The Earth911 gang is back at the microphone to talk about hydroflourocarbon 152A, the supergreenhouse gas in many U.S. aerosol products (it's banned elsewhere in the world), how to identify and deal with contaminated tap water, and the preparations and plantings you can make now to a healthy garden in 2020. Join Evelyn Fielding-Lopez, Sarah Lozanova, and Mitch Ratcliffe for a conversation that can help you prevent climate change and protect your family from lead and other widespread contaminants...
Oct 07, 2019•40 min
RightWater, a mineral water distributor, is setting a new standard in sustainability. The company has abandoned all the plastic it used and replaced bottles with 100-percent recycled aluminum cans. Jono Wylie, head of sustainability at RightWater, joins Earth911 to talk about why RightWater made the decision to go Earth-friendly. The water, available in cases online, comes with two reusable aluminum straws and a zero-carbon footprint. The benefits extend to people around the world who don't have...
Oct 04, 2019•20 min
Explore the state of U.S. recycling with Joe Pickard, Chief Economist and Director of Commodities at the Institute for Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI). He joins Earth911 to talk about the recently released ISRI 2019 Economic Impact Study. Despite massive change after China refused to accept U.S. recyclables in early 2018, the U.S. recycling industry grew last year to $110 billion in economic activity and added jobs. More than 531,510 people work in recycling-related jobs and direct employment ...
Sep 30, 2019•13 min
Following the rapid rise of CBD-based products, Earth911 looks at the environmental footprint of the non-psychoactive product of hemp and cannabis plants. We also walk the steps to a successful home solar installation contract and explore the opportunity to green your interior with vertical gardens. Join Evelyn Fielding-Lopez, Sarah Lozanova, and Mitch Ratcliffe for this week's sustainable living and recycling discussion. Products containing CBD are promoted as cures of pain, anxiety, and animal...
Sep 23, 2019•44 min
Dr. Graciela Chichilnisky, co-founder and CEO of Global Thermostat, pioneered climate change policy and sustainable development planning, participating in the development of the Kyoto Protocol and as lead U.S. author for the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports and guidelines. An economist and mathematician, she recognized early the looming climate impact of CO2 in the atmosphere and has been recognized by Time, The Washington Post, and other publications as a leader...
Sep 20, 2019•26 min
Meet Dr. Paul Zeitz, an organizer of the UN Global Climate Restoration Forum this week in New York. A veteran of the AIDS crisis, during which he led the Global AIDS Alliance, he has joined the Healthy Climate Alliance to drive awareness and adoption of carbon removal technologies that can create a new trillion-dollar industry. He sees the rising incidence of extreme weather bringing people together to find a solution and recently published a hopeful and helpful memoir, Waging Justice: A Doctor'...
Sep 16, 2019•21 min
World Centric, a 15-year-old sustainability advocacy and compostable food packaging Benefit corporation, is calling for the end of polystyrene use in food packaging. Mark Marrinozi, vice president of marketing at World Centric, joins Earth911's Mitch Ratcliffe to discuss the use of polystyrene, how World Centric's line of compostable alternatives behave when composted, and the evolution of a unique company that gives 25 percent of its profits to startup sustainability efforts around the world. L...
Sep 13, 2019•28 min
Thinking of replacing your lightbulbs, upgrading to a satellite TV for the football season, or saving on home electricity spending? The Earth911 team has recycling and savings tips for the Fall when school and planning for next year begins. Join Evelyn Fielding-Lopez, Sarah Lozanova, and Mitch Ratcliffe for a discussion about sustainable living and recycling. We start with President Trump's recent decision to reverse a ban on incandescent lights that would have taken effect in 2020 to "will ensu...
Sep 09, 2019•43 min
The Earth911 team gathers round the microphone to talk about the terrible cost of those pretty green lawns and natural allergy treatment options. As Labor Day passes and our water bills continue to climb, it's time to consider other ways to bring nature into your yard than the traditional grass lawn. A Victorian idea, the lawn may have been fit for a turn-of-the-20th Century home in England or France, but it is out of place in the water-limited world. Join Evelyn Fielding-Lopez, Sarah Lozanova, ...
Sep 02, 2019•42 min
Summer break is over and the Earth911 podcast gang is back! In today's conversation, we introduce our new iRecycle 3.0 app and talk through how to build a better recycling information system. It's also time to talk Summer sustainability, including how to keep bugs out of the house and yard naturally, the best ideas for successful composting, how composting toilets can add flexibility to our infrastructure, and our recent guide to natural personal care products. And, as always, Earthling question...
