Plastic Recycling Doesn’t Work and Will Never Work | Judith Enck

Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais

Dr. Michael Gervais

Sport Psychology, Finding Mastery, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Business, Self Help, Michael Gervais, Health & Fitness, Mindset, Psychology, Self-improvement, Education

4.7 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 21 September 2022

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week’s conversation is with Judith Enck, a former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator, the founder of Beyond Plastics, and a visiting professor at Bennington College.

In 2009, Judith was appointed by President Barack Obama as the Regional Administrator of the EPA, where she oversaw environmental protections in New York, New Jersey, eight Indian Nations, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands – in addition to managing a staff of 800 and a $700M budget.

Judith has also served as Deputy Secretary for the Environment in the New York Governor’s Office, and Policy Advisor to the New York State Attorney General.

Now, Judith is the founder and president of Beyond Plastics, an organization based out of Bennington College that is on a mission to end plastic pollution through education, advocacy, and institutional change.

I can’t think of many more pressing and important topics in today’s society than the environmental crisis – and I was shocked to hear some of the grim statistics and information Judith shared about where we’re at and where we’re heading if we don’t turn this thing around.

However, as you’ll hear Judith share, there is still hope – and it starts with all of us “doing what we can, where we are, with what we have”.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Yeah, it's, it's really serious, you know, it's all the plastic in the world today will outlive you and I.
0:08.0	We want to be honest with people, but we also need to give people hope.
0:12.0	And the way I give people hope is by giving them things to do that make a difference.
0:18.0	Welcome back or welcome to the Finding Mastery podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Jerve and I'm excited to welcome Judith Enk.
0:36.0	As our guest on this week's episode, she was appointed by President Obama as a regional administrator of the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency.
0:44.0	She's held several other top influential positions in state and federal government where she advised on environmental policy.
0:52.0	So now Judith is the founder and the president of Beyond Plastics, which I want to encourage you to check out beyondplastics.org, which is an organization based out of Bennington College that is on a mission to end plastic pollution through education, advocacy and institutional change.
1:08.0	Judith, thanks for being here.
1:12.0	I'm thrilled to be here. Thank you, Michael. Thanks for having me.
1:16.0	I'm really excited for this conversation. I, this, your name came across our desk when we read an article about plastic recycling in the Atlantic earlier in the year.
1:26.0	And I was fascinated, meet horrified by what you shared and how you shared the information surrounding recycle recycling and the impact on the environment.
1:38.0	That's obviously why I wanted to have you on that being said, I can't think of a more important conversation to have about where we are right now.
1:48.0	So I'm wondering if you could maybe start us off with like the state of the union for plastics in our planet.
1:56.0	Michael, it's pretty grim. Americans and people worldwide care about the environment.
2:04.0	They are particularly concerned about the proliferation of plastic pollution, which is a greater threat in the global south, because the United States and the EU export.
2:18.0	It's not plastic to other countries that cannot be managed in our own country, it's which I think is extraordinarily problematic.
2:27.0	So there's this disconnect between what the public wants and then what's actually happening in commerce and in the world of politics.
2:37.0	And why I've spent the last 40 years working on environmental protection issues is I'm a big believer in do what you can where you are with what you have.
2:50.0	So I am someone just one person who cares about the environment in the United States. I'm not an international expert, but I certainly understand the implications internationally.
3:02.0	But we've got a fundamental problem in the United States, the US is 4% of the world's population, but we use 17% of the world's energy.
3:14.0	We gobble up 24% of the world's natural resources, and then not surprisingly we create 12% of the world's waste.
3:23.0	This is not sustainable, and I think the plastic pollution problem illustrates the lack of sustainability more than almost anything.
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