Flipping the Script on the Single Use Plastic Problem with Dianna Cohen and Amelia Hanson

In this episode, we are joined by the passionate Dianna Cohen and Amelia Hanson of Plastic Pollution Coalition, whose work is aimed at changing the narrative around single-use plastics globally, as well as locally here in Los Angeles in the entertainment industry, one set at a time.

Whether it's a disposable coffee cup casually discarded by a lead character, or the heaps of plastic waste in a single day's shooting, there is zero denying plastic is the new cigarette.   And much like cigarettes not being used in our entertainment culture anymore,  plastics need to follow suit.   Both are awful.  But one is awful for YOU, the other is killing US. 

But change IS possible and necessary.   And surprisingly small changes in our lives can have huge impacts.  In this episode, Cohen and Hanson shed light on the health risks associated with plastic pollution and share how their initiative, "Flip the Script on Plastics", is challenging the status quo.

The conversation doesn't stop there; we explore the impacts of plastic production on marginalized communities and the plastic industry's greenwashing tactics. Plus, we share some personal tales from our tours, revealing the sometimes hilarious, sometimes horrifying, role single-use plastics play in our game. We wrap up examining the potential for businesses and production companies to make a positive impact by eliminating single-use plastics from their operations and storylines.

From discussing alternative dog poop bags to addressing the impact of chemicals found in plastic, we're not shying away from uncomfortable truths.   We are guilty as charged. But this episode isn't just about criticism, it's about solutions and inspiration.   

We hope it inspires you too.

Socials:

@PlasticPollutes (Twitter, Instagram)

@PlasticPollution (FB)

@DiannaCat13 (IG)

@Amelia.Boadicea (IG)

We are excited to share Plastic Pollution Coalition’s initiative to Flip the Script on Plastics in Film and Television and highlight our work to change popular culture and shift the narrative away from the belief that toxic throwaway culture is normal, because it’s not. We can show through the power of entertainment, how plastic pollution is harming our planet and encourage audiences around the globe to make substantial changes on an individual and collective level.  

Guests: 

Dianna Cohen, Co-Founder and CEO, Plastic Pollution Coalition (PPC)

Co-Founder + CEO of Plastic Pollution Coalition (PPC) is a passionate advocate for a world free from plastic pollution.  Dianna has spoken at the UN, international conferences, symposia, and interviewed by Al Jazeera, NBC Nightly News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, USA Today, Martha Stewart Living.

Amelia Hanson, Project Coordinator, PPC

Amelia currently leads the Flip the Script on Plastics initiative at PPC

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

When we started out, we were not only talking to people to help create behavior change, but we were also talking to them about how we form and create and support good policy. So in the beginning some of the policy wasn't great. It had loopholes in it that industry utilized to just make thicker plastic bags normally banned plastic bags, which is a total joke. It uses more resources, more materials, and they put happy faces on it and say this bag is reusable. Yo, hey, what we gonna slap today, yo hey what we gonna slap today.

Speaker 2: 0:44

Yo yo, yo, yo yo. Welcome, welcome. Welcome back to season two. It's been a long summer, so much to report, but welcome to Slap the Power. I am Rick Barrow-Dill.

Speaker 3: 0:56

I am Maya Sykes and, in the immortal words of Timbaland, it's been a long time. We shouldn't have left you without a dope beat to step two. So how are you? How was your summer? Mine was good, it was a little weird.

Speaker 2: 1:09

Yes, yes.

Speaker 3: 1:09

How was yours?

Speaker 2: 1:11

Long, long, two months on the road, lots to talk about, lots to go through, and on the show today we're gonna be touching on something that we've been wanting to touch on for a while, and, if Fran Drescher has her way, hollywood is gonna be quitting the new tobacco, and that is single-use plastics, and so we're gonna be talking about that. We're going to basically be hearing about Maya's packing and her getting ready for her upcoming tour with Billy Idol. Rebel, yeah, rebel, yeah, baby.

Speaker 3: 1:41

We will also learn if Rick Barrow-Dill is indeed a good son.

Speaker 2: 1:45

That's right. That's right, you'll find out. Stick around and find out and at the end we have a brand new segment we're calling Tour.

Speaker 3: 1:53

Stories. Wow, they are basically tour horror stories, the kind that you didn't think you were gonna make it out alive, kind of tour horror stories, and as touring musicians we have quite a few of them. So this is a segment that could literally go on into infinity.

Speaker 2: 2:12

Yes, yes, and you know you collect all of them and you can write a book. So we're looking forward to doing that. And a little bit later, we had the pleasure of interviewing from the Plastic Pollution Coalition, Deanna Cohen and Amelia Hansen, and they were just a joy to have in studio and enlightened me to so many things Like. My world is totally changed after that interview, so make sure to stick around.

Speaker 3: 2:37

I didn't know that there is a BPA and then a different kind of BP that you have to watch the interview to see because I don't want to give it away. But anyway, when something says it's BPA free, it could have another kind of BPA that is just as bad. So there are all these ways that these industries are trying to trick you into using single plastics. And the other thing she pointed out, like just think about this, just let this just sink into your mind hole right, quick. Think about how many times you watch television and there's somebody taking a swig out of just a water bottle, like in a gym scene or in a club scene. Okay, if those scenes get done maybe 13 or 14 times. So every time if it's a full bottle, they are opening a full bottle. Do you know how many bottles they must be using in these takes? It must be thousands, like just per episode. And that was just mind blowing. I didn't even think about that.

Speaker 2: 3:35

Yeah, it was really, really enlightening and my world is rock, so make sure to stick around for that. But first let's get to the show. You know Hollywood is. I think it's always kind of been something where Hollywood can sort of set the tone in the zeitgeist For TV shows. The number of single use plastic items shown per episode was 28 on average, and an analysis I know right.

Speaker 2: 3:59

An analysis of the films from 2019 to 2020 season found that single use plastics were used at least once in most Hollywood films and over 90% of single use plastic items shown in films were not disposed of and they contribute to the false narrative of magically disappearing trash. When disposal was shown on the screen, 80% of the items were littered. So nobody talks about these things. And I remember when they had cigarettes and ashtrays on planes, right, and we're like now we look back on that and we're like this is just really, really stupid, right, and I think one day we're going to look back, especially after what we are interviews and everything we learned. Today we're going to look back and we're going to see single use plastics is kind of it's the next thing we just need to totally, totally clear out of our lives.

Speaker 3: 4:44

And it's interesting because we make the comparison of it to the cigarette. And it's true, you used to have cigarettes in everything.

Speaker 1: 4:54

Yeah, planes movies.

Speaker 3: 4:55

No, okay, is it not me? Is it just me? Rather, do you not feel like, very, like, very, very disturbed when you go on a plane, like in the today times, and you see in the bathroom they still have like the ashtray. Oh my God, I'll be like, oh my God we go to that plane. It's like 35 years 35 is like 80.

Speaker 2: 5:15

No, it's like yeah, no, no, no, that's some scary shit. You realize just how dumb it is, and I think one day we're going to look back at the internet to some degree and be like how did we let pregnant women use the internet?

Speaker 1: 5:28

How did we?

Speaker 2: 5:29

Yeah, how do we look at it? But you know, it's kind of also one of those things. It's like it's sort of easy. It's like why should we care? There's a ton of reasons we go into on the show today on why we should care, but it's also one of those things where we divide things on, slap the power down and everything comes into one of three cul-de-sacs right, it's either an issue to deal with our democracy, it's an issue to deal with rights and human rights, or it's an issue that deals with climate and plastic is it is all three.

Speaker 2: 5:59

It's way, it's kind of it is all three. No, it is all three, it is all three and it's it is a climate issue way more than I knew or thought, because plastic is part of the fossil fuel industry and it's and, as we learned, it's the fossil fuel industry's plan B. So it's sort of like now it makes sense why they push. You know they're just they're such hard on the plastic lobby, on, on trying to keep it in play, because this they realize that you know internal combustion engines are going out of, are going out, and you know they can't pull all this oil out of the ground or we're all really, really, really, really going to die. So we'll just shift to plastics, and it's like plastics are going to kill us too. So, yeah, yeah, what a? You know? There are a lot of reasons why we should care about this, and including, you know, like I said, none the least of it being the climate issue. So I do want to lighten it up real quick. You are, you're getting ready to go on tour aren't you?