Aug 12, 2019•52 min
The carbon emissions generated since the Industrial Revolution wrap the Earth in a heat sponge of one trillion tons of excess CO2 and that extra heat will remain in the atmosphere for hundreds of years after we achieve a net-Zero economy. Brett Kugelmass, managing director of the Washington, D.C.-based Energy Impact Center recently presented a vision for a prosperous post-carbon world that achieves net-Zero emissions and widespread prosperity in a speech to the American Climate Leadership Confer...
Aug 05, 2019•30 min
Kroger has updated its pollinator policy after pressure from the Friends of the Earth (FoE). FoE's Tiffany Finck-Haynes joins Earth911 to talk about what the decision means for bees and other pollinating species, as well as the additional progress and transparency needed for customers who want to spend in support of sustainable food sources. Learn what chlorpyrifos, glyhosates, and neonicotinids to do pollinating insects and the human body. We dig into whether Kroger's decision can be enforced (...
Jul 08, 2019•22 min
Theresa Carter launched an online petition calling on Target Stores to eliminate single-use plastic bags that has gathered more than 310,000 signatures. She talks with Earth911 about how she got the petition started. Beginning with her choice to put the petition on Change.org and sharing her call to action with friends on Facebook and her local physical community, Carter's story is a roadmap for customers who care to begin their own campaigns for changes in retail sustainability. You can sign th...
Jul 01, 2019•15 min
It's time to eat sustainably in the sun. The Earth911 team sits down to talk about Summer eating. It is a perfect time to try some new foods and food-related activities. Maybe you have a garden or just a pot of herbs. Maybe you would like to try a new ingredient or make a vegan meal. No matter what your goal might be, we are going to talk about how to find great food, make great food, and avoid food waste. We talk about Earth Day Network's new Foodprints program, which will help you find low-imp...
Jun 24, 2019•53 min
Earth911 is getting ready for Summer! Join Evelyn, Sarah, and Mitch to talk about preparations for a more sustainable summer. We can all make improvements in how we garden, cook, travel, and make changes in energy use. We start off in the garden with ideas about how to build DIY birdbaths, as well as how to use combinations of feeders and nativar plants to fill your yard with wild birds. While you're enjoying new feathery friends, turn down the air condition with these ideas: window treatments; ...
Jun 10, 2019•42 min
Recycling safety is the topic of Earth911's interview with Scott Wiggins, vice president of Environmental Health & Safety at the Institute for Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI). On June 12th, most recycling programs and scrap yards will close down for an hour each shift to focus on workplace safety as part of Safety Stand Down Day, and you can help protect recycling workers by making smart choices. Wiggins shares stories about injuries caused by the usual workplace culprits, such as slips, f...
Jun 07, 2019•18 min
Dan Lambe, president of The Arbor Day Foundation, joins Earth911 to talk about the organizations The Time For Trees initiative to plant 100 million trees. Lambe and team also want to get five million people to join in the tree-planting and save the atmosphere from CO2 emissions. Established in Nebraska during 1872 by newspaperman J. Sterling Morton and adopted across the country as a national day to plant and cultivate trees by 1882, Arbor Day is typically the last Friday of April. But the organ...
Jun 03, 2019•18 min
Sunya Norman, director of sustainability at Salesforce.com, joins Earth911 to talk about the customer relationship management (CRM) company's pursuit of carbon neutral operations. Since its founding, Salesforce has broken new ground in the cloud and ways of doing business. CRM services are used by companies to build deeper interactions with their customers, and Salesforce's leadership in sustainability is permeating its clients' businesses, too. While Salesforce won't reach full carbon neutralit...
May 31, 2019•19 min
June 5th is World Environment Day and the Earth911 team will help you get ready. Join Evelyn Lopez and Mitch Ratcliffe to talk about World Environment Day activities and how to participate in raising air pollution awareness in your community. The Mask Challenge, a global call for citizens to post pictures of themselves wearing face masks to protect against dirty air, began May 24th and runs through June 5th. We share Global Environment Day ideas that you can use to #BeatAirPollution, along with ...
May 27, 2019•47 min
Helmm co-founders Zach Groffksy and Taylor Lane discuss sustainable men's care products. They recently launched a subscription antiperspirant/deodorant subscription service for a luxury refillable holder. The elegant Helmm deodorant container is made with recyclable metal and fine leather. With four fragrances available today, Helmm lets customers schedule how frequently their refills arrive. Each refill cuts 60 percent of the plastic used for traditional deoderant containers, and the refill con...
