Model X.     I mentioned in this episode a CBC article that says the carbon tax reduces emissions. You'll notice the title is "Scheer says British Columbia's carbon tax hasn't worked. Expert studies say it has". Many people only read headlines as they scroll through social media, but when you actually read this article, it shows one year of decreased emissions then uses the excuse that population increase should erase emissions increase. Juggling data around like this is how you can lie with statistics to say whatever you like. The CBC article says emissions have dropped in other places that have implemented a carbon tax but fails to mention any increase in efficient technology. Further in the article the CBC repeats the tagline that "most" families will get back more than they pay in carbon tax, but the trouble with using obscure words like "most" is that there's no proof, no data, and no concrete evidence. I claim it is false that "most" families receive a bigger rebate than what they pay to the government in carbon and fuel taxes, because the carbon tax on my transportation costs is more than double my rebate, without even considering the increase in food prices and propane prices (propane heats my water and while I have an electric heat pump to heat my home, propane is required for temperatures lower than about minus 15 Celsius). If you scroll down to the bottom of the article you will see CBC felt compelled to issue a correction that the carbon tax is revenue neutral, which falls in line with what Mr. McTeague is saying, that this is just another tax that fills the coffers of greedy politicians. When you compare the title of this CBC article with the actual content, it's misleading. Here's an article from a trustworthy source that contradicts the CBC article claiming the carbon tax reduced emissions in BC: https://www.taxpayer.com/newsroom/b.c.-emissions-up-despite-carbon-tax?id=18615. They are quoting data from the Sierra Club who explains that due to cherry picking certain data fields, BC emissions are actually 4 times higher than what they're actually reporting, so if we aren't scrutinizing this data ourselves, how do we know the truth? Personally I'm not sure what to think with all this contradictory and politically motivated information, but it seems that emissions in BC were higher in 2015 than in 2010, indicating that emissions in BC have increased despite the carbon tax. The BC government cherry picked data to show emissions decreased by purposely leaving out BC's energy exports (coal!), and their forestry industry, demonstrating how easy it is to lie with statistics.     There are many factors to consider for increases and decreases in Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGs), such as new tech, government policies, markets, international relations, immigration, and a worldwide pandemic. If you don't know which factors were included in the charts that show increasing or decreasing emissions, you really can't tell if the article you're reading is true or not. You can see here on BC's government site the different emission charts, and you can see coal mining does have a chart, but I doubt this includes the actual usage of that coal in other countries.      You can basically say GHGs have gone up or down, depending on which information you want to cherry pick to make your argument. This is why we need to be weary of data, statistics, and even news sources we have grown up trusting, because they often have an agenda.   It's up to you, the listener, to look into the information you see, hear, and read, but I know that can be exhausting. I'm trying to uncover the truth on my show so that we can go forward making the greenest policies that work best for people, and not just line the pockets of wealthy politicians and their friends while plummeting honest working class citizens into poverty.     Extra references:     Billions could be missing from the new file of the previous Minister of Climate Change Catherine McKenna   Covid models have been wildly wrong, and so too can climate models   SNC Lavalin is very involved in Canada's nuclear industry, but remember the SNC Lavalin scandal even The Simpson's talked about?   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHiQg9eadPA   SNC Lavalin has done some very unethical things   Trudeau fired our first indigenous female Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould when she questioned the government's ethics over the SNC Lavalin scandal   Is SNC Lavalin trustworthy enough to be handling our nuclear waste and nuclear reactors in Canada?      

Oysters from Chesapeake Bay, Library of Congress Oysters are little nutritional bombshells. They're packed with vitamins, minerals, protein, fatty acids, and particularly of note during Covid: Vitamin D and Zinc. More than 80% of hospitalized Covid patients were found to be lacking Vitamin D, and those with low zinc levels tended to fair worse with the virus than those with healthy levels. Solar Oysters has designed a solar powered barge that will farm oysters vertically through the water column in the Chesapeake Bay area. Elizabeth Hines is the Vice President of Maritime Applied Physics Corporation engineering firm that's working on the design.   While solar panels aren't usually the best option for electricity grids, due to their intermittency and need for fossil fuel or nuclear backup, off-grid solar panels produce clean, free energy once built and installed. Oysters are a sustainable source of protein and nutrients that require little inputs.