Speaker 3: 6:54

Yes, I am. I am performing for this little known artist named Billy Idol.

Speaker 2: 6:59

Never heard of him.

Speaker 3: 7:00

He never heard of him. No, no, seriously, he's really, really awesome. And he is not just a person who I feel like has stood the test of time musically. His musical director, steve Stevens, is like one of the best guitar players in the universe and just really cool Church.

Speaker 2: 7:16

You pay no mind to that. Sink, sink, sink, sink, sink. Pay no mind to that.

Speaker 3: 7:20

I always wanted to invent one of them theme songs, like. I've always wanted to think like if I invented a less obnoxious ringtone or alarm, because all of them, I hate all of them. I can't stand any single ringtone, of any single kind.

Speaker 2: 7:34

It's so funny you say that in our house we have redone all of the Apple melodies and songs, but to Charlie, our dog. So it's, it's Charlie. It'd be like Charlie is the bestest dog. He like we just redo him to that to make them more pleasurable, because, let's be honest, he really is the best dog, best puppy dog. Yeah, he, I mean, he's got the Instagram page to prove it. Shout out to Charlie is the best dog on Instagram.

Speaker 3: 8:05

That is hilarious, yeah, so I haven't started an Instagram for.

Speaker 4: 8:08

Stanley For Stanley.

Speaker 3: 8:10

Yeah, sir Stanley the Wheaton.

Speaker 2: 8:13

I'm loving the pictures and I am loving the the, the content quote unquote You're putting out on Stanley Well, bless his little heart. Bless his little heart. Bless his little heart.

Speaker 3: 8:21

I tried to put a raincoat on him and it did not go well.

Speaker 1: 8:26

Bless his little spirit and I'm sorry Like I'm sorry, stanley, because he looked at me like ma'am.

Speaker 3: 8:31

I can't see.

Speaker 2: 8:32

Yeah, stanley got it. Got to love him. Are you excited about going on tour?

Speaker 3: 8:36

Yeah, I mean it's been a while since I've been on a tour tour Because of COVID and I had to remind myself how I tour because I've been a touring musician for almost 20 years, so I had to adopt my old habits, like, okay, I pack like a serial killer, I'm sorry. I have compression bags that have labels on everything. So it literally, if you go in my bag, everything is in compression cubes that line up and stack up a certain way and they all have names. Mine's like that too and I just like listen, she is I and I am her. And because of my Amazon hookup thing, I was able to get all of these like color coordinated compression bags. So now I can be like show clothes are in purple but everyday clothes are in black. So I just look, I mean it looks hilarious, I look like the home edit but like in my suitcase and everything is just neatly lined up. But I mean it is what it is and I always put an air tag. I just hide it. There's a little hide compartment in my suitcase.

Speaker 3: 9:40

So that way I can track it. So if they're ever like we lost your suitcase, I can say well, apple say it's a Minneapolis yeah. I mean, and I just learned to pack that way and travel that way, because you're on the go and you need to find things so quickly.

Speaker 2: 9:54

Oh my God, yeah, I one of the things that I learned early on. For those of you that aren't touring musicians getting in and out of a bus very quickly, like moving in and moving out. Sometimes, especially in Europe and in other places in the Northeast and stuff like that the buses don't have space, so what happens is the bus pulls up, basically turns on his hazards Like he's your, like he's your. You know what do you call it? Uber Eats driver or something like that, where? And? And so you have arguably 60 seconds to get either on or off the bus with everything you own.

Speaker 3: 10:28

And so I've learned early or everything you need, or everything you need on the bus and you're not going to see the bus again for like 12 hours or days Because it's going to have to go to like a bus depot. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:37

Exactly Like in Paris. It's got a park, you know, 20 minutes away and stuff like that. So what I've learned was I put the, I put the fluorescent green names on all the bags so my sort of seeing challenged self can can get at those. The other thing is each of the bags inside the bags have a handle. So technically I can open up my bag, grab all of the bags at once and I can be on a bus and moved in for two months of a tour in about 40, 40 seconds, 30 to 40 seconds. So you know the things you you got to figure out when you're in a hustle, hard boulevard, you know.

Speaker 3: 11:10

Also, too, I'm not 20 anymore, so I require machinery to survive. I need the right pillow. I need to have a massage gun with me, like she has. She requires maintenance. It just is what it is Like. I am at that age where I need to wear the right socks or else my plantar fasciitis is no act up and it is what it is.

Speaker 2: 11:37

And so funny, I had plantar fasciitis too.

Speaker 3: 11:41

This is why I wear these special socks when I go to sleep From tour, cause tour will give you plantar fasciitis.

Speaker 2: 11:46

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had no idea what that was.

Speaker 3: 11:48

The stages have nothing like they're not, there's no give to them and you're walking on these like weird cobble streets in the wrong shoes, or you know, you're surprised in the middle of the night and you have to, like, hike someplace you didn't know about. Yes, so I wear these special socks that help my plantar fasciitis at the night. Night time. I also need an eye mask, because any crack of daylight will keep me awake.

Speaker 2: 12:11

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 12:12

Listen, she requires maintenance, is all I'm saying. So I have to have my special eye pillow, my special pillow that I sleep with. Listen, the wrong pillow can mess up your entire day.

Speaker 2: 12:22

It really, really can, especially in a small bunk.

Speaker 3: 12:24

I have learned to bring this little special memory travel pillow with me.

Speaker 2: 12:28

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 12:29

Because I need to go sleep. I heard that I did not wake up like this. I heard that.

Speaker 2: 12:34

So for those of you that, because this is an audio medium, you're not going to be able to see it, but we, we have changed over inside the studio here where we're getting rid of all of our plastics. So that was. We're super stoked about that and we're learning about things. You know that and for me, over this summer, I saw so much single use plastic cup waste that I knew loosely in the back of my head with that, we had this episode planned, but I didn't know how bad I was going to be, violating the principle tenant of just not being a bad steward of this earth. There was so much waste, not even on our bus, but also just a lot of the festivals. There was just so much waste.

Speaker 2: 13:23

And so I I'm really glad that we are doing this episode and and hopefully what you'll find a bunch of ways that you can make small changes to your life. Small, simple, easy changes. I've already got my dad on a couple of these that we learned from our, from our interview, and you know he's 75 years old. You know old dogs sometimes don't like new tricks, right, you know, but my dad's already changing on it, so you can too, and I think we're going to be sort of really glad to bring that to you today.

Speaker 3: 13:50

And we want to hear from you when you hear and look at this episode, if you're watching it on YouTube or if you're listening to it on any of the platforms that we're currently available on. Let us know some of the more effective ways you've had in changing over your life from single use plastics, because I do believe this is something that is going to take everyone's effort, and one of the things I loved about this episode so much is, if you're a touring musician, you can definitely see this as being an insurmountable problem and you can definitely be overwhelmed by the amount of waste, but, as both of our guests pointed out, there are some simple fixes that, if invested in properly, save money, save the environment, save you. So if you have some that we don't mention in this episode, please reach out to us and let us know, because we'd love to highlight any positive solution. We're here to make positive solutions more available to everyone, and that includes us, so please reach out. If you've got an idea we didn't mention, we would love to hear from you.

Speaker 2: 14:55

Amen, amen. Slapthepowercom. You know, make sure to leave us comments anywhere you get your stuff and yeah, when we come back. Our interview with Deanna Cohen and Amelia Hansen from the Plastics Pollution Coalition.

Speaker 3: 15:08

PPLs.

