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Speaker 1: Ruby. Hi, I'm Leah Palmery and I'm Matt Stillo and welcome, Welcome,

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Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Grown Up Stuff.

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Speaker 2: Yes, welcome to another episode of our podcast, Grown Up Stuff.

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Speaker 1: Lea, that's sorry, that's my line.

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Speaker 3: Oh no, I know.

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Speaker 2: I just took what you said and I recycled it.

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Speaker 2: Because today's episode is all about recycling.

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Speaker 1: Okay, I see what you did there, and I would

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Speaker 1: actually request that you reduce how much you reuse. What

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Speaker 1: I say.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I see what you did there, and I love

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Speaker 2: it because we are also going to learn about reducing

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Speaker 2: and reusing.

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Speaker 1: Ah, that's right. Our guest today is Karen Napolitano, education

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Speaker 1: and outreach manager at Circular Services, who I met in

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Speaker 1: real life during a tour of her facility and was

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Speaker 1: so impressed that I just needed to learn more.

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Speaker 2: Well, it turns out when it comes to recycling, we

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Speaker 2: all need to learn more, and luckily Kara can help

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Speaker 2: with exactly that. We're going to learn what containers go where,

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Speaker 2: what happens to them on their journey, and the small

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Speaker 2: adjustments we can make every day to make our local

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Speaker 2: and global communities a better place. Imagine that I do

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Speaker 2: imagine that I would love to imagine.

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Speaker 1: I would actually love to live in that world.

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Speaker 3: A world. What a world? And now here's Kara.

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Speaker 1: Before we dive in car. I gotta say, this is

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Speaker 1: the first time, for the think of the history of

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Speaker 1: this podcast, we've all been in the same place. So

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Speaker 1: you're in the studio. We just built this new studio.

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Speaker 1: It's one of the first recordings that we've done in

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Speaker 1: this new studio. And we're excited to have you here

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Speaker 1: because I met you in real life. I are l

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Speaker 1: which is crazy. So basically, my wife Elena is the

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Speaker 1: best human on the planet and we very very much

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Speaker 1: so care about recycling, reducing, and reusing. We hoard all

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Speaker 1: of our plastic bags to take to the groceries, and we're

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Speaker 1: talking about that. We do the same with our batteries,

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Speaker 1: with our electronics. We go to the New York sanitation

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Speaker 1: events that.

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Speaker 4: They have, Yeah, the safe events, disposal events, excellent, good

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Speaker 4: for you.

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Speaker 1: You go to Sephora to do the drop off compos

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Speaker 1: and so she just wanted to know more. Yeah, And

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Speaker 1: so what she did is she signed us up to

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Speaker 1: take a tour of the MIURF, the Sunset Park Materials

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Speaker 1: Recovery Facility or MURF and you gave such an amazing overview.

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Speaker 1: I couldn't shut up. I was asking you all these questions.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure everyone's like, this fucking guy. It's perfect. And

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Speaker 1: I told you, I just have to have you on

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Speaker 1: the show because it's something that I think is so

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Speaker 1: so important and is so overlooked and just vital to

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Speaker 1: building a better future for all of us. And so

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Speaker 1: I would actually love to hear you and your own

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Speaker 1: words tell us like what you do there and kind

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Speaker 1: of an overview of your role there. Yeah.

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Speaker 4: So I am the education director at the Sunset Park

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Speaker 4: Materials Recovery Facility or MURF for short, which is a

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Speaker 4: fun acronym. So AMURF is basically a sorting facility for recyclables.

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Speaker 4: So when we are instructed to recycle, we're generally instructed

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Speaker 4: to mix different materials together into a bin. So then

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Speaker 4: those materials are going to travel to a MIURF THEMURF

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Speaker 4: then sorts them out through a series of technologies or

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Speaker 4: human power. So that's what we do in Brooklyn. My

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Speaker 4: job there, I get to be the educator, which I'm

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Speaker 4: very honored to be. So we have the facility sorting

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Speaker 4: the recyclables and then selling the recyclables. It's also very important.

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Speaker 4: But we also have the Recycling Education Center, which is

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Speaker 4: like an interactive recycling museum where folks get to have

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Speaker 4: these hands on experiences that really mirror how we operate

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Speaker 4: at the facility, how we sort all of these materials,

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Speaker 4: and really how materials.

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Speaker 1: Work in general.

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Speaker 4: You know, we have a station that shows where materials

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Speaker 4: come from and how they're made, and we have a

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Speaker 4: station that shows what they can become after they get recycled.

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Speaker 4: So visitors can come and experience the Recycling Education Center

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Speaker 4: and I can answer all of their recycling questions and

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Speaker 4: explain to them what goes in which bin and why.

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Speaker 4: And then they get to go upstairs and see this

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Speaker 4: massive facility.

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Speaker 1: I mean you saw it. It's a mountain, a full mountain, yeah,

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Speaker 1: of recyclable.

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Speaker 4: Few hundred tons of recyclables, yeah, and then a huge

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Speaker 4: room of two and a half miles of conveyor belts

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Speaker 4: and again a series of technologies and some humans doing

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Speaker 4: it as well. That's sorting it all out and preparing

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Speaker 4: it to become new things.

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Speaker 1: And just a quick question, how many Merphs actually have

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Speaker 1: an education department?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, in this country, there are I think somewhere around

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Speaker 4: like three hundred and fifty morphs, but I don't know

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Speaker 4: how many have education centers yet. It's not the norm,

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Speaker 4: but it is becoming a bit of a trend.

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Speaker 1: I think it should be mandatory, and here's why. And

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Speaker 1: it sounds maybe silly, but I did have a profound

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Speaker 1: experience because our experience in this country of recycling is well,

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Speaker 1: hope this gets where it's supposed to go. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: And to go there and see how much you guys

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Speaker 1: were recovering and we're going to get into all this

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Speaker 1: because we have so many questions about like myths about

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Speaker 1: recycling and stuff like that that we're excited for you

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Speaker 1: to answer for our audience. But to see it all

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Speaker 1: with my own eyes and to go through the museum

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Speaker 1: into hear you speech was just like really, I felt

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Speaker 1: empowered because sometimes you're just like again, you have a

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Speaker 1: hope of hope again, I see you never ye hope,

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Speaker 1: and I assume you're going to be made into a

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Speaker 1: chair or something and you just don't know. So to

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Speaker 1: see it in action was awesome. Yeah, that's the point

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Speaker 1: of the ED center.

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Speaker 4: You're pulling back the curtain and showing people something they

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Speaker 4: don't normally get to see that. Hopefully everyone is interacting

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Speaker 4: with and participating. We want people to participate.

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Speaker 1: It's already made me a better recyclers so much that

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Speaker 1: I learned from you that I'm excited to share people today.

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Speaker 2: That's going to be true of all of us.

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Speaker 1: I think you're just going to kick us off though

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Speaker 1: with our first question.

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Speaker 2: Okay, Kara, we're going to start with the basics. So, really,

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Speaker 2: when we talk about recycling, what is that?

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Speaker 1: Where does it fall.

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Speaker 2: In the conversation where we talk about sustainability, like how

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Speaker 2: does it apply exactly? And most importantly, why should grown

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Speaker 2: ups and young people care about it?

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Speaker 1: Yeah?

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Speaker 4: So I will give you a very basic general definition

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Speaker 4: of recycling, but we there are many ways one can

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Speaker 4: describe it. Basically, recycling is taking materials that have already

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Speaker 4: been probably manufactured and used, and using those materials to

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Speaker 4: then be broken down and make new useful materials. Right,

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Speaker 4: there are a lot of other finer definitions kind of

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Speaker 4: within that. There's upcycling and downcycling. Technically, upcycling is when

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Speaker 4: something is made into something considered of a higher use,

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Speaker 4: or downcycling is when something is made into something considered

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Speaker 4: a lower, lesser use. But these are all forms of recycling,

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Speaker 4: So how does that fit into the environmental equation and

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Speaker 4: sort of environmental sustainability. So something that I try to

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Speaker 4: tell everyone that comes on my tours. I usually say

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Speaker 4: it at the end, but I'll just kick off rabit today.

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Speaker 4: Recycling is good and recycling is helpful. But recycling doesn't

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Speaker 4: save the planet. That's not a thing. Reducing and reusing

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Speaker 4: is more so it's going to save the planet. So

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Speaker 4: recycling is a part of this reduce reuse and as

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Speaker 4: a last.

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Speaker 1: Resort recycle practice.

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Speaker 4: So saving materials by recycling is beneficial and has its place.

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Speaker 4: I think some of us have this idea of like

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Speaker 4: perceived abundance where we just have so much stuff and

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Speaker 4: we can just buy it and use it and throw

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Speaker 4: it away to our heart's content. And that's not necessarily

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Speaker 4: the case. We don't have an unlimited supply of everything,

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Speaker 4: and that's sort of where reducing and reusing and recycling

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Speaker 4: can help us to conserve our precious resources and also

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Speaker 4: generating a lot of waste is expensive. It is financially expensive.

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Speaker 4: New York City spent something like over four hundred million

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Speaker 4: dollars a year to send trash, not recycling, but to

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Speaker 4: send trash to its final destination outside of the five burrows,

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Speaker 4: and then generating waste is also environmentally expensive and impactful.