      Justen Garrity founded Veteran Compost over a decade ago after his military service. The company focuses on two things: Employing veterans and their family members; and Turning food scraps into high-quality compost. Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans have an unemployment rate that exceeds the national average. That means that a combat vet has a harder time getting a job than the average person. Justen is not only compassionate about helping veterans, he's also helping the environment significantly by reducing landfill and making an eco friendly compost for healthy soils. https://www.veterancompost.com/

    Susanne Khün holding up a fulmar    Susanne Khün has a Ph.D from Wageningen Marine Research in the Netherlands where she has put years of research into her thesis called "Message in a belly - Plastic pathways in fulmars".       Tune in to hear all about Susanne's research on whether seabirds are ingesting plastic from fish, what's happening with toxicants from plastic once in their guts, and how ships are contributing to a fulmar's diet.       There's even some really good news about plastic pollution in the North Sea you won't want to miss!

  Scott Coffin has a Ph.D in environmental toxicology from the University of California Riverside and works for the California State Water Resources Control Board.     Scott has done many studies on toxicants in plastic that involve some fascinating scientific techniques. He found that estrogen receptors are being activated by many different toxicants in plastic, not just BPA, and discusses how this is not only worrisome for fish populations but also for humans.   Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3404660/    

    For this year's holiday episode I've collaborated with three sustainable Canadian companies with eco friendly gift ideas for the holiday season!   Dave O'Connor from Genuine Tea won best tea in Toronto in the Now Reader's Choice Awards and offers high quality teas without plastic tea bags, as well as a new line of ready to drink teas.      Madeleine Tan (pictured below with her sister) from the Rose Company in Vancouver offers a number of sustainably packaged self care products and has offered the discount code ZEROWASTECOUNTDOWN for 20% off your online purchase.        Kathryn Hogan is the founder of KMH Touches, a company offering silk and vegan dental floss that's plastic and PFAS free, so good for your body and good for the planet.         

    Lisa Zimmermann is a Ph.D researcher in the Department Aquatic Ecotoxicology at Goethe University Frankfurt and part of the PlastX Research Group. She recently conducted a study that was published in September 2020 called: Are bioplastics and plant-based materials safer than conventional plastics? In vitro toxicity and chemical composition.        Lisa discusses what she found in the study, and the implications those findings have on our choices as a consumer when it comes to packaging. She was also featured on episode 102. Toxins In Our Plastic Products.      Further comments from Lisa after recording:    1) On the question whether plants can contain toxins: Yes, some plants naturally produce toxins, e.g., as a natural defense mechanism against predators, insects or microorganisms. In a usual balanced, healthy diet, the levels of natural toxins are well below the threshold for acute and chronic toxicity. For instance potatoes contain solanines and chaconine but especially in the sprouts and green parts, that are not eaten nor used to extract starch for bio-based plastics. Compared to these single natural compounds, in the production process of conventional and bioplastics many synthetic compounds are intentionally added (e.g. additives) or get unintentionally in the product (e.g. reaction products). Some of these might be toxic at certain concentrations.     2) On how the study transfers to human health: The results of the study cannot be transferred on humans directly. Reasons include that in vitro tests were performed. Here isolated cells are used that can give first hints of effects but don't reflect the complexity in the human body. Besides, the study examined the intrinsic chemical toxicity present in the products. In a next step, migration studies with food simulants are needed in order to identify the toxicity and chemicals migrating under real-world conditions and to estimate the human exposure to those.  Thus, the study is a first step and demonstrate that the chemical mixtures contained in the analyzed plastic product have the potential to be toxic to human health (if exposure concentrations are high enough).    

    Paul Acchione is an engineer and management consultant in Ontario who has worked in the nuclear and fossil fuel industries for over 48 years and has a wealth of knowledge about how nuclear power works, how nuclear waste is stored here in Canada, and the benefits nuclear power brings to an electricity grid.    Darlington Nuclear Power Station   We discuss how public opinion of nuclear energy has changed over time during his career, the current issues around renewables, and why it's unlikely we can save the Pickering nuclear station here in Ontario, which means one of the cleanest grids in the world is about to get a lot dirtier.   

According to Hazel Technologies, the U.S. wastes more than 25 billion pounds of post-harvest fruits and vegetables annually, which amounts to over $86B in wasted resources.           Aidan Mouat is the CEO of Hazel Technologies, and they have developed small biodegradable packaging inserts that are dropped into boxes of avocados during shipping. By time-releasing temporary ethylene blockers, Hazel's tech slows the fruit's aging process. The USDA-supported solution is entirely atmospheric, does not touch the produce, and leaves no residue. Further, the technology has been tested by the country's top agricultural universities (UC Davis, Cornell, Oregon State).      Hazel has more than 150 customers (across 12 countries) which include Zespri (the world's largest kiwi distributor, based in New Zealand), Oppy (Canada's largest produce distributor), and many more. Hazel's tech is projected to be used with 3.2 billion pounds of fresh produce in 2020, preventing more than 270 million pounds from going to waste.