Speaker 2: 15:09

All right, it's not just all doom and gloom. There is some great news and some progress going on. The Plastic Pollution Coalition has launched Flip the Script on Plastics, an initiative that is working with actors, writers and showrunners and more in the entertainment industry to help film and TV eliminate single-use plastics on screen and add accurate information about the plastic pollution crisis into storylines. Sag After has established a green council to promote a self-regulation industry-wide ban on single-use plastics on screen, and we're actually seeing some positive change. The film Marry Me, which we found out starring Jennifer Lopez, showcased reusable items. Ted Lasso only portrays reusable items, too, and New Girl often speaks up against society's throwaway culture. So the beautiful thing is joining us today in this studio for the interview we are honored to have from Plastic Pollution Coalition, Deanna Cohen, the CEO and co-founder of PPC, as well as Amelia Hansen, the project coordinator from Flip the Script on Plastics. Ladies, welcome to the show, Hi.

Speaker 1: 16:07

Thank you Hi, thank you Hi, thanks for having us.

Speaker 2: 16:10

Thank you guys for coming on down. I know this is something that is as we just got back from tour, two months on tour. This is something that's very near and dear to my heart because it was punishing how much plastic is wasted in music festivals, on music tours. Europe is doing something that is parts of Europe are doing something that's great where they're starting to change and make things where you have to bring your own bottle and stuff like that, but it is rare. It is rare and the amount of plastic that even on our blast that's stacked up. I was like I have to have Diana and Amelia and because I need somebody to punch me in the face on reality and help me, in a tectonic way, just figure out how can we change these practices at a much more of a macro level.

Speaker 3: 16:55

And for our listeners that might not be in the know about what you do, can you just share with us your mission statement and how Plastic Pollutions Coalition came to be Sure?

Speaker 1: 17:06

So just for background, I'm Diana Cohen and visual artist. I grew up here in Los Angeles and for the last 30 plus years I've been making artwork out of plastic bags that I cut up and sew back together.

Speaker 1: 17:19

So I'm making two and three dimensional pieces and showing those, and in doing that and becoming a certified diver when I was 25, starting to longboard and surf when I was 30, I kept seeing more and more plastic in the ocean and I heard this kind of it seemed like a lone voice at the time of Captain Charlie Moore, who founded Algalita, saying we have a big problem. We literally have a great Pacific garbage patch forming in the Pacific Ocean, and so originally I had this idea to go out and clean it all up and realize that was a Cisophician task and a Fool's errand. So I backed up and in doing that along the way, I met other people who were all looking at the issue of plastic and plastic pollution and we decided to create a, an organization together. That would be an alliance. So we co-founded plastic pollution coalition in 2009,.

Speaker 1: 18:11

We're a communication and advocacy organization working towards a more just, equitable, regenerative world free of plastic pollution and its toxic impacts, and that and that you know our mission has evolved over the years, but we understand now that where our sweet spot really lies is in communications and advocacy for this issue, and and so there you go. That's, that's how we began and I think, our first year, 2009,. We were, we had. Our soft launch was hosted by Leonardo DiCaprio's mom, irmeline DiCaprio.

Speaker 2: 18:48

Never heard of him.

Speaker 1: 18:49

No well, she's amazing, she's amazing and was really deeply concerned about plastic pollution and how much she was encountering on the beach Every day. She lived in Malibu at the time and she would walk her dog and collect huge garbage cans full of plastic and didn't know really what to do with it. So, we had our soft launch with her on the same day that Bill McKibbons announced 350.org, and 40 of us took a sign, took a photograph together with a sign that said 350.org instead of plastic pollution.

Speaker 1: 19:20

But so now we're about to, we're, we're beginning to enter this fall, our 15th year of plastic pollution coalition and we've grown from our first year about 10 members, our second year about 25 members, maybe two of whom were businesses. Now we're just over 1400 members and we're about half and half organizations and businesses based in 75 different countries around the planet.

Speaker 3: 19:46

That's amazing. Congratulations, yeah.

Speaker 2: 19:48

Now is for the businesses. I have so many questions, but for the, for the. For the businesses is it that they just put that it's a pledge and then that they just figure out a way to filter that down into their operations?

Speaker 1: 19:59

I mean, we vet the businesses that join us and what we've seen is just the businesses.

Speaker 1: 20:06

The amount of businesses that have joined us has really had a huge uptick just in the last five years and what we're seeing is a lot of companies and businesses and kind of infrastructure systems that are supporting reusable, refillable, making things out of food grade steel, glass, copper, wood, plant based and I'm not talking about bioplastics when I say that.

Speaker 1: 20:31

I'm talking about algae, seaweed, mushrooms, mushroom mycelium, chitin, which is made from the shells of sea like a shrimp, and seafood. So it's, it's been really just. It's been really interesting to see and it is. It is a pledge that people make when they and companies make when they join our coalition, but we also take a look at what they're doing, because, because, as we've grown and as we've learned more about the issue and as we've helped communicate that this isn't, we're not talking about litter, rubbish, waste, garbage you know we're talking about, or marine debris. We're talking about plastic and we're talking about plastic pollution. As we've communicated that that language has been embraced and utilized by our coalition members and our coalition member businesses, what we're seeing is that people are really taking it on and they're taking it on internally at their own company, looking at ways to reduce it in their practice internally.

Speaker 1: 21:30

if they have a kitchen, if they serve food, if they are providing a service, that is packaging something packaging a product that they're selling, really revisiting that and looking for ways to do it that are hopefully more sustainable, or again utilizing materials that are reusable or refillable, and I think an important key to that, too, is that it be non-toxic. So, I'm looking for things that are non-toxic and biobanine, and penultimate or ultimate would be glass.

Speaker 3: 22:00

Now I have a question. It just seems like you kind of hit the nail on the head by talking about in parts of Europe they're doing replacing, but only in parts, and I noticed that I did a festival in Brisbane and the festival in Brisbane had a statewide policy of refillable everything. So when you came to, even as a participant, you were issued a badge and a water bottle and if you were caught using a plastic thing, you refined and they'd give you another water bottle for free. All you had to do was say I need another water bottle, but if they caught you using plastics, you refined. So my point is it seems like the biggest change to have this, the way to have this happen is to do it through a legislative initiative that has stringent effects to it yeah.

Speaker 3: 22:52

So how do we put that in place and how do we get people to understand that that's the necessary push?

Speaker 1: 22:59

Yeah, so I mean we, when we started out, we were not only talking to people to help create behavior change, but we were also talking to them about how we form and create and support good policy. So in the beginning some of the policy wasn't great. It had loopholes in it that industry utilized to just make thicker plastic bags. We only banned plastic bags, which is a total joke, uses more resources, more materials and they put happy faces on it and say this bag is reusable and stuff like that. I mean that was a loophole and that was an error, at least with the policy for California, and that's something that we're trying to manage now. We're trying to change, but what we're seeing is that statewide and citywide there are lots of policies that have gone into place.

Speaker 2: 23:47

Here in California.

Speaker 1: 23:48

Not just in California, across the United States, and there are also two pieces of federal policy that we've been supporting and advocating for, as well as international policy. So there's a global plastic treaty that is being refined and written and negotiated currently that we are part of as well, and what's been really fascinating about this is so we're going into our 15th year. It took about eight years to get people to start calling it plastic and plastic pollution. So, again, beginning to move away from what industry still likes to use they like to use the word waste.

Speaker 3: 24:28

Okay, interesting, because it's so vague.

Speaker 1: 24:31

Can you differentiate between the two so that our listeners know what to look for, because I feel like that's a huge yeah, yeah yeah, like Coca-Cola has a campaign called A World Without Waste, dow and DuPont and these big chemical companies and industry have created something called the Alliance to End Plastic Waste. I think if you see the word waste, litter, rubbish, garbage or marine debris it's bullshit. No, it should just be a red flag for you and you want to look for where people are actually identifying it, like when we look at marine debris and what is collected in the ocean, 70 to 90% of it is plastic. So if we're looking at it and it's plastic and it's in the environment, whether it's in the ocean or on land, or microplastics in our body, it's plastic pollution. We are being polluted by plastic and sorry. I have to say just two other things about it that.

Speaker 1: 25:28

I hope will be useful to your listeners. Plastic is made from petrochemicals and oil. 99% of plastics are made from petrochemicals and oil and coal and fructin-crack gas. That industry plastic is their plan B. So first know that.