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Speaker 4: You know, landfills where we send most of our trash

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Speaker 4: in this country are a leading cause of methane emissions.

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Speaker 4: Methane is a real bad grainhouse cast. Then we need

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Speaker 4: to cut our methane emissions like yesterday. But all that's

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Speaker 4: to say, reducing, reusing and recycling are to preserve precious

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Speaker 4: resources and protect our ability to safely and healthily exist

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Speaker 4: on this planet. And I have to say that thing

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Speaker 4: of it in the long term, like that is really

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Speaker 4: hard for people to conceptualize, Like thinking about how my

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Speaker 4: actions now of throwing this milk jug in the recycling

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Speaker 4: bin is going to protect the future generations having more resources,

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Speaker 4: Like that's a difficult argument to People are thinking about

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Speaker 4: how they're going to buy groceries today. They're not thinking

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Speaker 4: about how we're gonna mind petroleum in one hundred years off.

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Speaker 1: We're still well doing. To put it succinctly, recycling is

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Speaker 1: the bare minimum that you can.

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Speaker 4: Do this, And I think a way to get people

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Speaker 4: to participate and care about recycling is not necessarily to

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Speaker 4: get them to care about future generations. I want them to,

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Speaker 4: but I think that's a tougher argument. I think the

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Speaker 4: way to make it work is making it as easy

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Speaker 4: and convenient as possible for people to do the right thing.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Well, a perfect example this morning, I finished my green

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Speaker 2: juice from Trader Joe's, and then I popped that bad

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Speaker 2: boy bottle right in my recycling compartment. Yeah, so then

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Speaker 2: what happens, I say, buy green juice, thank you so

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Speaker 2: much for filling me up and keeping me healthy. Where's

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Speaker 2: that bottle off to? Where's he going? What's happening in

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Speaker 2: his next life?

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Speaker 4: It was a plastic bottle, Yes, all right, great, So

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Speaker 4: if you recycled it at home, if you put it

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Speaker 4: in your blue bin with the blue bin and the

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Speaker 4: grain bin in New York City, the grain is for

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Speaker 4: paper and cardboard, blue for metal, glass, plastic and cartons.

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Speaker 4: So that blue bin material is then going to travel

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Speaker 4: to one of the facilities operated by Circular Services, that's

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Speaker 4: the company I work for. So then at the MURF

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Speaker 4: we're going to sort all those materials out. So probably

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Speaker 4: your green juice was a type of plastic called number

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Speaker 4: one plastic or PET or polyethylene to ref the late.

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Speaker 1: I hope I put the right emphastist on the right

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Speaker 1: level there.

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Speaker 4: But we're going to sort it out into a bale

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Speaker 4: like a cube, like if you've seen the movie Wally right,

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Speaker 4: the little robot making the bales. We make bales of

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Speaker 4: a whole bunch of pet of number one plastic with

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Speaker 4: your bottle, and then the mirf will sell that to

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Speaker 4: what's called a plastic reclaimer. Okay, so the plastic reclaimer,

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Speaker 4: they are breaking down that plastic, They wash it, they

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Speaker 4: melt it, turn it into these little pellets that they will.

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Speaker 1: Then sell to a manufacturer.

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Speaker 4: The manufacturer is going to make it back into whatever

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Speaker 4: is going to be sold back to you. It'll be

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Speaker 4: made into you know, maybe another bottle, maybe for soap,

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Speaker 4: or it might be made into clothing or carpeting. Right

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Speaker 4: because pet that's the same material as polyester. Oh, so

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Speaker 4: it could actually become a fabric and then once made

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Speaker 4: into that next thing, it's sold back to you.

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Speaker 1: Wow. So I have a two part question here. Basically,

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Speaker 1: like if all of our glass and plastic and everything

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Speaker 1: goes into the blue bins right at the murf, you

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Speaker 1: guys use different kinds of technology to sort it, which

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Speaker 1: is really cool to see. So I'd love for you

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Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about how you separate those

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Speaker 1: things and how they each get kind of individually recycled,

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Speaker 1: and then more broadly, like how this might change city

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Speaker 1: to city to state to state around the United States,

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Speaker 1: and what these merphs look like elsewhere. Yeah.

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Speaker 4: Sure, So generally, any MIRFH is probably going to have

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Speaker 4: a magnet that's going to pull out all the ferris

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Speaker 4: or all the magnet metal. That's going to be pretty standard.

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Speaker 4: And then some merphs also have something called an eddy

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Speaker 4: current which actually ejects non ferrous metal, so it gives

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Speaker 4: it an electromagnetic charge, and then there's a rotor at

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Speaker 4: the end that's working against that charge and like be

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Speaker 4: like flying in animate objects shooting the non ferrous metal

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Speaker 4: onto another conveyor belt. And that's becoming a bit more common,

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Speaker 4: but not all merphs are necessarily going to have that.

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Speaker 4: Some of that might be done by hand. And then

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Speaker 4: we also have these optical sorders. So the optical sorders

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Speaker 4: use near infrared light to scan items and they can

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Speaker 4: actually see what those items are chemically made of. We

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Speaker 4: can program them to look for a variety of products,

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Speaker 4: like different types of plastic or cartons or paper. We're

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Speaker 4: really not supposed to receive paper. It's supposed to go

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Speaker 4: in the green bin paper, and the blue binds always

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Speaker 4: still end up having to sort it. But then the

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Speaker 4: near infrared it identifies the material it's looking for, and

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Speaker 4: then it uses an air jet to shoot it like

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Speaker 4: more flying and animate objects to shoot it onto another

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Speaker 4: conveyor belt. And those have become pretty common. Like most

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Speaker 4: merphs will have one or two of those, larger murphs

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Speaker 4: might have six or seven. But then some of that

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Speaker 4: work might be done by hand as well, depending on

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Speaker 4: the size of the facility, kind of like.

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Speaker 1: The last resort, right, Yeah, for things that don't get

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Speaker 1: scooped u by everything else. Yeah. Wow. Okay.

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Speaker 2: So you'll hear people say recyclables just end up in

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Speaker 2: landfill anyway?

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Speaker 1: Is that for real?

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Speaker 3: No?

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Speaker 4: Not really, And I think that that comes from someone

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Speaker 4: will read a media story and it'll say something like

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Speaker 4: such and such city was sending such type of recyclables

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Speaker 4: to a landfill for this period of time, like they

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Speaker 4: were having trouble selling this type of plastic, so they

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Speaker 4: were sending it to landfill for a period of time.

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Speaker 4: And I think people read something like that and they

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Speaker 4: think it applies to everywhere all the time, when no,

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Speaker 4: it's just that one city for that one period of

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Speaker 4: time with that one material, and really what will happen

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Speaker 4: is they'll struggle to sell it for a time and

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Speaker 4: then they'll figure it out. But if your municipality or

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Speaker 4: your town or city is asking you to put specific

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Speaker 4: items into a bin, they're not trying to trick you.

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Speaker 4: Those are the items that they know they can sort

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Speaker 4: and sell from their local materials recovery facility. And if

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Speaker 4: something happens and they all of a sudden have to

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Speaker 4: long term start sending those items to trash, they're just

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Speaker 4: going to cancel their recycling program. Like it's expensive to

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Speaker 4: send a separate truck out to collect a separate stream

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Speaker 4: of materials that no one's trying to throw money away

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Speaker 4: like that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it is funny thinking about the oh this is

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Speaker 1: just an elaborate facade. Yeah, all of the workers and

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Speaker 1: the trucks and the infrastructure is just to make you

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Speaker 1: feel it's happening. It costs money, Yeah, No, it's a business.

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Speaker 1: It was great to hear you, because this is like

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Speaker 1: my number one thing, which is why I was excited

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Speaker 1: to go, is because I feel like I've read those

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Speaker 1: stories in the area. And not to say that the

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Speaker 1: situation on the planet Earth in general isn't dire, It

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Speaker 1: absolutely is. But when I read these piece has been

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Speaker 1: like what like nine percent or ten percent of the

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Speaker 1: things that we Oh.

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Speaker 4: No, now I have to explain that to you.

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Speaker 1: How you do, and I want you to explain it

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Speaker 1: very well. But like we hear things like nine percent

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Speaker 1: of everything we recycle actually gets recycled. And you just.

300
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Speaker 4: Played a really intense game of telephone in your own brain.

301
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Speaker 4: You know that game where you like pass the thing

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Speaker 4: down the line and it gets distorted and that's wrong.

303
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Speaker 4: So yes, there is the statistic floating around. It actually

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Speaker 4: pertains to plastics. So there's the statistic that nine percent

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Speaker 4: of plastic gets recycled.

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Speaker 1: So this was.

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Speaker 4: Determined by the EPA. They put out a study the

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Speaker 4: Sustainable Materials Management back in twenty eighteen.

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Speaker 1: So what they.