The Olio sharing app from the UK is reporting record numbers of users sharing food and other items during the Covid pandemic.  Tessa Clarke joins the Zero Waste Countdown to share food waste statistics and explain how her sharing app works with over 2 million users. 

      Emily Thorn Cortha is founder & president of Thorn Associates, an energy and carbon management consulting corporation, and one of Canada's top industrial energy efficiency experts. She joins the ZWC to discuss how our electricity grid works in Ontario - it's actually very clean!       Emily currently chairs the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers' (OSPE's) Energy Task Force and is a past elected director of the Board of OSPE. She is also co-founder and chair of the Board of Directors of StepUp, an organization dedicated to breakthrough energy management performance through improved gender equity, and past director of Energy Optimization and Management at Hatch Ltd., an international engineering consulting firm.     A laureate of the 2018 RelèveTO Young Professional Award and the 2020 International Energy Engineer of the Year Award, Emily has been a project manager, technical reviewer, and energy engineer for over 70 energy projects, resulting in over $100 million in implemented energy savings.   One of five Canadian instructors for the Certified Energy Manager course, and a Certified Measurement and Verification professional with a Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Emily has been featured in a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) video, on Radio Canada and on multiple podcasts. She has published 10 articles in respected journals such as Chemical Engineering Progress and has been a keynote speaker at multiple energy conferences.

Lauren Gregor is the founder of Rent A Romper based in LA, which is a monthly clothing subscription service for young children who tend to grow out of their clothing extremely quickly. Lauren joins the ZWC to talk about the environmental benefits of a clothing subscription model for kids, as well as the convenience for busy parents with growing children.

  Zion Lights is the UK Director for a group called Environmental Progress, which is a research and policy organization fighting for clean power and energy justice to achieve nature and prosperity for all.     She was previously a spokesmen for Extinction Rebellion, and she's the author of the book: The Ultimate Guide to Green Parenting, she's written for the Huffington Post, and you can find her Ted Talk on YouTube here.      We discuss the value of nuclear power, and why it's important to talk with people you may not agree with. 

Dr. Denise Hardesty is a principal researcher at CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere in Hobart, Tasmania. She's done extensive research over the years on marine plastic debris by studying sea birds, sea turtles, and waste reduction campaigns. We discuss what happens when certain marine animals digest plastic, whether it's safe for us to eat seafood that contains plastic, and what it's like to be a distinguished scientist in the field of marine debris research.

Bob Powell is the CEO of Brightmark, a disruptive and innovative company based in San Francisco who's turning plastic waste into Renewable Natural Gas (RNG), while also recycling all types of plastic.  For this “Call for Plastic Waste” - Brightmark is working to procure 1,200,000 tons per year of ALL post-use plastic types 1 through 7 from the Eastern half of the United States for recycling at its existing and soon-to-be-built plastics renewal plants nationwide.   Brightmark's Ashley, Indiana plastics renewal facility, where the plastic will be processed and transformed, is the nation's first commercial-scale plastics-to-fuel plant. The financing for the facility includes $185 million in Indiana green bonds, which were underwritten by Goldman Sachs. 

BEYONDPLASTIC has announced the 2020 award winners to those who have come up with viable alternatives to plastic pollution.   Ulrich Krzyminski is the founder of BEYONDPLASTIC and he joined the ZWC to tell us all about the award program and the 2020 winners. The BEYONDPLASTIC Award honours the innovation and creativity in sustainable product and packaging design in four categories: I. Most practical impact II. Most innovative approach III. Most beautiful solution IV. Best Initiative For each category there is a Gold, Silver and Bronze Award with trophies and cash prizes of more than 7,000 Euros in total. BEYONDPLASTIC received over 100 entries in total from 30 countries around the world. Students, designers, charities and businesses all took part to create a world with less plastic. You can find out more about the 85 nominated entries by clicking here.