Speaker 2: 25:49

Take your electric cars. We've got this as a backup.

Speaker 1: 25:52

And second, plastic was never designed to be recycled. Plastic is still not designed to be recycled, so I call it wish cycling and I still put any plastic that comes into my family, my life, in. I'm lucky enough to have different recycling bins here in Los Angeles, but I don't know what happens to that. I think most of it is either landfill or it's burnt in some way, and oftentimes when it's burnt they call it waste to energy, waste to fuel or incineration. But it'll have a lot of nice kind of good sounding names that sound like a good idea.

Speaker 1: 26:32

Yeah, we turned it back into fuel so we could burn it again. We created energy from it. We burnt it again. Every time we burn it we create particulate pollution and release dioxins and chemicals into the air. And what we found is that when we look at the entire chain of plastic production, which is really the petrochemical production line, from production through manufacturing, use, end of life, waste management, management of the material it disproportionately impacts low income communities, black and brown communities, indigenous communities across the United States and certainly here in LA, from Baldwin Hills to Wilmington to Long Beach. It's very prevalent and I mean we can talk to it. Amelia can talk to it.

Speaker 4: 27:24

I mean that's why we have flipped the script on plastics, because we know that entertainment is how you can get these messages across to the masses. If you're saying, if you just have characters in a TV show who are making it clear that, oh, plastic can't be recycled, or saying that plastic is fossil fuels, just in their character, it gets into people's minds a lot more than if you're just seeing it In news articles. It's easier to tune that out. But if your favorite character is saying it, if your favorite character is just choosing a reusable, it really does trickle down. Like one of our favorite examples right now is the show Shrinking on Apple TV.

Speaker 4: 28:00

Jessica Williams character has this giant water bottle that she's carrying around with her everywhere and it's like her sidekick and she has a mini one that she gives to Harrison Ford, and there's a whole plot line with almost no words about her giving that bottle. And so they're telling a story with a reusable bottle. There's so much more you can say than if she gave him a plastic bottle of water. There's no story to that, it's just she handed him some water but she gave him a reusable, a thing he can use all the time. And then it also shows their relationship.

Speaker 2: 28:26

So, there's a lot.

Speaker 1: 28:27

I made it a focal point.

Speaker 4: 28:28

Yeah, there's a lot more depth to it. It helps the story, but it also pushes forward this like, oh, maybe there's more to having a bottle that carries my identity with me, Like I have my bottle, my stickers. It shows part of who I am and that's a really easy way and that's a great thing. You can integrate into a TV show without having to put a lot of work into your script or rework a lot of stuff.

Speaker 3: 28:49

Y'all have been working with SAG directly with SAG-AFTRA and their Green Council. Can you tell us a little bit about the work you've been doing and how that's affecting production?

Speaker 4: 28:59

Yeah. So Fran has been a supporter of Plastic Pollution Coalition since, I think, our second year.

Speaker 2: 29:06

Shout out to Fran.

Speaker 4: 29:06

Drescher.

Speaker 1: 29:07

We love Fran, so she I'll interject there, just that Fran is a cancer survivor and she wrote an incredible book called Cancer Schmancer and founded her own nonprofit called Cancer Schmancer that produces health conferences every year to really help guide people to a more healthy lifestyle, and she's really focused on prevention and I very much come from a place of prevention as well. So Fran's been a tremendous ally. She's one of our notable coalition members and then in becoming president of SAG-AFTRA, she was already in tune with a lot of work we'd been doing that we can talk to with the Norman Lear Center at USC and now Hollywood Health and Society at USC, and so she's always been right there and very aligned in terms of what's going on from the health perspective with this issue, and that is how we got involved initially. And then, when she decided to create the Green Council as president of SAG-AFTRA, she contacted us immediately and said I'd really like you guys on board with this and but can you be part of helping craft the messaging? I wanna take on single use plastic bottles first.

Speaker 2: 30:19

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 30:20

And I feel like it's not that hard to implement that. I remember I worked with a group called Postmodern Jukebox and one of our road techs. She was also the front of house for a band called Wilco and she instituted a policy that we then adopt. I remember that we adopted, when she was the tourman, the assistant tour manager. I don't know if they still do it, so shout out to y'all if y'all still do it.

Speaker 3: 30:46

When Ashley was there and shout out to Ashley because I still believe that she's with Wilco she decided with Wilco that they wouldn't have any plastics whatsoever. So she gave them all water bottles and then she'd call ahead on their rider and made sure that they didn't have any. So if they had plastic bottles they would get the five gallon kind that were refillable and reusable, and she wouldn't allow any plastic on the bus whatsoever, on the. She wouldn't allow plastic utensils. So she made them have metal and rewashable and reusable utensils and water bottles and they've been doing that for, I wanna say, almost a decade. So I feel like instituting policies in this way where you have a refillable, reusable option but it's a policy, seems like it's the move.

Speaker 4: 31:39

You know what I mean. Exactly it is. It just needs to be the norm. We've talked to some people who work in productions in Canada and they say when they go on it's just assumed if you didn't bring your bottle you don't get water, because you didn't bring a thing to put your water in the fucking Canadians man.

Speaker 4: 31:55

They got it all right and we need it to be that way, where there's just refill stations in every studio. There are refill tanks brought when they're filming on location, and a lot of this came out of before I came on. Plastic Pollution Coalition was working with musicians before we launched Flip the Script. A lot of musicians have taken this on of having bottles with them, of making sure they're calling the venues ahead of time, and so the entertainment industry can do the same thing. There's no reason to have the plastic there, and ultimately it saves them money too, because they have huge water budgets just to go out and keep buying pallets and pallets of water that get half drunk, I know on tour.

Speaker 1: 32:31

Yeah, I know, you can speak to this as well.

Speaker 3: 32:33

You'll go. It used to infuriate me. I'd go, I'd get up in the morning and I'd see 17 half drunk water bottles and I would marry them and make them hand washing stations, cause I was like, well, no, y'all gonna use these Because that's the best I could do. But I was like, looking at Ashley's push, I said, oh, that's something that musicians could adopt, and maybe if musicians could adopt that en masse, I feel like adopting policies that then roll over is gonna be the, because to me, this is a can to smoking. Remember when you could smoke in a bar?

Speaker 4: 33:11

That's what Fran says all the time.

Speaker 2: 33:13

You still can in Tennessee.

Speaker 3: 33:16

Well, tennessee. Tennessee also got dry counties.

Speaker 1: 33:20

Like Tennessee is.

Speaker 4: 33:20

Tennessee. Yeah, we push that. She's gonna do Tennessee.

Speaker 1: 33:24

Tennessee gonna be.

Speaker 3: 33:25

Tennessee all day.

Speaker 1: 33:27

Now I was just gonna add, as Amelia was saying, prior to creating Flip, the Script on Plastics, we had a program for a long time which has kind of evolved into a larger collective project that was called Refill Revolution. And the idea behind Refill Revolution started out when we were contacted by and started working with, Bonnaroo Music Festival. So we started working with them back. I think I went and took a look at everything in 2013. We implemented the program in 2014. They paid for it. They had produced a certain amount of single-walled steel cups that were kind of a green, chartreuse color that said Refill Revolution on them in Bonnaroo and made them available at Point of Sale for Beer the year of 2013. They only produced 1,500. 80,000 people came that year.

Speaker 1: 34:20

They sold out in a day and a half. People were stealing them from each other and they incentivized the use of it by giving you a dollar off on every beer for a four-day music festival. So if you had one of these cups, every beer was a dollar off. So the next year we expanded the pilot, so we we scaled it up a little bit and the next year up up up until right as we went into COVID. Unfortunately, you know, they ordered 180,000 steel cups Yay, which is incredible and it was a really fun project to do.