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Speaker 4: Did is they measured all plastics that had been manufactured

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Speaker 4: in one year. And I mean, you just have to

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Speaker 4: let that sink in for a moment. All plastics that

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Speaker 4: had been manufactured in this country. I believe in a year,

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Speaker 4: it's a lot of stuff like you know, tables, chairs, shoes,

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Speaker 4: some are bottles, some are recyclable, some are not, some

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Speaker 4: are durable and meant to be reused us. So they

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Speaker 4: found that out of all plastic manufactured in a year,

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Speaker 4: United States residents like you and I put nine percent

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Speaker 4: of that into recycling bins. So what I think people

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Speaker 4: interpret from that statistic is they think, oh, of all

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Speaker 4: the plastic I diligently put in my bin, only nine

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Speaker 4: percent of it is getting recycled, When that's not what

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Speaker 4: was being measured. It's actually the percentage that people are

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Speaker 4: putting into their bins. And if you put more of

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Speaker 4: the correct stuff into your bins, that percentage will actually

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Speaker 4: go up.

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Speaker 1: And then of the things that we put into the bin,

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Speaker 1: like something close to like one hundred percent.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, so once you put it into the bin, it

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Speaker 4: goes on a journey, right And at the Mirph stage

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Speaker 4: where I work, we're a pretty good mirf. We might

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Speaker 4: lose like five percent of valuables, and you know, murphs

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Speaker 4: throughout the country might lose five to I think like

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Speaker 4: thirteen percent of valuables depending on how well they're operating,

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Speaker 4: and then in manufacturing there's going to be some percentage

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Speaker 4: of loss somewhere along the line, but it's nowhere near

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Speaker 4: ninety one percent. Yes, a ninety one percent loss would

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Speaker 4: make zero sense.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, it's great to hear, because when you hear

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Speaker 1: these things, you feel disheartened about recycling, and so to

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00:16:08,480 --> 00:16:10,440
Speaker 1: hear from you they're like, no, it's closer to actually

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00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:13,040
Speaker 1: like the reverse of that. Yeah, it's actually being recycled

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Speaker 1: from the things that you're putting in the bin. So

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Speaker 1: really really important to hear, and thank you for clearing

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Speaker 1: that up. So we're going to play now a fun,

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Speaker 1: fun game and it's called it is e Recycle Level,

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Speaker 1: And we've got a fun fund list here, and so

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Speaker 1: we'll talk about like maybe in general in the United

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Speaker 1: States with that asterik of definitely look it up for

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Speaker 1: your city. So Leah, kick it.

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Speaker 2: Off all plastics with a triangle symbol on it all.

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Speaker 4: No, Okay, it has to have a specific number. It

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Speaker 4: depends on where you live, Okay. So different municipalities will

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Speaker 4: explain it differently, they will express what they accept in

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Speaker 4: different ways. In New York City, we say send us

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Speaker 4: all rigid plastic, any hard plastic. But some municipalities will

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Speaker 4: say we only want plastics number one and two. It

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Speaker 4: all depends on what their local mirph can sell.

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Speaker 1: Okay, and I think it's important to say just because

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Speaker 1: a lot of times the number is in that triangle thing, right,

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Speaker 1: and everyone goes, oh, this is recyclable. Yeah.

362
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Speaker 4: And if you're looking at a piece of plastic that

363
00:17:09,760 --> 00:17:12,240
Speaker 4: little recycling symbol with the number inside it, it's not

364
00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:14,719
Speaker 4: telling you, hey, I'm recyclable. It's telling you, hey, this

365
00:17:14,760 --> 00:17:17,359
Speaker 4: is what type of plastic I am. Some are recyclable

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Speaker 4: and some aren't. Some municipalities don't even use the numbers.

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Speaker 4: They just say send us all the bottles and all

368
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Speaker 4: the jugs, or send us all the containers. So you

369
00:17:24,600 --> 00:17:26,720
Speaker 4: just have to look up what they're saying and do that.

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Speaker 1: Amazing. And one other thing that was kind of confusing

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Speaker 1: is like those cartons, right, because they're like kind of

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Speaker 1: plastic key, kind of papery. What's the deal with those.

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Speaker 4: Cartons are recyclable in most recycling programs in the US? Okay,

374
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Speaker 4: pizza boxes? Most places do accept pizza boxes.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, important to know. And what about if they're like

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Speaker 1: just covered in like all remnants of pizza.

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00:17:47,040 --> 00:17:49,399
Speaker 4: I mean, don't leave any pizza in the box. Yes,

378
00:17:49,920 --> 00:17:52,600
Speaker 4: but definitely in New York City we'll take the greasiest

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Speaker 4: of pizza.

380
00:17:53,080 --> 00:17:56,639
Speaker 1: Boxes we have pizzas. I guess it works wonderful.

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Speaker 4: Definitely something to look up, though some places only want

382
00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:00,480
Speaker 4: clean pizza boxus.

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00:18:00,680 --> 00:18:04,200
Speaker 1: Fair enough. Let's go to plastic bags, and I'm thinking

384
00:18:04,280 --> 00:18:06,720
Speaker 1: like the shopping bag plastics.

385
00:18:06,480 --> 00:18:09,719
Speaker 4: Like the single use stopping bags exactly. Those are pretty

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00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:13,879
Speaker 4: much not recyclable anywhere in this country, as far as

387
00:18:13,920 --> 00:18:16,439
Speaker 4: in your home bin or like in a recycling right.

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Speaker 1: And why is that? Yeah? Two reasons.

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00:18:19,040 --> 00:18:22,159
Speaker 4: So, first of all, it's really hard for us to

390
00:18:22,320 --> 00:18:25,520
Speaker 4: sort them at the MURFH. A plastic bag is what

391
00:18:25,560 --> 00:18:30,840
Speaker 4: we call a tangler because it tangles in the sorting equipment,

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00:18:31,200 --> 00:18:33,640
Speaker 4: so it's a big pain for us. And then even

393
00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:36,359
Speaker 4: if we do manage to sort them, nobody wants to

394
00:18:36,400 --> 00:18:40,119
Speaker 4: buy them. Something is recyclable if it has a market,

395
00:18:40,280 --> 00:18:42,240
Speaker 4: if there's a company out there that wants to buy it.

396
00:18:42,440 --> 00:18:46,160
Speaker 4: Plastic bags, they're pretty flimsy. It's not really a strong material.

397
00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:48,880
Speaker 4: You don't get much from it. Can we recycle clothes

398
00:18:49,440 --> 00:18:52,320
Speaker 4: not in the same way you can recycle metal glass, plastic. Okay,

399
00:18:52,400 --> 00:18:53,560
Speaker 4: you can donate clothes.

400
00:18:53,720 --> 00:18:55,960
Speaker 1: That's about it. That's yeah, yeah, and they might get

401
00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:58,800
Speaker 1: one more life and they might not. They might not

402
00:18:59,280 --> 00:19:01,280
Speaker 1: h H and M. As a program for a closed

403
00:19:01,280 --> 00:19:03,760
Speaker 1: recycling and so we'll typically take stuff there. Good life

404
00:19:03,760 --> 00:19:07,200
Speaker 1: pro tip. What about shredded paper in.

405
00:19:07,160 --> 00:19:10,359
Speaker 4: Some places that's a maybe if you have a recycling

406
00:19:10,400 --> 00:19:14,240
Speaker 4: program where everything goes in one bin, metal glass, plastic, paper,

407
00:19:14,280 --> 00:19:18,000
Speaker 4: and cardboard. Usually you can't recycle shredded paper because it's

408
00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:21,040
Speaker 4: so hard to sort the little bits out from everything else.

409
00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:25,240
Speaker 2: How about bottle caps and do they have to be

410
00:19:25,280 --> 00:19:25,960
Speaker 2: on the bottle?

411
00:19:26,400 --> 00:19:29,760
Speaker 1: So the rule for caps is always leave caps on. Okay,

412
00:19:29,800 --> 00:19:31,760
Speaker 1: that's it. This is the biggest thing that I learned

413
00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:35,760
Speaker 1: about your tour because like, I never do this. I'm like, what,

414
00:19:35,960 --> 00:19:39,119
Speaker 1: it's in the bin, right, But you explained that the

415
00:19:39,160 --> 00:19:41,320
Speaker 1: reason why we put them on the bottle.

416
00:19:41,080 --> 00:19:44,800
Speaker 4: Is because it's very difficult to capture small plastics we'll

417
00:19:44,800 --> 00:19:45,240
Speaker 4: fall through.

418
00:19:45,359 --> 00:19:45,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, we can.

419
00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:48,600
Speaker 4: Actually if you put a metal bottle cap in there,

420
00:19:48,720 --> 00:19:51,000
Speaker 4: we can capture that. We can sort that with magnets

421
00:19:51,040 --> 00:19:53,600
Speaker 4: and the eddy current, the cool reverse magnet easy, but

422
00:19:54,040 --> 00:19:57,199
Speaker 4: small plastics are really hard to sort. They sort of

423
00:19:57,200 --> 00:19:59,159
Speaker 4: fall through the cracks and get lost. But leave it

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00:19:59,200 --> 00:20:01,440
Speaker 4: attached to the big bottle. It'll make it through.

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00:20:01,560 --> 00:20:03,399
Speaker 1: And now my caps are on the bottle.

426
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Speaker 2: Great influence.

427
00:20:04,760 --> 00:20:05,679
Speaker 1: What U batteries?

428
00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:10,400
Speaker 4: You should never put any battery in your recycling bin ever, Okay,

429
00:20:10,520 --> 00:20:10,960
Speaker 4: it goes.

430
00:20:10,840 --> 00:20:11,399
Speaker 1: In the trash.

