Ep.4: Plastic vs. the Climate?


Plastic pollution might be the most visible environmental issue we face today. But there are other kinds of pollution, and they are far harder to see. One of the most dangerous is the huge amount of greenhouse gases that we emit into the atmosphere. In this episode, Anja explores the connections between plastic pollution and climate change. Continue reading “Ep.4: Plastic vs. the Climate?”

Ep.3: Waste picker economies


Anja calls up Dr. Jenna Jambeck and Amy Brooks from the University of Georgia on a research trip in Vietnam. In many Asian countries, a booming economy is coupled with more people using throw-away items. Informal recyclers and waste pickers who have traditionally sorted the waste cannot keep up. But, like millions of people around the world, they depend on waste as a resource for their livelihoods. How can the systems be reformed without leaving the people behind? To find out, Anja calls Dr. Sonia Maria Dias, a garbologist from Brazil. Continue reading “Ep.3: Waste picker economies”

Ep.2: Plastic, the size of a virus



In this episode of the Plastisphere, Anja goes on a lab tour with Alexandra ter Halle from Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse. The chemist and her team were the first to detect nanoplastic in the open ocean – plastic so small that it is comparable in size to a virus. What do we know about these very tiny pieces, and how do researchers try to detect and understand them? Continue reading “Ep.2: Plastic, the size of a virus”

Ep.1: Welcome to the Plastisphere



In this introduction to the Plastisphere podcast, Anja takes the listener on a journey back in time, from a remote plastic beach on the Big Island of Hawaii to the factory of a big chemical producer making bioplastics. She shares what she has learned about the issue of plastic pollution in the past years. Continue reading “Ep.1: Welcome to the Plastisphere”

About

Plastic has become the basis of our modern lives. And yet, it threatens ecosystems as well as our own well-being. Will we be able to develop a healthy relationship to the materials that we’ve created?

Plastisphere is an independent podcast by German science journalist Anja Krieger. It follows the complex relationships between us humans and our plastic world.

You can support the production via Patreon and RiffReporter, where you can find additional background, articles and translations in German and subscribe to the newsletter (German).