Speaker 1: 34:53

But even more fun than that was to have a representation there and to have the opportunity to talk to bands and their management about how they could implement things on the road. So that whole program's mentioned on our website. It also grew into something a little bit bigger and we were asked by Jack Johnson and his wife Kim to be part of something we all co-created called BYO Bottle, which is a site. That site does recommend reusable plastic cups, which I don't recommend. We don't recommend, but as one of the options. But I do recommend the steel cups and those people love and collect and brought back every year to Bonnaroo and they honored them and it's just they're collectibles. We did different cups every year.

Speaker 3: 35:38

We did a couple purple ones.

Speaker 1: 35:40

We did purple the year that Prince passed, you know it was just amazing thing and it had a little strap and a carabiner so you could, when you didn't have a beverage in it unless you were really drunk and you tried with a beverage in it you could hook it onto like your jeans or your shorts or your bag.

Speaker 4: 35:55

That's a smart yeah. It was really, really cool. We've taken those cups. We were actually just on the picket lines with SAG on Friday and we had the same carabiner straps made to say WGA, sag, strong, and we were passing out the stainless steel cups with the straps because on the picket lines you got your hands are holding the signs. Your hands are so full so nobody has hands to carry their water, and so we wanted to give them an easy way to have a hands-free cup that you can just stop by the refill station, get a drink and then keep marching. And we ran out of cups in the first hour, but we also gave them, and then we're just giving them the straps.

Speaker 1: 36:28

And we also brought a big steel container with a little spigot on it and filled it up with filtered water and put ice in it. So it was like I see cool, and that container also has stickers on it.

Speaker 2: 36:40

Now, what is your biggest challenge?

Speaker 2: 36:43

Because when I look at because this is how I found out about you guys was actually at a fundraising dinner with SAG after it and the sheer statistics that were shot at me about the health, about cancer, about how much plastic is still out there, and then about just in the oceans and in our bloodstreams and in newborn babies hearts, and this sheer sort of force of all these, this data came down on me at once and you have to be looking at this problem, Like even for us.

Speaker 2: 37:17

I'm out and I'm looking around the bus and I'm like, OK, we can kind of try and start here, but it requires, like you say, you've got to call ahead and make sure that they're doing away with the plastic. What is, if you're looking at this big giant problem sometimes the problem can be so there's so many different spaces and you're like, what is your biggest challenge that you guys face and where is the area where you find the biggest bang for your buck with regards to the problem? Because it's all over right, we could talk about the ocean side. We could talk about the reusable bottle side, we could talk about Tupperware.

Speaker 1: 37:48

Rick, that's a lot of questions.

Speaker 2: 37:49

Oh no. What is your biggest challenge? What's their biggest challenge?

Speaker 1: 37:52

Well, hold on. First of all, I just want to address touring again for you guys On the road, you can look at this BYO bottle site and you can look at our refill revolution stuff and see examples where we have suggestions. We literally have sample riders from different musicians who are part of this movement. We have encouraged you to obviously have your production. Let people know ahead of time with a letter.

Speaker 1: 38:18

This is what we're committed to a plastic free, single use, plastic free backstage. Our preferences would be these things real cutlery, real plates, et cetera. So you can ask for all of those things. You can also do it personally on the bus and make a real effort to have your bus be plastic free. We had folks on a couple tours that I've been involved with Jackson Brown, ben Harper, bonnie Raitt do things where they actually figured out they carried literally a bag of tricks so we could filter water anywhere that the tours went and brought big five gallon glass bottles that could be refilled and then part of the load was we loaded in those kind of coolers that have a bottle on them or inside of them where you could get hot or cold or room temperature water.

Speaker 2: 39:01

Now did you just say you have a portable filter gimmick. Is that what you're talking about?

Speaker 1: 39:04

Yeah, they just know they carried a bag with different things so that they could hook the hose for the filter onto.

Speaker 2: 39:08

Copy that, yeah, and so the info for this. We can find it.

Speaker 1: 39:12

You can find it at byobottleorg, or you can find it at plasticpollutioncollectionorg, and that would also be under refill. Revolution or events.

Speaker 2: 39:21

And it really is. Put it on the rider. I like that. Yeah, just like you ask for it nicely.

Speaker 1: 39:26

And you explain to people, although oftentimes what I need to do is say, walk into a coffee shop with my own cup and say, hi, I'd like to get a tea or a coffee, and is it possible to get it in my own cup and make sure your cup's clean, yeah. And then usually, if they say no to me, I'll say really, I'd really prefer it if you could, because I'm allergic to plastic.

Speaker 2: 39:46

So anyway, that's just a technique, but you ask, like, what's the biggest hurdle to overcome?

Speaker 1: 39:51

Do you mean specifically for all the work that we do, or just in this initiative of flip the script on plastics?

Speaker 2: 39:58

Because Well, first of all, I think you're absolutely right. The sort of long term getting it into the zeitgeist. It's the same way where you used to see cigarettes in movies and everything and you don't anymore and now it's kind of, you know that's a long term kind of solution. But I guess I'm asking what's your biggest challenge that you guys face with respect to this? Because you, To me, even the Great Pacific Patch is like.

Speaker 3: 40:21

But I think that that is part of their hurdle. I feel like if I'm Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like the thing that's of eminence is getting people to understand the severity of it, because when people understood the severity that. You know smoking causes lung cancer, et cetera. People were okay with legislative changes. Right now it seems like people aren't okay with widespread. You know they're okay here and there and pockets and pockets, but I feel like it's really ringing the alarm more loudly. So how do we ring the alarm more loudly?

Speaker 1: 40:54

I mean, I think it has to do with continued clear communication and science. And the science is showing us a particularly research that's come out in the last two years that we're finding plastic and microplastics and microfibers in human blood, in human hearts, in human lung tissue, in placenta, both on the mother's side and the baby's side.

Speaker 2: 41:17

And these aren't just anecdotal. This is, there's a large concentration of this right and the human plant writ large yes and also babies.

Speaker 1: 41:26

There was a study done by EWG. Babies are born pre-polluted in the United States with over 3,000 chemicals in their bloodstream, including chemicals from plastics. But I think the most important thing to understand is what do those do to us? And the chemicals that have been studied the most. Although there's a lot of information coming out right now about PFAS and PFOA chemicals, which are called forever chemicals and they're used in Teflon and water-resistant, you know, outdoor clothing and a lot of stuff like that, those chemicals are forever chemicals. They actually your body doesn't discharge those and they've been linked to a number of different health issues pretty severe health issues, and the factories where DuPont made those chemicals or 3M made those chemicals to babies being born with very severe deformed health issues. So there's that. But then there's also phthalates and bisphenols and right at the beginning you heard maybe 10, 12 years ago this is okay because it's BPA-free about plastic.

Speaker 3: 42:26

You see that all the time. Yeah, you see it all the time.

Speaker 1: 42:28

But all they did was switch to another bisphenol, bpp or BPS or BPC. And we've met with the endocrine disruption department at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta and the head of it, dr Caliphat, has said that the chemicals, the other bisphenols that replace BPA, are equally bad, if not worse, to BPA, and what BPA has probably been studied the most. But so have phthalates. Just back up for a second. Bpa is used to make plastic rigid, transparent and translucent, and phthalates are added to make it supple and malleable. So when you see a rubber ducky that a kid's playing with or people are playing with, and it's not made out of rubber, real rubber from a rubber tree, it is made from heavily phthalated, probably petroleum-based plastics.

Speaker 1: 43:16

Yeah, and the problem with those two groups of chemicals is they have been identified as endocrine disruptors. What does that mean? That means they impact our endocrine system in our body, which gauges how everything works, how we grow, how we go through puberty, how we go through all the different life changes that humans experience, and so those chemicals have been linked to fertility issues, lower sexual functions, sterility and infertility. They've been linked to breast cancer, brain cancer and prostate cancer, and they've been linked to diabetes and obesity, both of which we're having epidemics of. And when I think back just in my own life and look at photographs of pretty much the public just in general from the 60s or 70s, we all carry more weight on our bodies than we used to.

Speaker 3: 44:06

Yeah, we're turning into Wally, yeah, yeah, but I mean, and then we're turning into Wally.

Speaker 1: 44:11

And that has a relationship to our exposure to not only the chemicals in plastic but other chemicals that are hormone disruptors. So the thing is, it's not even this is interesting to me, it's not even a partisan issue, mm-hmm. I mean, we've seen.