431
00:20:11,800 --> 00:20:18,199
Speaker 4: So regular old like single use, double A, triple A batteries.

432
00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:21,360
Speaker 4: In New York State, it is legal to put those

433
00:20:21,400 --> 00:20:23,800
Speaker 4: in the trash. It depends on the battery, right, Any

434
00:20:23,920 --> 00:20:27,600
Speaker 4: lithium ion or rechargeable battery. Do we know what those

435
00:20:27,640 --> 00:20:27,959
Speaker 4: can do?

436
00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:31,119
Speaker 1: Free charge, be reused, yes, which is great.

437
00:20:31,200 --> 00:20:33,040
Speaker 4: And then at the end of their life they can

438
00:20:33,119 --> 00:20:37,119
Speaker 4: cause dangerous and devastating fires. Oh so we actually see

439
00:20:37,160 --> 00:20:38,760
Speaker 4: one to three battery fires a day.

440
00:20:38,840 --> 00:20:39,800
Speaker 1: It's just terrifying.

441
00:20:40,280 --> 00:20:43,640
Speaker 4: So please no rechargeable batteries and no electronics. They often

442
00:20:43,680 --> 00:20:44,600
Speaker 4: contain batteries.

443
00:20:44,760 --> 00:20:45,040
Speaker 1: I think.

444
00:20:45,040 --> 00:20:49,520
Speaker 4: Actually Staples will now take back any battery for recycling,

445
00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:52,199
Speaker 4: which is great, but often the place where you purchase

446
00:20:52,240 --> 00:20:55,240
Speaker 4: the battery electronic wonderful. Yeah, you have to take it

447
00:20:55,280 --> 00:20:56,719
Speaker 4: back for safe disposal.

448
00:20:57,080 --> 00:20:59,040
Speaker 1: I love that. So at home depot you can actually

449
00:20:59,119 --> 00:21:02,720
Speaker 1: do battery and light bulbs. Oh, which that's why can

450
00:21:02,720 --> 00:21:03,440
Speaker 1: you not recycling?

451
00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:08,200
Speaker 4: Yeah, some light bulbs are hazardous waste, so you can't.

452
00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:10,800
Speaker 4: The regular old Edison bulbs you can throw in the trash,

453
00:21:10,920 --> 00:21:13,680
Speaker 4: but some of the newer bulbs you have to take

454
00:21:13,680 --> 00:21:14,120
Speaker 4: them back.

455
00:21:14,359 --> 00:21:14,600
Speaker 1: Okay.

456
00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:18,679
Speaker 2: And how about toothpaste or cosmetic containers.

457
00:21:19,359 --> 00:21:21,719
Speaker 1: The simple answer is no. Okay.

458
00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:25,000
Speaker 4: A lot of those cosmetic containers are small plastics, so

459
00:21:25,040 --> 00:21:27,280
Speaker 4: they're really hard for us to capture. And that's actually

460
00:21:27,320 --> 00:21:30,760
Speaker 4: something that Circular Services is working on. So one division

461
00:21:31,320 --> 00:21:35,159
Speaker 4: they're working on recovering small plastics. It's going to be

462
00:21:35,160 --> 00:21:36,920
Speaker 4: a bit of a road and a bit of a journey,

463
00:21:37,280 --> 00:21:39,320
Speaker 4: but right now they're just real hard to capture.

464
00:21:40,600 --> 00:21:45,159
Speaker 1: And what about receipt paper, most places, it's a no.

465
00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:48,400
Speaker 4: I think there's a little bit of toxicity in that paper,

466
00:21:48,960 --> 00:21:50,680
Speaker 4: and so some recycling.

467
00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:52,480
Speaker 1: Programs don't want them. Okay, that's good to know.

468
00:21:52,920 --> 00:21:54,760
Speaker 2: Paper towels, Can I recycle those?

469
00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:59,000
Speaker 4: Well, if you used a paper towel as a napkin, yeah,

470
00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:00,960
Speaker 4: then you can compose it.

471
00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:04,000
Speaker 1: Really like oh yeah, paper towels like your good old bounties.

472
00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:09,000
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, oh yeah, napkins, towels, paper plates, if it's

473
00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:11,240
Speaker 4: covered in food. If it's food soiled, you can put

474
00:22:11,240 --> 00:22:13,440
Speaker 4: it in your organic spin. Okay, you know, you want

475
00:22:13,440 --> 00:22:16,480
Speaker 4: to look at what's accepted in your organics program. But

476
00:22:16,600 --> 00:22:20,240
Speaker 4: usually if you have an organics program that accepts food waste,

477
00:22:20,280 --> 00:22:23,800
Speaker 4: they're also going to accept food soiled paper. But if

478
00:22:23,840 --> 00:22:27,199
Speaker 4: you're using a paper towel like with cleaning chemicals, and

479
00:22:27,240 --> 00:22:30,840
Speaker 4: then you're cleaning up grit that goes in the trash.

480
00:22:30,280 --> 00:22:32,439
Speaker 1: Okay, really good to know. And then this one's always

481
00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:36,400
Speaker 1: confuses me. The little paper envelopes with the little plastic windows.

482
00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:38,560
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, those are fine. Yeah yeah yeah.

483
00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:41,680
Speaker 4: Listen, So paper mills where all this paper is going,

484
00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:44,960
Speaker 4: you have to imagine they are no stranger to a

485
00:22:45,040 --> 00:22:49,640
Speaker 4: little envelopes with plastic windows or like staples or tape. Right,

486
00:22:49,880 --> 00:22:51,840
Speaker 4: these are things that they have to be set up

487
00:22:51,840 --> 00:22:54,800
Speaker 4: to deal with. So if you want to take it off, great,

488
00:22:55,080 --> 00:22:57,840
Speaker 4: it's gonna have to be removed anyway, but don't freak

489
00:22:57,840 --> 00:22:58,359
Speaker 4: out about it.

490
00:22:58,400 --> 00:23:00,600
Speaker 1: You can put that little envelope in the paper and

491
00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:02,600
Speaker 1: you'd maybe throw that away, right because it's very flimsy,

492
00:23:02,600 --> 00:23:03,560
Speaker 1: like you're not going to recycle that.

493
00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:06,359
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, that's soft plastic, that little plastic window is

494
00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:07,240
Speaker 4: trash trash?

495
00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:13,840
Speaker 1: Okay? Cool? And that's is it recyclable? Lang? And ask

496
00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:14,640
Speaker 1: Kara's said.

497
00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:19,800
Speaker 4: Check your local municipalities page for trash and recycling to

498
00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:20,760
Speaker 4: learn what's accepted.

499
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:23,160
Speaker 2: And guess what, when we recycle, we all win.

500
00:23:23,560 --> 00:23:26,160
Speaker 1: Yeah. I love that. Yes, thank you. Everyone's a winner here.

501
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:29,240
Speaker 2: Yeah.

502
00:23:29,320 --> 00:23:31,080
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after a quick.

503
00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:41,520
Speaker 3: Break and we're back with more grown up stuff.

504
00:23:41,600 --> 00:23:41,960
Speaker 1: How do I.

505
00:23:41,960 --> 00:23:49,640
Speaker 2: Don't so when I'm doing my paper recyclables and cardboard,

506
00:23:49,640 --> 00:23:52,040
Speaker 2: do I have to break down the cardboard completely because

507
00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:54,119
Speaker 2: I have some pizza boxes and stuff and I just

508
00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:55,840
Speaker 2: want to fling them in. But do I need to

509
00:23:55,880 --> 00:23:58,040
Speaker 2: like be there and you know, making it into a

510
00:23:58,080 --> 00:23:59,520
Speaker 2: real flats?

511
00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:02,119
Speaker 4: I mean, you know we talked about Suburbia with the

512
00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:04,879
Speaker 4: nice recycling carts. If you're just putting it in the

513
00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:07,800
Speaker 4: cart you just wanted to fit in your cart, those

514
00:24:07,800 --> 00:24:10,639
Speaker 4: are like the big plastic WHEELI pins right with the

515
00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:13,520
Speaker 4: lids that open and close the fancy. If it fits, great,

516
00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:16,760
Speaker 4: But if you need to fold it for it to fit,

517
00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:17,840
Speaker 4: should fold it?

518
00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:20,280
Speaker 1: Yeah? I have to imagine it's not required. But like

519
00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:22,680
Speaker 1: you'd probably been making everyone's life a whole lot easier

520
00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:24,400
Speaker 1: if you did like they would just.

521
00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:25,800
Speaker 2: Be like, oh my god, thank you so much for

522
00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:27,960
Speaker 2: this nice person for breaking this down, instead.

523
00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:30,600
Speaker 4: Of like I've heard of collection workers that if you

524
00:24:30,600 --> 00:24:32,399
Speaker 4: don't set it out right, they don't pick it up.

525
00:24:32,520 --> 00:24:36,320
Speaker 1: Yes, so that is fair. Yeah, so this is another

526
00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:38,840
Speaker 1: big myth. I feel like there are plenty of single

527
00:24:38,920 --> 00:24:41,600
Speaker 1: use plastics and other recyclable materials that were like using

528
00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:44,160
Speaker 1: with other things and they get like messy. How important

529
00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:47,679
Speaker 1: is rinsing fly rinsing? Does it have to be for

530
00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:48,520
Speaker 1: it to be recycled?