May 20, 2019•26 min
The Moses Filter can separate debris from the sea, an environmental priority for cities and suburbs where dirt, leaves, medical sharps, and cigarette butts, among many other materials clog stormdrains. The replacable, bio-degradable filter invented by Jean-Louis Kamand and his team, is being tested in Vancouver, British Columbia. Kamand joined Earth911's Sustainability In Your Ear podcast to talk about his alternative to the 150-or-more-lb. grates that dominate city street drains today. From pre...
May 17, 2019•17 min
2018 was a year of big changes in recycling and in 2019 we're seeing the beginnings of a new era taking shape. The Earth911 team sits down for a conversation about how local recycling programs are changing in the wake of China's ban on contaminated imports and shifts in overseas destinations for U.S. scrap metal and recyclables. While glass recycling is facing cutbacks across the country, U.S. scrap metal exports actually increased in 2018. Join Evelyn Fielding-Lopez, Sarah Lozanova, and Mitch R...
May 13, 2019•49 min
Dr. Katrina Cornish developed a genetically engineered dandelion to produce natural latex, which is primarily imported from Southeast Asia, in vertical indoor farms in the U.S. As the scientific advisor to American Sustainable Rubber Company, Dr. Cornish is working to commercialize T.K. Dandelion rubber for the sporting goods, medical supplies, and tire industries. She speaks with Earth911 about the potential to displace $1.6 billion in rubber import costs and the improved materials security ass...
May 06, 2019•22 min
After launching toxic-free household cleaning products leader Method, Adam Lowry cofounded Ripple Foods in 2014 to reinvent dairy-free milk. Earth911 talks with Lowry about the health and environmental benefits of Ripple's plant-based milks, half & half, and nutritional shakes. Using 100-percent recycled plastic packaging that can also be recycled, Ripple has pioneered pea-based milks with richer flavor and milk-like smooth textures. Available for the home and restaurant use, Ripple's plant-...
May 03, 2019•18 min
Spring is here! Even in our northern corners, gardeners are assessing their plots and making plans. So we thought today would be a perfect time to talk about some spring garden essentials – particularly, soil prep, including building raised beds and greenhouses, as well as solarizing the soil and encouraging kids-and-beginning-gardeners to try their green thumbs. There are no mistakes in gardening if you are learning all the time from your experience. We start with soil and preparing for plantin...
Apr 29, 2019•38 min
Ken Nealson led teams at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory that developed tools for detecting life on other planets. Now he leads the University of Southern California's sustainability programs and the Wrigley Institute, an ocean research center on Catalina Island off the coast from Los Angeles. The Institute and USC Business School recently announced its third annual Wrigley Sustainability Prizes, awarded to teams of students who built and pitched solutions to the challenges of recycling and preser...
Apr 26, 2019•25 min
Happy Earth Day, everyone! The Earth911 team sits down to talk about the history of Earth Day, the actions each of us can take to support endangered species, reduce our carbon footprints, and improve recycling outcomes across the world. Earth Day 2019 is focused on preserving and educating people about the extinction of species. Next year, the Earth Day Network aims to bring a billion people out into the streets. Evelyn Fielding-Lopez, Sarah Lozanova, and Mitch Ratcliffe also discuss the evoluti...
Apr 22, 2019•53 min
Billy Johnson, the chief lobbyist for the Institute for Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), joins Earth911's Mitch Ratcliffe to talk through the major policy issues facing recycling in 2019. From the growth in ferrous metal exports despite China's ban on contaminated scrap imports to the U.S. Surface Transportation Board's impact on domestic recycling prices, we cover the growing sophistication of recycling companies as the United States shifts toward circular economies that preserve materials fo...
Apr 05, 2019•41 min
April Fool's Day could be the global holiday for greenwashers and ecological mythmakers, but the Earth911 team is on the case. We discuss the realities of products labeled biodegradable and compostable, how to shop for sustainability when presented "organic" and "recyclable" products, and the habits that will make a real difference in your carbon impact. From myths and truths, how to recognize and avoid greenwashing, and the FTC Green Guides to use to find responsible manufacturers. Evelyn Field...
Apr 01, 2019•52 min
The fast-growing cannabis industry is a growing source of packaging waste, with billions of packages made of plastic, composite materials, and glass already contributing to a new problem. Sana Packaging, founded by two University of Colorado Boulder students, Ron Basak-Smith and James Eichner, has developed hemp- and ocean-plastic-based alternatives for cannabis packaging that is made from natural and recycled materials. Earth911's Mitch Ratcliffe talks to the Ron and James about their experienc...
Mar 29, 2019•21 min