Speaker 3: 44:25

It was never a partisan issue. No, that's what makes me so infuriated sometimes. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 44:30

Well, I think that there is. There may be a partisan issue when it comes to protecting the petrochemical industry Facts, but the fact that this is all made from byproducts of processing petroleum and chemicals that come from petroleum or are added to it, and it's bad for our health, our family's health, if anyone is listening to this and they have someone in their family or they are grappling with or dealing with cancer or they're dealing with diabetes or obesity.

Speaker 1: 44:58

You've got to do your best to limit your exposure to plastic or food and beverages packaged in plastic, or health products or beauty care products, because you're dosing yourself with something that's gonna feed your illness.

Speaker 2: 45:10

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1: 45:11

And so I think that's the most important thing to recognize. To me, the health issue. Part of this is the key. It is literally the key, and once you know that, yes, it's still a huge challenge every day to figure out how you reduce your own personal plastic footprint, but it's wonderful to be able to help support policy and legislation that brings that about for everybody and gives people other choices.

Speaker 2: 45:38

Is there good news you guys would know on the ground? Is there good news about the great Pacific patch and the problem? Because when they pull fish out of the water we were talking off camera when they pull anything out of the ocean, the majority of it that they find is plastics that are in all of the marine life, all of the everything. Is there good news on that front?

Speaker 1: 46:03

I would say no the great. Pacific Garbage Bachelor is no good news, because companies and corporations are continuing to try and break ground to create more frack and crack gas. I mean, they rebooted the entire.

Speaker 2: 46:16

Ohio River.

Speaker 1: 46:17

Valley. Everyone had already been poisoned by steel there. Now it's being rebooted to frack and crack gas to make single use flimsy plastic water bottles that we don't even need, or plastic bottles. It's a joke and it's going to poison everybody again. And the same thing with Louisiana and the whole corridor that's known as Cancer Alley. And the same thing that we're seeing in Houston on the Gulf Coast, with 68 miles of petrochemical on plastic facilities. It's insane.

Speaker 1: 46:46

It's literally insane. So I think, as we're trying to move away from our dependence on fossil fuels, people need to realize that plastics are fossil fuels.

Speaker 2: 46:59

Yeah, that's the easiest message to kind of keep right there, because I don't even process it like that until we started talking. And that's just so helpful when you think about it like that, because I did see a vice piece where there was these kids at, I think it was, they were Dutch or something, but they had made basically kind of this super.

Speaker 1: 47:20

Yeah, the ocean cleanup, yeah.

Speaker 2: 47:22

Is that BS or is?

Speaker 4: 47:23

it yeah no, and it just doesn't address the actual issue, because if you're cleaning up the beach, it's like cleaning up something that's constantly spilling.

Speaker 3: 47:32

You're putting a bandaid on the dam, on it, and it's breaking.

Speaker 4: 47:37

We need the production to stop because that's what's polluting the ocean. So if you're focusing on beach cleanups, if you're focusing on cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, you're not addressing the real problem. You're just picking up litter that's going to just keep coming and keep coming. You need to stop it at the source. But it's also I mean, it all sounds really scary. There's a lot going on, but what we try and just tell people is just try and make one little change. Like if you can make one plastic free change a month, that's significant because it's a huge problem. You can't take it all on at once and I think a lot of people get stopped by that. They hear all these facts and it's so big and it's so scary that it's like, well, what can I do? But making one small change. Switching to, my favorite thing at the grocery stores is I have little mesh produce bags and I use those instead of the flimsy, crappy little plastic bags that they have there.

Speaker 4: 48:27

And that's just a tiny change but you save. There's so much less plastic you're putting in the trash by doing that every single time and I just use the same bags. I never have to buy them again. And just do one of those every month and it will build up and people will see it. People at the grocery store see my bags and they're like, oh, those are really cool, where did you get those? I want that. I hate trying to find the opening on that stupid little bag.

Speaker 4: 48:49

And it trickles down so you can make small changes. And it will affect, because if we're buying less things with plastic, then industry will see that and they'll have to make less of it. And also I feel like.

Speaker 3: 49:03

Sometimes I feel like a small cog in the wheel Do you know what I mean. When you were saying, go to a tour, manifest and say changes, I was like I'm a backup singer. I don't know when I'll be able to do that, but I feel like you're right.

Speaker 4: 49:16

It's kind of your personal habits and maybe you can influence people that way and that's what we want to do in entertainment is you're showing one character who has those personal habits. But if you idolize that character, if that's your favorite person on TV, then you're going to want to start doing it. If Kim Kardashian had a blinged out stainless steel bottle, everybody would want to buy it.

Speaker 3: 49:39

That's what's up you know.

Speaker 4: 49:40

so you just need one big person to do it, and that's why Fran's doing this. True.

Speaker 1: 49:44

The.

Speaker 4: 49:44

Green Council. She has Kate Blanchett and Meryl Streep and Robert Redford on her side. Who?

Speaker 1: 49:50

all say never heard. I know they're not, they're not that big.

Speaker 4: 49:53

But they all, they all want the plastics out of their films. There's no reason anyone on camera should ever be holding a plastic bottle.

Speaker 2: 50:01

Agreed, agreed. Now I got a curveball for you. How about dog poop bags?

Speaker 4: 50:06

We have people in our coalition who make plastic free dog poop bags, because that I've never known the one thing that.

Speaker 3: 50:13

I've the one thing that I've used that is kind of like that. It's called the Shepoopy and it and it was made by Tony Shalubes, I think, brother, and it's a thing that like, basically, you put it on top of the poop and it scoops it up and then you can like throw it out into a school it's called the. Shepoopy.

Speaker 1: 50:33

Can we get a link?

Speaker 3: 50:34

I don't know.

Speaker 1: 50:35

Do they still make it? I want to make it.

Speaker 4: 50:37

They should join our coalition.

Speaker 3: 50:38

Yeah, because it's called the Shepoopy and you pick up to.

Speaker 2: 50:42

Shepoopy. Exactly, so do you have these? You have a link to these paper bags.

Speaker 4: 50:47

Pooch paper is part of our coalition.

Speaker 1: 50:50

Yeah, can I just interject? That is literally one of the number one questions we get. Hey, how do I pick up?

Speaker 3: 50:56

Yeah because I just use the ones that say like they're biodegradable or whatever, and I'm like are you really?

Speaker 4: 51:02

It's all greenwashing Like M&Ms just put out some bags that they said are all compostable. But if you look at the fine print, it says facilities may not be available in your area and only in commercial composting facilities. So it can say it's compostable, but you have to find the specific place to take it for eat, to even compost. You can't just put it in your yard.

Speaker 3: 51:22

We should also say, because we've been telling people about greenwashing, so we should kind of break that down again. So just for our listeners out there, greenwashing is when they tell you something is good for the environment. But if you really read the fine print, it ain't really, and we're seeing that in fast fashion.

Speaker 3: 51:39

We're seeing that and you know fast fashion does a lot of plastic turnovers, especially like all the faux leather stuff they make. That's all just fossil fuel on your body. But I just wanted to make that clear to our audience when we do say greenwashing because I did see a comment where somebody was like what does that mean? And we really should be clear about these terms, specifically because I do believe wholeheartedly that by changing people's minds and sounding that alarm like no, this is poisoning you on a regular, is the way that we can get people to say hey, I don't want this.

Speaker 4: 52:20

I mean, do you have a greenwashing guide on our website that we created?

Speaker 1: 52:23

So like I was also just going to add that we, for the last particularly thanks thanks to the pandemic, we shifted our in person coalition meetings and presentations to virtual and they became a webinar series that we produce and we've got about two and a half years of webinars, including one from about a year and a half ago of Dr Shauna Swan and Pete Myers talking about her book Countdown the decline in fertility. So if people want to learn more about any of these issues. We've interviewed a bunch of experts.