531
00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:51,280
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's good practice to clean your recyclables, like give

532
00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:53,960
Speaker 4: them a little rinse. But if you can't get every

533
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:57,800
Speaker 4: bit of peanut butter off the pano butter jar, it's okay.

534
00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:01,400
Speaker 4: If this stuff isn't perfectly clean, we can still take it,

535
00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:02,440
Speaker 4: but just.

536
00:25:02,359 --> 00:25:03,399
Speaker 2: Like try to be nice.

537
00:25:03,520 --> 00:25:05,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, in general, give it that rinse, Give it to

538
00:25:05,600 --> 00:25:08,879
Speaker 1: your dog. That's so true.

539
00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:12,680
Speaker 2: Does it matter if non recyclables end up in recycling?

540
00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:15,320
Speaker 1: That is certainly not ideal. Okay.

541
00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:19,119
Speaker 4: Yeah, So when a piece of trash or garbage, right,

542
00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:22,840
Speaker 4: a non recyclable is placed into a recycling bin, it's

543
00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:25,399
Speaker 4: probably gonna go to the recycling facility with all the

544
00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:27,480
Speaker 4: other recyclables. It's going to go through the whole all

545
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:30,960
Speaker 4: those fancy technologies I was explaining at the Materials Recovery facility,

546
00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:33,359
Speaker 4: it's gonna waste energy and time along the way, and

547
00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:34,240
Speaker 4: then it's still gonna.

548
00:25:34,119 --> 00:25:36,720
Speaker 1: End up in a landfill. I feel like that people

549
00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:38,600
Speaker 1: who are putting something that doesn't belong there that are

550
00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:42,199
Speaker 1: being like hopeful, like maybe there's no word for that.

551
00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:48,720
Speaker 4: It's called wish cycling. We don't love wish cycling. And

552
00:25:48,760 --> 00:25:51,640
Speaker 4: then there was this saying, when in doubt, throw it out,

553
00:25:52,080 --> 00:25:54,960
Speaker 4: which I also don't love because then you could be

554
00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:58,000
Speaker 4: throwing away valuables. I like to say, when in doubt,

555
00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:02,760
Speaker 4: find out. Yeah, you have the internet. It's pretty friendly

556
00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:03,480
Speaker 4: and user friendly.

557
00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:06,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, great, so do your research in the throat way.

558
00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:08,600
Speaker 1: If it takes a minute, just look it up.

559
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:12,360
Speaker 2: What is your advice for setting up effective recycling systems

560
00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:13,000
Speaker 2: at home?

561
00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:13,960
Speaker 1: Yeah?

562
00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:18,439
Speaker 4: What I recommend is in your home. Of course, you

563
00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:21,240
Speaker 4: want to bin in a central location where it fits. Ideally,

564
00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:25,200
Speaker 4: wherever you have one bin, you have all the bins. Ideally,

565
00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:27,480
Speaker 4: wherever you have a trash bin, you also have a

566
00:26:27,520 --> 00:26:30,040
Speaker 4: bin for metal, glass, plastic, and cartons, and a bin

567
00:26:30,080 --> 00:26:33,280
Speaker 4: for paper and cardboard. If you don't have all the

568
00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:35,440
Speaker 4: bins available, people are going to put stuff in the

569
00:26:35,440 --> 00:26:38,919
Speaker 4: wrong bin, you know. And I also really recommend putting

570
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:42,320
Speaker 4: a sign on your bins. I know people don't read signs,

571
00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:45,600
Speaker 4: but I say give people the opportunity to do the

572
00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:49,120
Speaker 4: right thing. Let's try to help and educate and guide

573
00:26:49,119 --> 00:26:52,760
Speaker 4: each other. The one trick there is in the bathroom,

574
00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:55,240
Speaker 4: and I just want to remind everyone that your shampoo

575
00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:59,200
Speaker 4: bottle is recyclable, the little toilet paper tube is recyclable

576
00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:01,640
Speaker 4: with paper. I know you might not put a recycling

577
00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:04,040
Speaker 4: bin in your bathroom, but please just walk those twenty

578
00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:06,959
Speaker 4: extra or whatever feet to the recycling bin and recycle

579
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:10,560
Speaker 4: that stuff. But convenient location, have all bins available, and

580
00:27:10,720 --> 00:27:13,520
Speaker 4: if you are able to separate out your food waste,

581
00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:16,119
Speaker 4: if you have a spot for it on the counter, great,

582
00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:18,360
Speaker 4: but a great place to keep it is in your

583
00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:21,360
Speaker 4: freezer or fridge if you don't have space, and then

584
00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:24,040
Speaker 4: bring it out to your bin for collection the night

585
00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:25,200
Speaker 4: before it gets collected.

586
00:27:25,520 --> 00:27:27,119
Speaker 1: This is huge because a lot of people are like,

587
00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:29,119
Speaker 1: I don't want to compost because it's males gross, and

588
00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:31,440
Speaker 1: I'm like, you have your freezer and if you put

589
00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:33,399
Speaker 1: in the freezer, this is no longer a problem.

590
00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:36,560
Speaker 4: Yeah, it works great, and then your actual trash doesn't

591
00:27:36,600 --> 00:27:39,720
Speaker 4: stink anymore and you barely have to take it out.

592
00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:42,080
Speaker 1: And that's the whole thing behind the reason why we

593
00:27:42,119 --> 00:27:45,200
Speaker 1: want to start composting is because essentially, if all of

594
00:27:45,240 --> 00:27:47,520
Speaker 1: your organic materials are in your trash or they're going

595
00:27:47,560 --> 00:27:50,560
Speaker 1: to landfill. You had mentioned earlier about those are some

596
00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:52,000
Speaker 1: of the largest polluters of methane.

597
00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:56,120
Speaker 4: And that's why it's the organic waste. Organic waste breaking

598
00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:59,760
Speaker 4: down in landfills. It breaks down with no light and

599
00:27:59,800 --> 00:28:03,600
Speaker 4: no air. That is an anaerobic process, big fancy words,

600
00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:07,080
Speaker 4: but that's what gets the methane. This is why landfills

601
00:28:07,080 --> 00:28:09,400
Speaker 4: again leading cause of methane emissions in this country.

602
00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:12,240
Speaker 1: And you're also just like emitting less trash too, because

603
00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:15,040
Speaker 1: if like half of your crash is organic waste.

604
00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:17,479
Speaker 4: Yes, in New York City, we know that about a

605
00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:20,480
Speaker 4: third of our waste could go in the recycling bin metal, glass,

606
00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:23,560
Speaker 4: plastic or paper and cardboard, and another one third to

607
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:26,840
Speaker 4: sometimes one half of our waste could go in that

608
00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:29,680
Speaker 4: organic spin. That is a huge POTENTI if we could

609
00:28:29,760 --> 00:28:33,640
Speaker 4: do that, if we could recycle most of our recyclables

610
00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:36,440
Speaker 4: and compost most of our organic waste. We could beat

611
00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:40,400
Speaker 4: Seattle or San Francisco, whoa absolutely wild they're winning and rec.

612
00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:41,760
Speaker 1: And like, you know, it's funny, like a lot of

613
00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:45,000
Speaker 1: like composting, it's this new thing. What is this thing?

614
00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:48,040
Speaker 1: But like most of the world that is in the

615
00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:51,720
Speaker 1: United States composts me too. It's the most simple, basic thing.

616
00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:53,640
Speaker 1: Like my wife is it's just fine. She doesn't listen

617
00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:54,880
Speaker 1: to the show I talk about it all the time.

618
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:57,920
Speaker 1: She's Ukrainian and like she's like from Ukraine, and I've

619
00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:00,720
Speaker 1: been to her parents' house and they have these gigantic

620
00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:04,280
Speaker 1: composting dens. They don't even like call it. That's just

621
00:29:04,320 --> 00:29:06,800
Speaker 1: how they throw away most of the stuff because they

622
00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:09,000
Speaker 1: have a garden and then they just take it and

623
00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:11,160
Speaker 1: they use it to garden. And so like, if you

624
00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:13,880
Speaker 1: could get rid of half of your trash doing something

625
00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:17,240
Speaker 1: that most of the world does de facto by composting,

626
00:29:17,320 --> 00:29:20,880
Speaker 1: like that alone could make such a huge difference.

627
00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:24,800
Speaker 4: Just normalizing it, yeah, right, teaching folks to do it

628
00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:26,800
Speaker 4: from the start, from when they're very young, making it

629
00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:27,600
Speaker 4: part of the routine.

630
00:29:27,680 --> 00:29:29,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a book that I recommend to people all

631
00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:30,640
Speaker 1: the time. And I'm sure maybe if you guys have

632
00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:32,760
Speaker 1: heard of it's called Atomic Habits by James Blair, and

633
00:29:32,760 --> 00:29:34,720
Speaker 1: he really talks about how so much of what we

634
00:29:34,800 --> 00:29:37,240
Speaker 1: do is because we're beholden to our own environments. And

635
00:29:37,320 --> 00:29:40,200
Speaker 1: so if you set up your life to make it

636
00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:43,520
Speaker 1: obvious and easy to do, you will do it more.