  Lisa Zimmerman is a Ph.D researcher in the Department Aquatic Ecotoxicology at Goethe University Frankfurt and  part of the PlastX Research Group.     She conducted a study called Benchmarking the in Vitro Toxicity and Chemical Composition of Plastic Consumer Products. Lisa and her team took 34 products from German supermarkets like food containers, a water bottle, and a shampoo bottle, and cut them into pieces, then used an organic solvent to determine the toxic chemicals in the plastic packaging.     Lisa discussed the findings of her study, how it was conducted, and provided us some insight into what we can do to avoid harmful substances that may be in contact with our food. We discuss bioplastics, and how they might not be as healthy as we think, and I got to ask Lisa if it's true that plastic can act as a sponge by absorbing toxins.      The Study: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b02293   Plastx Group: http://www.plastx.org/https://www.facebook.com/PlastX-1735826773399950/?fref=nf

Michael Shellenberger joins the ZWC to talk about his new bestselling book Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All.  We discuss the problem of ocean plastic, highlighted in his book, but from an unusual angle - some animals have been saved from human hunting because plastic has replaced valuable animal parts. While we know plastic waste is a big problem, Michael has found some intriguing information about ocean plastic through his research. Bernadette from the Congo, one of the featured women in Michael's new book The main focus of the book is how development and progress ultimately saves the environment. We can save wild spaces by using cleaner energy, advanced technology, and therefore put less pressure on wildlife and wild lands. We discuss the hierarchy of energy which starts at wood, (even whale oil at one point!), coal, liquid natural gas, and finally nuclear. As we go up the ladder in clean energy, will it be possible for developing nations to skip the dirtier stages and go right to the cleanest energy, which is nuclear? Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Station, California   Why are people so against nuclear, and what about all that nuclear waste? What about the bomb? Tune in and listen to one of the biggest names in the environment discuss science, ideas, and personal experiences in his new book, Apocalypse Never. Suparti, who worked at the Barbie factory in Philippines   Michael Shellenberger, Founder and President of Environmental Progress   The Breakthrough Institute 

Christian Shaw is one of the founders of PlasticTides.org, an organization that matches youth interested in sustainability with mentors from around the world. His goal is to combine adventure and science through SUP (stand up paddle board) expeditions, researching ocean plastics with a device they tow behind their boards.   We discuss how to get youth involved, as well as SUP (stand up paddle boarding), and how getting out on the water for an adventure helps people care about these natural places.  There's still room to sign up students for the 2020/2021 season!  Find out more: Plastic Tides The Microbead-Free Waters Act Anato  Bad Fish SUP

Glass is very popular in the zero waste world. We know it's BPA free, and we know it's not going to end up as microplastic in our environment, or leaking out into our hot beverages. But glass is difficult to recycle, it's expensive to collect and reuse glass bottles, and glass is easily breakable. How can we increase recycling and reuse rates of glass?  Ionut Georgescu is the CEO of a non-profit called End of Waste Foundation, a blockchain service platform that's funded by environmentally conscious citizens and businesses. The funds are used to develop new technologies and offset costs associated with glass recycling.    Ionut has been a waste management expert for more than 15 years, he's worked closely with the European Commission as a Waste Director for the Romanian Ministry of Environment, and as the Chief of Staff of the President of the United Nations Environment Program.

Cora Young is an atmospheric and analytical environmental chemist from York University in Toronto. Chemical and News Engineering Magazine has named her to the Talented 12 list, which recognizes up-and-coming chemistry researchers and innovators who are tackling some of the world's most pressing issues. Cora went to the Arctic on a scientific research trip to take samples and found forever chemicals PFAS (per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances) in the Arctic. CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbons) as an aerosol propellant were banned when we discovered they were breaking apart our planet's ozone layer, but they were replaced with other forever chemicals that can cause problems as well. These chemicals keep getting replaced again and again as we discover the damages they are causing. Cora and Laura discuss ways to reduce using these forever chemicals in everyday items around our home.

CEO of Pika Diapers Alon Cohen joins the ZWC to talk about his company's new diaper washing machine, making it easier for parents to use cloth instead of disposable diapers. 

Rich Razgaitis is the co-founder and CEO of FloWater, a company determined to stop the horrific flow of plastic from bottled water into our environment.  Find out why Rich says bottled water is the new cigarette, and how his machines are filtering out tap water problems to bring the cleanest drinking water in the world to where we work, rest, and play.   

You may not eat seafood, but for nearly a billion people worldwide, seafood is their primary source of protein.  Teresa Ish is the Program Officer for the Environment Program at the Walton Family Foundation and an advocate for sustainable fisheries.