Speaker 4: 52:53

We've had Fran. We've had a few for Flip the Script. Fran was on one of them. We just did one with Ellen Crawford and the Environmental Media Association talking about our efforts in Hollywood as well. Yeah, we do those once a month and you can view them all on our website.

Speaker 1: 53:06

Should we say more about Flip the Script? I don't feel like we have told you guys. Sure, yeah, please, yeah.

Speaker 4: 53:11

I mean, we're just. We're working with anyone we can in entertainment to eliminate single use plastics both from set screen and then get it into the storylines. We want to hit it from all sides. If you're just eliminating it from the screen but your crew's still carrying plastic bottles, it's not really affecting a change.

Speaker 3: 53:28

And where does all that waste go is what I always wonder. Even if you're doing it, they never show the. It's very rare that you even see somebody recycling their plastics or whatever, in a film.

Speaker 4: 53:40

We call it magically disappearing trash. Yeah, we launched the initiative with a study that USC's Norman Lear Center did, where they looked at about 32 different shows from the 2019-2020 season to see how much single use plastic was on screen and how people behaved with it, and they found 23 single use actually 28 single use plastic items per episode. There was not a single episode they looked at that didn't have single use plastics and they all also have what we call a mass plastic event.

Speaker 4: 54:09

So that's a scene like a party scene filled with red solo cups, a grocery store where there's so much plastic you can't even count it. So we really want to change that, because it's so normal to people. People see red solo cups everywhere and they don't think of it as plastic. But if you had just one person with these like these are really cool. This looks like a red solo cup.

Speaker 3: 54:30

You can play beer pong with that.

Speaker 4: 54:31

Exactly and think of how cool a frat could look if a frat on a TV show had all these like branded stainless steel cups.

Speaker 3: 54:37

I got some for a party and they were all ceramic but they look like solo cups.

Speaker 4: 54:41

Yeah, they make the ceramic ones too, and they were like.

Speaker 1: 54:46

I got 20 of them. This one's Peroni, and they do them in different colors.

Speaker 4: 54:49

So that's cute, but I say all the time just think about those party scenes. Is the production has to buy thousands of cups just for one five minute party scene? Because anytime someone uses it they have to replace them. If you buy just 500 of these for a studio, you can use it in 500 different movies, rewash them and then also the storyline looks better. It's this frat that's caring about the environment, and no frats never have positive spins on them. So let's show that.

Speaker 3: 55:16

Oh, maybe they can, if you made it like a running joke, like the frat did this, because all their girlfriends were like no, you have to have blah, blah, blah. There's ways to make this. You can make it funny. Yes, you can make it a part of the storyline. You can make it interesting. So I do think that it's wonderful that you're working with the Hollywood spin on it, because, you're right, it is like cigarettes. I remember, you know, there was a time where you could smoke all the time and that's what you saw, and it really did take the banning of that.

Speaker 3: 55:47

You know so maybe the same where you know to change it over, you're going to just have to say we can't have single use plastics and film and TV.

Speaker 4: 55:57

It can push the sponsors too, because if a production saying no plastics on screen but Coke is sponsoring them, then Coke has to give them glass bottles, and they just have to do that and then people are going to want more glass bottle coax and it all, it's better. And why does it taste better? Because it's in glass. Also because it's made of sugar. That bad that part.

Speaker 2: 56:20

We have like there's a meal service that I was using and everything was great. It was all paper. The casing that came in was all paper and then somewhere, once they had they reached like a critical volume, they switched to it's a plastic base with a, you know with a kind of a plastic top. Two questions how bad is it when the food is sitting in there? Obviously, I've heard, don't microwave it in anything like that, take it out, but just the transport of it, I would imagine.

Speaker 1: 56:49

Was it black plastic.

Speaker 2: 56:50

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 56:51

Yeah. So the concern about the black plastic too is sometimes it's made with some recycled content that can come from electronics. Oh wow, I would highly recommend, I mean, even the paper products they were delivering it to you in before. Yeah, had a certain, probably had a certain percentage of plastic in them so that they wouldn't leak. Okay, or they had the forever chemicals in them to make them again not leak, to create a barrier.

Speaker 2: 57:17

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 57:17

So you know. Penultimate, if you have a relationship with a company that's delivering food to you or you pick it up regularly, I go in with my own containers and. I order ahead of time and ask them if it would be okay to put stuff in my own containers.

Speaker 2: 57:32

So I'm not as good of a son by taking my dad's food out of there and putting it on a plate. I thought I was just the. I thought I was the son of the.

Speaker 1: 57:38

Yeah, you are a good son, if you're going to reheat it, you should always take it out of there. Yeah, never put plastic in the microwave, never microwave anything, or put it in a dishwasher, you know too.

Speaker 3: 57:47

I've been looking at like, for example, a friend of mine. She doesn't do it on a mass commercial scale, obviously, but she does a food delivery service for because she's an event planner and she also does like a Pilates program and she does like this meal-based thing for you, but she charges you a one-time feed for your containers and they're all glass.

Speaker 1: 58:09

That's awesome.

Speaker 3: 58:10

And then every time she delivers, it's all in these glass containers, and then, when she has the bags picked up, you just leave your containers in the bag.

Speaker 4: 58:20

Yeah, I mean, that's what people need to do, and then it's just, if you don't return them, there's an extra fee because you kept these nice containers and she should join our coalition.

Speaker 3: 58:28

Yeah, she's great.

Speaker 4: 58:29

I'll give you her information and glass is so great, because then you can stick it in the oven or the microwave. You can reheat it anyway. Yeah, she just found.

Speaker 3: 58:37

She just orders them, by the case. She found a wholesale manufacturer and they're great because they look like little bento boxes. Oh, that's so cute, but they're just made with glass and they have a top, but the top isn't plastic, it's like silicone so, and it fastens. So, yeah, you just buy. And then she does the same thing for her juices and her little wellness shots, but they're all in glass and you have to pay. Well, we're in love with her.

Speaker 2: 59:00

I love this but.

Speaker 3: 59:01

I think it's you know, I think that she's got on that train because she was a cancer survivor. So I really do think that a lot of people have made these pushes once their health has been impacted. So it's trying to get people to disrupt their consciousness before a health problem happens.

Speaker 2: 59:16

Yeah, thank you, ladies for coming on down and for talking about this and again, rocking are. You know, I need my world rocked like that, because it was just so overwhelming on this on this summer tour I felt sort of powerless and I already I feel like, okay, yeah, I've got a couple of ways that I can start putting this into daily active use, because it's you've got to start somewhere. But for to reiterate, for our listeners, how can you know to go? Let's go through the ways on how they can help and just really make it crystal clear on how they can help and get involved.

Speaker 4: 59:46

Yeah, I mean. Visit our website plastic pollution coalitionorg. We have fast facts on plastic pollution. We have so many tip sheets, a lot of information for you. Flip the script on plastics has a page there. If you're in the entertainment industry, we encourage people to sign our flip the script on plastics pledge. You can donate to just help us do this work, because we are a nonprofit, so we need money to be able to go out and advocate for this. Watch our webinars, sign up for our newsletter. We're just trying to provide these resources to as many people as we can and help make it easier for you to make the change and we here are dedicated to that as well.

Speaker 3: 1:00:23

So one of the things that you suggested that I love and want to reiterate to all of our listeners and watchers is to just do one thing a month, implement one change, because you're right, this is a slow and gradual process, and I feel like I do the best when I have a buddy that holds me accountable, so I think that it's a great thing to find a person who wants to take that pledge with you. What else can we give people to make them want to sound the alarm more about this issue? Once they become passionate about it, where can they go?

Speaker 1: 1:01:01

I mean I would say continue, go to our website, as Amelia said. So it's plastic pollution coalitionorg. Tune in to stuff. Follow us on social media. We're at plastic pollutes on Instagram or plastic pollution coalition on Facebook. I believe. We're still on Twitter or X, whatever it is.

Speaker 3: 1:01:20

What is the X thing? Anyway, I think we're still there. It's like a little authoritarian.

Speaker 2: 1:01:24

Yeah, a little white nationalist? Let's hope not.