637
00:29:43,840 --> 00:29:45,600
Speaker 1: And so like even for me, I had to kind

638
00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:48,400
Speaker 1: of train myself for like I don't throw my avocado

639
00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:50,600
Speaker 1: shells in the trash. I go to my freezer and

640
00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:52,880
Speaker 1: I put them there, and I've gotten that into my

641
00:29:52,960 --> 00:29:55,040
Speaker 1: muscle memory. It's all just about these little systems. If

642
00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:57,200
Speaker 1: you make it obvious and easy, it's much much easier

643
00:29:57,240 --> 00:29:58,160
Speaker 1: to recycle trying.

644
00:29:59,480 --> 00:30:02,800
Speaker 2: Okay, So so let's say we are absolute recycling pros. Now,

645
00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:04,959
Speaker 2: we do everything right, we put everything in the bin

646
00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:07,480
Speaker 2: that it's supposed to be in la world. Yes, it's

647
00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:10,880
Speaker 2: going great. However, there are two other elements that we

648
00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:12,360
Speaker 2: need to think about. So what are some of the

649
00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:14,400
Speaker 2: things that we can do in our homes to reduce

650
00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:15,280
Speaker 2: and reuse?

651
00:30:15,520 --> 00:30:20,280
Speaker 4: Thank you for asking. Reducing is essentially using less stuff. Right,

652
00:30:20,360 --> 00:30:23,040
Speaker 4: If you buy less stuff, you'll generate less waste.

653
00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:25,280
Speaker 1: We brought the example of a soda stream, right, I

654
00:30:25,280 --> 00:30:26,720
Speaker 1: think are something that I do a ton of leasure

655
00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:29,080
Speaker 1: aton of Seltzer, and I was using plastic bottles and

656
00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:31,480
Speaker 1: aluminum cans. And if you get a soda stream, you've

657
00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:34,200
Speaker 1: got a reusable bottle you're reusing, You've got a reusable

658
00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:37,240
Speaker 1: source of carbonation through the soda stream canisters that you

659
00:30:37,280 --> 00:30:38,760
Speaker 1: can take back to the store and use again. So

660
00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:40,400
Speaker 1: one great example of.

661
00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:44,000
Speaker 4: Yeah, and when you reuse things, you have to reuse

662
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:47,520
Speaker 4: them over and over. But reusing things also will help

663
00:30:47,560 --> 00:30:50,920
Speaker 4: you reduce what you are throwing away. So really getting

664
00:30:50,920 --> 00:30:55,160
Speaker 4: those practices into our bones, buying less and buying to last,

665
00:30:55,800 --> 00:30:57,560
Speaker 4: and that's tough for people.

666
00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:01,320
Speaker 2: I've read that when it comes to you should buy

667
00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:04,000
Speaker 2: things that you believe you'll wear at least thirty times,

668
00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:06,120
Speaker 2: So just to like put a number on that when

669
00:31:06,160 --> 00:31:08,440
Speaker 2: you're going through your closet and stuff and you're like, oh,

670
00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:10,520
Speaker 2: I've only worn this twenty six So I guess I

671
00:31:10,640 --> 00:31:12,440
Speaker 2: need to get more and more uses out of this.

672
00:31:12,760 --> 00:31:15,120
Speaker 4: I mean, also, I've been a part of a wonderful

673
00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:17,760
Speaker 4: clothing swap community for years.

674
00:31:17,640 --> 00:31:19,240
Speaker 1: That's why I don't buy clothes anymore.

675
00:31:19,320 --> 00:31:22,560
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, get some folks together that when they're

676
00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:24,080
Speaker 4: done with something, they're going to pass it on.

677
00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:26,360
Speaker 1: And that can be done with a lot of things.

678
00:31:26,480 --> 00:31:29,000
Speaker 4: Giving things away for free, getting things for free at

679
00:31:29,040 --> 00:31:33,160
Speaker 4: these kind of swap mentalities or like swapping communities for stuff.

680
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:35,600
Speaker 4: I see people throwing valuable things out on the streets

681
00:31:35,640 --> 00:31:38,000
Speaker 4: so often, and the great thing about the city is

682
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:39,880
Speaker 4: that then someone will often come along and pick it

683
00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:41,840
Speaker 4: up and make it there's and reuse it. But if

684
00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:44,400
Speaker 4: they don't, something of extreme value is just going to

685
00:31:44,440 --> 00:31:47,360
Speaker 4: get thrown away. So getting out of this mindset of

686
00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:51,000
Speaker 4: disposability and getting into the mindset of reuse.

687
00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:53,160
Speaker 1: I'll shout out a few things here. So there's a

688
00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:56,160
Speaker 1: great Facebook community called buy Nothing. Yes, And it's not

689
00:31:56,200 --> 00:31:59,040
Speaker 1: only great to get something that you maybe need that

690
00:31:59,080 --> 00:32:00,840
Speaker 1: you don't have to buy, but it's also a great

691
00:32:00,840 --> 00:32:02,480
Speaker 1: way to get rid of things. And I was shout

692
00:32:02,480 --> 00:32:03,760
Speaker 1: out my wife again. She does all the time, and

693
00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:06,400
Speaker 1: I'm amazed at her patients. And it's been an education

694
00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:08,680
Speaker 1: for me because it's such an American mindset that we

695
00:32:08,760 --> 00:32:11,680
Speaker 1: just throw things away. But anything books, whatever that I'm

696
00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:13,040
Speaker 1: trying to get rid of. She's like I'm going to

697
00:32:13,080 --> 00:32:15,080
Speaker 1: put it on buy nothing, don't throw it away, She'll

698
00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:17,040
Speaker 1: take it to good Will. Another great thing to do.

699
00:32:17,400 --> 00:32:20,479
Speaker 1: There is a subreddit community called buy It for Life

700
00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:23,600
Speaker 1: where they talk about products that will last you a lifetime,

701
00:32:23,760 --> 00:32:26,720
Speaker 1: be it clothing or home appliances or something, because it's

702
00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:28,840
Speaker 1: very true that things are being made more cheaply these

703
00:32:28,920 --> 00:32:31,800
Speaker 1: days because companies want you to buy it and again

704
00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:34,320
Speaker 1: and again and again, like our phones and our laptops.

705
00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:37,080
Speaker 1: So buy It for Life as a great subreddit. And

706
00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:38,720
Speaker 1: there's two other examples that might come to me, But

707
00:32:38,920 --> 00:32:40,320
Speaker 1: I feel like you were going to say something, but.

708
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:42,640
Speaker 2: The Facebook buy nothing group. A friend of mine too

709
00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:45,680
Speaker 2: was like, there's people that have like really nice stuff

710
00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:47,520
Speaker 2: that they can involve in with and I just want

711
00:32:47,560 --> 00:32:48,520
Speaker 2: to get rid of So you.

712
00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:51,680
Speaker 4: Now know, Yeah, and that's something that's so difficult about it,

713
00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:54,040
Speaker 4: Like we want people to not just throw things away,

714
00:32:54,080 --> 00:32:56,600
Speaker 4: but yeah, to go on to buy nothing, to post it,

715
00:32:56,600 --> 00:32:57,720
Speaker 4: to wait for you to never reply.

716
00:32:58,080 --> 00:32:58,880
Speaker 1: It does take work.

717
00:32:58,880 --> 00:33:01,320
Speaker 4: It does take time, and we're very much a single

718
00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:04,800
Speaker 4: use culture of convenience here, so it's a big ask.

719
00:33:05,120 --> 00:33:07,680
Speaker 1: And I do think that, like I'm also Salvation Army

720
00:33:07,680 --> 00:33:09,640
Speaker 1: and good will they do pickups too? So, like I

721
00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:12,040
Speaker 1: think another thing is like it's just like big and heavy,

722
00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:14,920
Speaker 1: but that can be something really really easy to like

723
00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:17,360
Speaker 1: call them schedule time, have them come pick up something

724
00:33:17,400 --> 00:33:19,960
Speaker 1: big and they can actually have someone else make use

725
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:20,760
Speaker 1: of it. Nice.

726
00:33:20,840 --> 00:33:23,520
Speaker 4: I know, Department of Sanitation also has a donation program.

727
00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:26,600
Speaker 4: I think NYC dot gov slash donate and they accept

728
00:33:26,640 --> 00:33:29,200
Speaker 4: a wide variety of materials as well for donation.

729
00:33:29,960 --> 00:33:32,400
Speaker 1: And that kind of leads into you know, so beyond

730
00:33:32,520 --> 00:33:37,160
Speaker 1: the environmental benefits, kind of what economic advantages does recycling

731
00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:38,360
Speaker 1: provide to community?

