Hey, this is Henry Grabar. What Next is on vacation? And they asked me to pick a favorite episode for an encore.

I like the one that I recorded in April about the global crisis and recycling. I was thinking about it recently because I was in Jackson, Mississippi, which just decided to end its curbside recycling program.

The recycling crisis is ongoing, and this episode, I think, still functions as a good

explainer of what's going on.

Now here's the show.

It must be just torture for you to be in public spaces.

I mean, when you're in an airport and you're sitting next to a recycling bin... Oh, drives me crazy.

This is Melissa Johnson.

I always describe our solid waste recycling waste reduction family as an incestuous group of individuals passionate about garbage.

Lisa spends a lot of time thinking about recycling and garbage.

It's her job. It's her life.

She's the president of the Associated Recyclers of Wisconsin.

She's the director of solid waste disposal in Marathon County, 100 miles north of Madison.

Her email sign-off is in Latin.

Namitipsa, Sientia potestest.

Knowledge is power, especially when you share it with random people at the airport.

You can ask my granddaughter about the conversations I have with strangers about recycling rights.

She's like, no, grandma, not again.

Yeah, not again.

Well, here we go again.

How did you come to be someone who, as you say, loved garbage?

Well, that's a good story.

...