The Trash Crash

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Slate

News, Daily News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2019

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Here’s something you may not know. You (listener) are a member of the global trash trade. Every time you recycle a Coke bottle or throw a banana peel away, you’re entering a market of buyers, sellers, and fierce competition. Today on the show, why the market for your trash crashed and how American recyclers are course correcting. Guest: Meleesa Johnson, president of the Associated Recyclers of Wisconsin and Marathon County’s director of solid waste disposal. Tell us what you think by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or sending an email to [email protected]. Follow us on Instagram for updates on the show. Podcast production by Mary Wilson, Jayson De Leon, and Anna Martin Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	It must be just torture for you to be in public spaces.
0:07.4	I mean, when you're in an airport and you're sitting next to a recycling bin...
0:11.4	...tries me crazy.
0:15.7	This is Melissa Johnson.
0:17.5	I always describe our solid waste recycling, waste reduction family as an incestuous group
0:23.1	of individuals passionate about garbage.
0:28.2	Lisa spends a lot of time thinking about recycling and garbage.
0:31.8	It's her job, it's her life.
0:34.1	She's the president of the Associated Recyclers of Wisconsin.
0:37.2	She's the director of Solid Waste Disposal in Marathon County, 100 miles north of Madison.
0:41.7	Her email sign-off is in Latin.
0:44.0	Nama Dipsa, CNTAPoTestosest.
0:47.2	Knowledge is power.
0:48.8	Especially when you share it with random people at the airport.
0:51.8	You can ask my granddaughter about the conversation that I have with strangers about recycling right.
0:57.9	She's like, no grandma, not again.
1:00.9	Yeah, not again.
1:02.7	Well, here we go again.
1:06.7	How did you come to be someone who, as you say, loved garbage?
1:11.5	Well, that's a good story.
1:13.8	I actually, I was waiting for...
1:16.3	At the Atlanta airport, Melissa got to talking to two women from Beirut.
	...

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