732
00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:43,760
Speaker 4: Yes, so that's something that we need to build, so

733
00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:47,480
Speaker 4: circular services, right, this is the company I work for. Again,

734
00:33:47,960 --> 00:33:50,880
Speaker 4: our goal as a company is basically to create this

735
00:33:50,920 --> 00:33:54,640
Speaker 4: thing called a circular economy. Then I'll describe what that

736
00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:57,320
Speaker 4: is first by saying we are not currently operating in

737
00:33:57,360 --> 00:34:00,959
Speaker 4: a circular economy. We are operating in a near economy

738
00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:04,560
Speaker 4: where when we want to make stuff, resources are extracted,

739
00:34:04,760 --> 00:34:07,280
Speaker 4: we make stuff, and when we're done with the stuff,

740
00:34:07,320 --> 00:34:09,799
Speaker 4: we throw it away. So this is not a sustainable

741
00:34:09,840 --> 00:34:14,040
Speaker 4: model because we are extracting resources, some of which are finite, right,

742
00:34:14,040 --> 00:34:16,560
Speaker 4: we don't have an unlimited supply and then we end

743
00:34:16,640 --> 00:34:19,080
Speaker 4: up with all this waste to manage at the end

744
00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:23,400
Speaker 4: of it. But that system is how our economy works

745
00:34:23,640 --> 00:34:26,600
Speaker 4: or dug very deep again into being this single use

746
00:34:26,640 --> 00:34:30,359
Speaker 4: culture of convenience. So what circular Services is looking at

747
00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:32,920
Speaker 4: doing is, well, how do we restructure an economy to

748
00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:37,239
Speaker 4: make it circular? So there are still jobs, right, and yeah,

749
00:34:37,280 --> 00:34:40,160
Speaker 4: people are still buying stuff, but not in such a

750
00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:43,120
Speaker 4: wasteful way. Products are still being manufactured, but not in

751
00:34:43,160 --> 00:34:47,200
Speaker 4: a wasteful way. How are we utilizing reuse and recycling

752
00:34:47,680 --> 00:34:51,200
Speaker 4: to the best of our ability in a circular economy.

753
00:34:51,200 --> 00:34:55,920
Speaker 4: Once a resource is extracted, it remains in use, preferably

754
00:34:55,960 --> 00:35:00,400
Speaker 4: through reuse or through some form of recycling. So what

755
00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:02,000
Speaker 4: does all that look like in the real day to

756
00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:06,000
Speaker 4: day world. Well, to make the economics of recycling work

757
00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:09,880
Speaker 4: will Recycling does cost money, and there's a potential to

758
00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:11,840
Speaker 4: make some of your money back as well.

759
00:35:12,200 --> 00:35:13,279
Speaker 1: But the value of.

760
00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:17,160
Speaker 4: These materials it's constantly changing, so you're not necessarily going

761
00:35:17,200 --> 00:35:19,279
Speaker 4: to get all your money back and cover all your

762
00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:23,239
Speaker 4: operations by selling the recyclables. So there's a piece of

763
00:35:23,360 --> 00:35:31,680
Speaker 4: legislation called EPR Extended Producer Responsibility, So extended producer responsibility

764
00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:37,160
Speaker 4: extends the responsibility of the producer. You made that thing, Okay,

765
00:35:37,520 --> 00:35:40,960
Speaker 4: You're also going to help local municipalities pay to manage

766
00:35:41,040 --> 00:35:44,160
Speaker 4: it once it becomes waste, because right now it's just

767
00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:48,080
Speaker 4: the municipalities that pay, and it's expensive. And I'll tell

768
00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:51,319
Speaker 4: you this is already happening in Europe and Canada. They've

769
00:35:51,360 --> 00:35:54,640
Speaker 4: been doing extended producer responsibility I think for decades, so it's.

770
00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:56,840
Speaker 1: Not you know, the big companies. They're already doing it

771
00:35:57,160 --> 00:36:00,239
Speaker 1: in other countries where they have to exactly. So this

772
00:36:00,280 --> 00:36:00,760
Speaker 1: is where.

773
00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:04,719
Speaker 4: Legislation becomes important, just to give a little push because companies,

774
00:36:04,920 --> 00:36:07,040
Speaker 4: they'll make promises, they'll do things on their own to

775
00:36:07,080 --> 00:36:09,600
Speaker 4: a point, but at some point they also are going

776
00:36:09,640 --> 00:36:12,640
Speaker 4: to need a little push. So actually, five states in

777
00:36:12,680 --> 00:36:17,160
Speaker 4: the US have passed extended producer responsibility legislation. New York

778
00:36:17,160 --> 00:36:18,640
Speaker 4: State is trying to pass it as well. We do

779
00:36:18,719 --> 00:36:21,640
Speaker 4: have two bills currently in the works and we're hoping

780
00:36:21,680 --> 00:36:24,520
Speaker 4: for one to pass. You know, good EPR is EPR

781
00:36:24,640 --> 00:36:26,719
Speaker 4: that funds recycling. You know, it at least helps to

782
00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:31,640
Speaker 4: fund recycling and encourages producers ideally to do better. You know,

783
00:36:31,719 --> 00:36:36,040
Speaker 4: can you make products that are actually recyclable or even reusable,

784
00:36:36,760 --> 00:36:40,080
Speaker 4: so that can help with the economics of recycling certainly.

785
00:36:40,239 --> 00:36:44,239
Speaker 1: And this dovetails nicely back into our voting episode, which

786
00:36:44,239 --> 00:36:45,520
Speaker 1: is if you want to see this stuff for the

787
00:36:45,520 --> 00:36:49,680
Speaker 1: world people, Yeah, make it happen. Yeah, let's go, Kathy.

788
00:36:51,480 --> 00:36:53,760
Speaker 1: That's for the New Yorkers. Okay.

789
00:36:53,840 --> 00:36:57,080
Speaker 2: But also we've talked about the landfills and what those

790
00:36:57,200 --> 00:37:01,480
Speaker 2: kind of contribute negatively. But what affect does recycling have

791
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:05,920
Speaker 2: on climate change and carbon emissions good and or bad?

792
00:37:06,440 --> 00:37:10,000
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you have to know recycling isn't emission free.

793
00:37:10,400 --> 00:37:13,200
Speaker 4: There are trucks that collect you're recycling, there are facilities,

794
00:37:13,200 --> 00:37:15,560
Speaker 4: there are a manufacturing facies. It's a form of manufacturing.

795
00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:20,160
Speaker 4: But the benefit of recycling is that when you look

796
00:37:20,360 --> 00:37:24,360
Speaker 4: at overall environmental impacts of products made with all virgin

797
00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:28,239
Speaker 4: materials and you compare it to products made with recycled materials,

798
00:37:28,560 --> 00:37:31,400
Speaker 4: you're going to have lower impacts pretty much always it's

799
00:37:31,440 --> 00:37:33,640
Speaker 4: going to depend on the type of material, but pretty

800
00:37:33,719 --> 00:37:37,200
Speaker 4: much always lower impacts when you're using recycled content. So

801
00:37:37,239 --> 00:37:40,160
Speaker 4: that's the real environmental benefit that we see, and that

802
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:42,839
Speaker 4: came from a study also back in twenty eighteen done

803
00:37:42,840 --> 00:37:46,640
Speaker 4: by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. They showed us again,

804
00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:50,120
Speaker 4: products made with recycled content will have a lower environmental impact.

805
00:37:50,719 --> 00:37:54,960
Speaker 1: Nice, Okay, to kind of put a succinct point on it,

806
00:37:54,960 --> 00:37:58,080
Speaker 1: I would actually love to hear if you've got a

807
00:37:58,160 --> 00:38:01,839
Speaker 1: message for people who are recycling skeptics. If someone came

808
00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:03,319
Speaker 1: up to you and said, like, well, I don't know,

809
00:38:03,480 --> 00:38:04,760
Speaker 1: I don't think it makes a big of a difference,

810
00:38:04,800 --> 00:38:05,719
Speaker 1: what would you say to them.

811
00:38:06,120 --> 00:38:08,000
Speaker 4: I try to get it, like the specific thing that

812
00:38:08,040 --> 00:38:10,800
Speaker 4: they're doubtful about, so I'd maybe engage in some questions

813
00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:14,280
Speaker 4: with them. But I guess I go back to you know, look,

814
00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:17,160
Speaker 4: if your city is sending a truck out to get

815
00:38:17,200 --> 00:38:20,920
Speaker 4: a specific list of things, it's because those things are valuable.

816
00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:23,520
Speaker 4: So you can either give those things a new life,

817
00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:26,359
Speaker 4: or you can throw money and resources in the trash

818
00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:29,279
Speaker 4: and you can force speed money and resources back into

819
00:38:29,360 --> 00:38:31,160
Speaker 4: the earth, which is what we do with our trash,

820
00:38:31,239 --> 00:38:33,160
Speaker 4: most of it in this country. We bury it in

821
00:38:33,280 --> 00:38:35,879
Speaker 4: landfills where it's not doing anybody any good.

822
00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:39,080
Speaker 1: And then maybe another responsible like someone who's not necessarily

823
00:38:39,200 --> 00:38:42,000
Speaker 1: skeptic about the process of recycling, but just like skeptical

824
00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:44,800
Speaker 1: about any of this in general.

825
00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:47,319
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I would tell them to come to

826
00:38:47,360 --> 00:38:50,759
Speaker 4: Brooklyn and come on a tour, because often people when

827
00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:54,200
Speaker 4: they see it, when they see the process, that shifts

828
00:38:54,200 --> 00:38:56,000
Speaker 4: something in them. I see that happen a lot on

829
00:38:56,080 --> 00:38:58,279
Speaker 4: the tours, and I know that's not always possible. But

830
00:38:58,320 --> 00:38:59,960
Speaker 4: I do also have YouTube video.

831
00:39:00,160 --> 00:39:01,920
Speaker 1: Yes, and we will include a link to that in

832
00:39:01,960 --> 00:39:03,680
Speaker 1: the episode description, so check that out.