Speaker 1: 1:01:28

But no, no, I was just going to say tune in I was a tune in and educate yourself and then look for the things that are low hanging fruit that you feel comfortable doing or implementing. And once you start, even if you're like a lone person doing it on a tour bus out on the road backstage, it leads to conversations with other people.

Speaker 3: 1:01:51

It does.

Speaker 1: 1:01:51

And I've seen a lot of cool things. I've seen people buy steel bottles for everybody else on the tour with them as a gift to others and put people's names on them. I just did that.

Speaker 3: 1:02:00

Yeah, there you go. Hey, I'm like blowing the surprise, sorry.

Speaker 1: 1:02:05

You know, and you know we also have a really fun. I'm just going to give you, like it's a, it's a window into something that hasn't been announced yet. But, next week we're announcing a collaborative horror film competition for one to three minutes. Plastic kills with an exclamation point we're going to announce it with Hollywood Health and Society from USC and Plastic Pollution Coalition and I hope that if folks hear this they'll participate and you can win $2,000 if you're a winner, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:02:43

Amazing Get your film on.

Speaker 2: 1:02:45

Deanna Amelia, thank you so much for being here and please keep us abreast of everything you guys have going on, and I'm sure we will do the same on our end too.

Speaker 3: 1:02:53

Thank you for keeping us positive about this journey, highlighting the positive things that you can do. I think that's so important.

Speaker 4: 1:03:00

As my bottle says, optimist. I love that you have to stay an optimist about it all, because I am not an optimist. I need optimistic friends.

Speaker 2: 1:03:07

Thank you ladies.

Speaker 1: 1:03:08

Thank you.

Speaker 2: 1:03:10

All right. So before we go, today, as promised, we are going to deliver a new segment to you called tour stories. Now, there are so many, so many. I've been keeping a journal for the better part of 40 years as a sort of as a musician and touring musician and stuff, and so one day I'm going to compile it into a book and it's going to be fucking amazing because I cannot wait yeah because the people aren't going to believe the shit that's, that's happened to us.

Speaker 2: 1:03:38

Oh my lord, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I was. There was a period of time where Mr Tyler Taylor and I were trying to give, trying to give Tommy Lee and Nikki Six a run for their money.

Speaker 3: 1:03:47

So you know so if you haven't read that book, please do. Oh my god.

Speaker 2: 1:03:53

Amazing. Hands down, the greatest, the greatest rock and roll sort of. First of all, I don't care what you think about their music, I go have people that know me, I say this all the time Miley Crew, hardest party in band of all time. Fuck the who, fuck Led Zeppelin, fuck Guns N' Roses. Miley Crew, hardest party in band of all time.

Speaker 2: 1:04:12

But the best book was, in my opinion, whether it was Dirt, which is amazing, there was a movie made out of it and and then shout out to Doc McGee, our manager, who was just pivotal in the in uh, not only in that movie, that somebody that played him in that movie, but also just in the life of sort of that, that time in the rock and roll game. But then there was a follow-up to it called the heroin diaries, and that is that needs to be a movie. That needs to be a movie like hands down. Exactly that's my favorite rock and roll. I've read them all. That autobiography. It's incredible. If you don't know, check it out. Heroin diaries it's. He thought he lost his journal and then he finally found it, like fifteen years later in a storage unit I'm talking about niki six and he released it as is, but then he gave everybody the sort of that did wrong to during that whole period. He gave them a chance to comment and and, and it's amazing. But uh, yeah, so for torus stories, I, I am, I, we were trying to give them a run for their money, coming up way short, way short. I'll just put that out there, but, uh, I'll, I'll lead off today. My torus and and I have hundreds of this is gonna be a great segment.

Speaker 2: 1:05:18

But the torus story from this summer was, uh, actually I would I take the back. It was from last summer and we were doing a european run through through last summer and it was horrific. There was all these flights got canceled and everything, and so luggage wound up getting lost and we would show up to airports and show the switzerland airport and there would just be stacks and stacks and stacks of luggage where you're like how in the world can anybody find their shit right? And I was like I'll take all I had. Luckily I had an air tag and I went after you go to the people like I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I.

Speaker 2: 1:05:52

I sent me the whole other wing of the airport by the time I got over there was probably. It took me about two hours to get over there. Yet I get over there, they open up this giant room. I didn't even know they made rooms this big because you open up the room. And it was the last scene in raiders of the lost art and I was like how I was like, oh my god, my bag and, um, luckily I had an air tag in it.

Speaker 3: 1:06:18

See, this is why you need air tags that's right.

Speaker 2: 1:06:20

That's right. I had an air tag in it and it got me to my bag because it'll be like you are within 117 feet.

Speaker 3: 1:06:27

Is that accurate? Yeah, out yeah, apple, I mean you a little corrupt and what not, but you be coming right, right.

Speaker 2: 1:06:33

You be coming through, coming through. What's your, what's your tour story this week?

Speaker 3: 1:06:37

well, see many of mine.

Speaker 3: 1:06:39

Um, I will have to change the names because I have I'm signed hefty n da protect the innocent, but uh, you can look at my uh resume and you can probably put two and two with two and two, four, okay, you can probably do it. So for this one particular artist that I'm not gonna name because I signed hefty n d a's, we were traveling, uh, in the middle east and we um went to istanbul and we went to the bizarre, and this particular artist decided to buy some of those sepulcher swords you know those big, you know they look like job at your head, like out of like a latin kind of john's right I don't know what those are called.

Speaker 3: 1:07:17

I'm sorry for give my ignorance, but in any who, we told this person you should put them swords and cartage, and this person decided that they didn't need to do that because they were famous. So cut to us in the airport of istanbul and also let me mention that our guitarist at the time was algerian.

Speaker 3: 1:07:36

So they went through everybody's luggage and I promise you, when they unsheathed that sword, this entire airport just went silent and I was like, well, we live here now so then they pulled all of our bags and they put us in this room for, like I don't know, six hours for most of the band except for the guitar player, so they detained him for almost a day right and then they had the artists that we were with. They detained that person. So the tour manager, once that we were cleared, advanced us all right to the next city, right?

Speaker 3: 1:08:10

so we get to this next city and we hear that they've been released, but this is like maybe sixteen hours later and we're supposed to play oh my god so we get to the venue and we just had to play covers for forty five minutes in front of, like a very muslim audience, like we're sitting up there being like very superstitious, like literally waiting until the artist came up. And we have no guitar player, by the way, so I mean the keyboard player which is taking a hell of solos, like we're just singing, like we're scatting, like we don't know. And people are like, um, we paid to hear this artist, like why are you saying it's a yt? Like what is going on? And finally the artists walked out and then we played the last forty five minutes of the show with their songs, but literally we were just tap dancing for our lives and without a guitar player, mm-hmm yeah that's

Speaker 2: 1:08:57

crazy so see, there you go, we're gonna be. We have so many of these uh tour stories, so I've I've already thought of another one for next week, but, uh, I thank you guys for listening, thank you guys for for coming back to the show. We're so excited about everything we have coming up on season two and it's been a long summer, so I'm looking forward to uh the therapy that it, that this type of event will provide, and make sure to reach out and uh you know, leave us a comment, ask any questions, anything like that, anything you want to know about the tour, about the road, and, uh ma, you got got anything else to say?

Speaker 3: 1:09:32

we're also going to be keeping you abreast about things that are happening in the strike, because that affects a lot of our town and I'm sure that people who are not affiliated with the industry want to know some of the ins and outs of why this is taking so long. There are some misconceptions about why it's taking so long, so we will keep you abreast of all of its developments and, again, if there are any topics that you think we should cover, please let us know, because this is your show, we are your conduits, but we want to give you the information that you require. So we love you very much and we'll see you soon.

Speaker 3: 1:10:07

Slap the power that's right, see you next time slap the power is written and produced by rick barrio dill and mysides associate producer rickory audio and visual engineering and studio facilities provided by slap studios, la, with distribution through our collective home for social progress in art, slap the network. If you have any ideas for a show you want to hear or see, or if you would like to be a guest artist on our show, please email us at info at slap the powercom.