The United States produces almost 300 million tons of municipal solid waste per year - everything from food to furniture to packaging to electronics. Everything we throw away has to end up somewhere, and the practices and policies that govern this process have a profound effect on our natural world. As we consider ways to combat and mitigate the threat of climate change, we will have to confront the problems in our waste management systems.
This week on The Buzz, host Colin Larsen is joined by Denise Patel and Dr. Tok Oyewole from the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, or GAIA, a non-profit dedicated to advancing solutions for waste and pollution and ensuring our planet’s resources are sustainably conserved. They discuss the state of trash, bust some myths about waste-to-energy technologies, and make recommendations for how communities can create alternative systems to reduce their environmental impact.
GAIA website: www.no-burn.org
Background on municipal solid waste incinerators: https://www.no-burn.org/failing-incinerators/
Building a zero-waste world: www.zerowasteworld.org/zwmp
GAIA Reports:
All Talk and No Recycling
Resources on Chemical Recycling
Tale of Five Cities
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Intro/Outro Music: Focal Point/Young Community
Courtesy of Epidemic Sound