833
00:39:04,680 --> 00:39:07,640
Speaker 2: What do you see for the future, So, I know

834
00:39:07,680 --> 00:39:10,319
Speaker 2: that we talked about like lasers and air jets and

835
00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:13,919
Speaker 2: claws and all these cools I wrote, Yeah, so many

836
00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:18,280
Speaker 2: are there other advancements and technologies that you are already

837
00:39:18,280 --> 00:39:21,960
Speaker 2: saying they might transform recycling and waste management in the

838
00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:23,520
Speaker 2: next decade and years to come.

839
00:39:23,920 --> 00:39:27,799
Speaker 4: Yeah, in this country, getting extended producer responsibility will help

840
00:39:27,840 --> 00:39:31,040
Speaker 4: worlds because that will help fund the recycling facilities so

841
00:39:31,080 --> 00:39:33,120
Speaker 4: they can have all the up to date technologies so

842
00:39:33,160 --> 00:39:34,839
Speaker 4: that they can sort the metal from the glass, from

843
00:39:34,840 --> 00:39:37,799
Speaker 4: the plastic from the cartons and recover more materials. They

844
00:39:37,800 --> 00:39:39,840
Speaker 4: need funding if they're going to get the technology to

845
00:39:39,840 --> 00:39:43,080
Speaker 4: do good work. But that's just one part in the

846
00:39:43,120 --> 00:39:46,160
Speaker 4: recycling process, and it is a process. There are many

847
00:39:46,160 --> 00:39:51,279
Speaker 4: players in many steps. So also seeing products designed for

848
00:39:51,440 --> 00:39:55,040
Speaker 4: reuse and recyclability, and that makes it a lot easier

849
00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:58,399
Speaker 4: for us as the consumer or resident. If everything that's

850
00:39:58,440 --> 00:40:01,560
Speaker 4: disposable is recycling, we don't have to think about what

851
00:40:01,600 --> 00:40:03,640
Speaker 4: goes in the bin or not. It's just well, this

852
00:40:03,760 --> 00:40:07,240
Speaker 4: package is a package, and so it's recyclable or preferred,

853
00:40:07,239 --> 00:40:10,279
Speaker 4: it's reusable, and it's very easy to go somewhere and

854
00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:11,680
Speaker 4: refill it or reuse it.

855
00:40:12,239 --> 00:40:13,000
Speaker 1: And then on the.

856
00:40:12,920 --> 00:40:15,880
Speaker 4: Side of the resident or consumer, we all need to

857
00:40:15,920 --> 00:40:18,440
Speaker 4: have access to recycling. There are some places in the

858
00:40:18,440 --> 00:40:22,600
Speaker 4: country that don't even have recycling access, so making it

859
00:40:22,640 --> 00:40:26,239
Speaker 4: available and convenient for as many people as possible is

860
00:40:26,280 --> 00:40:28,120
Speaker 4: going to be huge, and that's another thing that Circular

861
00:40:28,160 --> 00:40:31,240
Speaker 4: Services is working on, is sort of spreading out access

862
00:40:31,239 --> 00:40:37,279
Speaker 4: throughout the country. And then markets, recyclables need to be purchased,

863
00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:41,040
Speaker 4: materials need to be made with recycled content, and that's

864
00:40:41,080 --> 00:40:44,760
Speaker 4: something that you know, extended producer responsibility can help with. Also,

865
00:40:44,800 --> 00:40:47,760
Speaker 4: California and I think New Jersey and Washington have passed

866
00:40:47,800 --> 00:40:52,840
Speaker 4: legislation requiring that certain containers be made with a certain

867
00:40:52,920 --> 00:40:56,120
Speaker 4: amount of recycled content. So sort of pushing that envelope

868
00:40:56,160 --> 00:40:59,239
Speaker 4: of things then being made with recycled content, which then

869
00:40:59,280 --> 00:41:01,600
Speaker 4: sort of brings us back back to the beginning of design, right,

870
00:41:01,640 --> 00:41:04,560
Speaker 4: so design and then you know, residents putting things on

871
00:41:04,600 --> 00:41:07,200
Speaker 4: the right bin, and then facilities having the technology to

872
00:41:07,239 --> 00:41:09,440
Speaker 4: be able to sort it and reprocess it, and then

873
00:41:09,560 --> 00:41:13,319
Speaker 4: markets companies actually buying the stuff and using it to

874
00:41:13,400 --> 00:41:16,560
Speaker 4: make more recyclable or reusable stuff. Those are kind of

875
00:41:16,560 --> 00:41:19,480
Speaker 4: the necessary advancements in each of the key steps in

876
00:41:19,520 --> 00:41:22,040
Speaker 4: the process, and they are happening. I'm watching them happen.

877
00:41:22,719 --> 00:41:24,640
Speaker 4: But that's the direction we need to keep moving in.

878
00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:26,280
Speaker 2: Then will come full circle.

879
00:41:26,640 --> 00:41:29,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, love it. Is there any other way that like,

880
00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:31,000
Speaker 1: people can find out about you or the work that

881
00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:31,439
Speaker 1: you're doing.

882
00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:34,959
Speaker 4: Yeah, circular services dot com, Okay, you can find us

883
00:41:35,440 --> 00:41:37,799
Speaker 4: and there should be a page for the Brooklyn facility

884
00:41:38,200 --> 00:41:39,760
Speaker 4: on there and you can book a tour.

885
00:41:39,719 --> 00:41:42,600
Speaker 2: And hopefully other places around the country will also have

886
00:41:42,680 --> 00:41:44,680
Speaker 2: similar tours that people can go and check out and

887
00:41:44,760 --> 00:41:45,680
Speaker 2: learn and see.

888
00:41:45,880 --> 00:41:48,319
Speaker 1: Awesome. Well, Carrot, we can't thank you enough for coming

889
00:41:48,320 --> 00:41:50,759
Speaker 1: out and hanging out and teaching us about recycling today.

890
00:41:50,760 --> 00:41:53,680
Speaker 4: Thank you so much, pleasure, thanks for having me reduce reuse.

891
00:41:53,680 --> 00:41:56,640
Speaker 4: And as a last resort recycled right words to lift.

892
00:41:56,440 --> 00:42:02,960
Speaker 2: Fine our Thanks to Kara for all of that great information.

893
00:42:03,120 --> 00:42:05,680
Speaker 2: I know that you and I have already implemented in

894
00:42:05,719 --> 00:42:06,240
Speaker 2: our lives.

895
00:42:06,440 --> 00:42:10,200
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I am now putting all caps on bottles, oh,

896
00:42:10,280 --> 00:42:12,719
Speaker 1: no matter how big how small the caps go on

897
00:42:12,800 --> 00:42:16,000
Speaker 1: the bottles. And actually seeing this in real time at

898
00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:17,920
Speaker 1: the MIRF was the coolest thing. And so if you

899
00:42:18,040 --> 00:42:20,120
Speaker 1: are able to check out your local MIRPH to see

900
00:42:20,120 --> 00:42:22,279
Speaker 1: how some of these systems work in real life, I

901
00:42:22,440 --> 00:42:24,719
Speaker 1: highly recommend it. And if you can't, check out the

902
00:42:24,760 --> 00:42:26,359
Speaker 1: link in our description to see some of the YouTube

903
00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:27,640
Speaker 1: videos that Kara was talking about.

904
00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:29,279
Speaker 2: I've seen some of them, but now I'm going to

905
00:42:29,320 --> 00:42:31,400
Speaker 2: go watch all of them because did you even know

906
00:42:31,520 --> 00:42:33,840
Speaker 2: that I think of you and Kara every single time

907
00:42:34,040 --> 00:42:36,800
Speaker 2: I deposit something in my recycling container.

908
00:42:37,080 --> 00:42:39,080
Speaker 1: I love that, and I hope that everyone thinks of

909
00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:41,240
Speaker 1: me and Kara when they deposit something in their recycling

910
00:42:41,280 --> 00:42:42,000
Speaker 1: bad they will.

911
00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:44,680
Speaker 2: Now you should, and of course, Matt, make sure that

912
00:42:44,760 --> 00:42:47,480
Speaker 2: you check your local municipalities website for all the latest

913
00:42:47,520 --> 00:42:51,520
Speaker 2: information on recycling in your area. So until next time,

914
00:42:51,640 --> 00:42:52,880
Speaker 2: good luck being a grownup.

915
00:42:53,840 --> 00:42:56,799
Speaker 1: This is a production of Ruby's Studio for Myheartmedia. Our

916
00:42:56,840 --> 00:42:58,880
Speaker 1: executive producers are Lea pel.

917
00:42:58,680 --> 00:43:02,759
Speaker 2: Mary and matt'st This episode was edited and engineered by

918
00:43:02,760 --> 00:43:03,440
Speaker 2: Sierra Spreen

919
00:43:03,600 --> 00:43:06,000
Speaker 1: And we also want to thank our teammates at Ruby Studio,

920
00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:09,799
Speaker 1: including Sarah You, Ethan Vixell, racheus Wan Krasnoff, Lydia Kim

921
00:43:09,840 --> 00:43:21,319
Speaker 1: Amber Smith, Harper, Wayne Debragherrett, and Andy Kelly