In March 2024, negotiators and experts came together in Bellagio, Italy, for an exclusive meeting to discuss an essential topic: Plastic money. And we’re not talking about credit cards here, but the actual money we people around the world are p

How (Not) to Make a Plastics Treaty - Part III: Leave Bad Faith Behind

Mar 23rd, 2024 24m 43s

What happened at the INC-3 in Kenya? Recap 3/3.“If a credible majority of states can come together and adopt global rules to prevent plastic pollution, they can also do the similar things on climate change, on biological diversity, and indeed

How (Not) to Make a Plastics Treaty - Part II: Drama and Delay

Mar 16th, 2024 18m 2s

What happened at the INC-2 in France? Recap 2/3.The negotiations for the global plastics treaty are haunted by major issues that have long stalled progress on other problems as well, like climate change and biodiversity loss. To understand wh

How (Not) to Make a Plastics Treaty - Part I: Ambition in a Bracket

Mar 8th, 2024 30m

What happened at the INC-1 in Uruguay? Recap 1/3. This year, 2024, is the crucial year for the plastics treaty negotiations. If you haven’t heard about them, the United Nations are working on an international, legally binding agreement to end

Guest Episode - The Indisposable Podcast: Bioplastics and Plastic Alternatives

Feb 27th, 2024 33m 3s

You’ve probably heard of bioplastics, these new kinds of plastics that are marketed as environmentally friendly. If you’ve been following this show, you might know the episode from 2019 in which Anja tried to better understand this group of mat

[German] "Wege aus der Plastikkrise" - a Panel Discussion on Solutions to Plastic Pollution

Feb 23rd, 2024 50m 38s

- A heads-up for all international listeners: This the first-ever episode in German. If you don't speak the language, don't despair. The next episode in English is already in the works! -This episode features an in-depth panel in German langu

#PlasticsTreaty Shorts: The Fossil-Fuel Lobby at INC-3 with Julien Gupta

Nov 19th, 2023 6m 14s

Welcome again to Plastisphere, the podcast on plastics, people, the planet – and politics! Today, the INC-3, the third round of negotiations towards a global plastic treaty, will wrap up in Nairobi – and Anja received a timely message from one

#PlasticsTreaty Shorts: Waste Colonialism with Nirere Sadrach and Sharifa Ismail

Nov 16th, 2023 7m 15s

For a long time, we treated disposable plastic and waste as if there was an “away” – a place, where we could safely dispose of our trash. But as we all know, nothing disappears just magically. Each year, the world produces over two billion tons

#PlasticsTreaty Shorts: Production Caps and Moratoriums with Andrés Del Castillo

Nov 13th, 2023 6m 6s

Today, you’ll hear a message from Andrés Del Castillo in the #PlasticsTreaty Shorts series. Andrés is a Senior Attorney from Columbia working with CIEL, the Center for International Environmental Law in Switzerland (https://www.ciel.org/). CIEL

#PlasticsTreaty Shorts: The Planetary Boundary with Bethanie Carney Almroth

Nov 10th, 2023 6m 39s

We have exceeded six of the nine planetary boundaries. In her message to Plastisphere, Bethany Carney Almroth from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden tells us about one of them - the planetary boundary of novel entities which include plasti

#PlasticsTreaty Shorts: Unknown chemicals with Walter Waldman

Nov 9th, 2023 5m 48s

Similar to how food products contain a list of ingredients, we need to know which chemicals plastic products contain. This is not an easy task, but it would be a huge step if producers lifted the secret around the chemicals they use. Right now

#PlasticsTreaty Shorts: Consumption Reduction with Kristian Syberg

Nov 7th, 2023 6m 10s

Recycling is often seen as a golden standard for minimizing plastic pollution. And while recycling definitely does play a role in the future, it should not be the first priority. Kristian Syberg, an associate professor at Roskilde University in

#PlasticsTreaty Shorts: Three Principles with Chris Dixon

Nov 5th, 2023 6m 34s

The global plastics treaty is currently being drafted by the global community - an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment. One of the experts attending the meetings is Christina Dixon

What Day is Plastic Overshoot?

Jul 9th, 2023 51m 29s

The global plastics treaty is in the making, and the discussions around solutions to plastic pollution are gaining traction. To give you more food for thought, Anja tries out a new format, the Plastisphere Conversations with interesting people

Science over Profit - Demands for the Plastic Treaty

May 12th, 2023 33m 57s

On March 2, 2022, countries from around the world agreed to establish a global treaty to end plastic pollution. After the first meetings in Senegal and Uruguay, the discussions around the treaty are in full swing. Next, the country’s representa

Listening Session with Baldeep Kaur

Mar 17th, 2023 32m 8s

Baldeep Kaur is a doctoral fellow at the University of Potsdam, studying the afterlives of discarded colonial technologies. Last November, they invited Plastisphere creator Anja Krieger to a live listening session at the Minor Cosmopolitan Asse

Guest Episode - The Indisposable Podcast: The Story of Plastic

Mar 4th, 2023 41m 36s

A new guest episode to inspire your ears, mind and heart, kindly shared by Upstream. Plastic pollution is not just a waste issue. It starts with production, continues during use, and in the end, a lot of it ends up dumped or in the environment.

Guest Episode - What on Earth: Plastics Treaty Negotiations Start in Uruguay

Nov 27th, 2022 25m 57s

Remember our episode a few months ago on the history of the plastics treaty? To recap: In March, the United Nations Environmental Assembly decided to negotiate a global agreement to tackle plastic pollution. The ambitious plan is to develop a b

Guest Episode - Sustainable Asia: Producer Responsibility and Packaging Design

May 2nd, 2022 21m 47s

We can’t be the only ones responsible for plastic pollution. It’s time for producers and distributors of disposable plastic to take responsibility for where their packaging goes. Plastisphere presents an episode from Sustainable Asia’s “Mapping

Paving the Way for a Global Plastics Treaty

Mar 14th, 2022 30m 13s

Eight years after first flagging plastics as an issue, the United Nations Environment Assembly met in March 2022 for a historic decision. Delegates from more than 170 nations agreed on a mandate to put together a legally binding global plastics

From Zero Waste to Collective Action

Jul 30th, 2021 26m 4s

Plastisphere is back with Brooke and Anja! For the tenth anniversary of #PlasticFreeJuly, we dive into solutions to plastic pollution. Hear about Anja’s waste audit and DIY projects during the pandemic year, from home-made milk and laundry dete

Introducing: Life in the Soil (Teaser)

Nov 24th, 2020 1m 49s

Take a break from plastics to explore the soil - a hidden world beneath your feet. It's the world of earthworms, springtails, fungi, and bacteria. We hardly ever see these little creatures, but their impacts are huge. Soil stores more carbon th

Chatting about Individual Impact

Jul 26th, 2020 30m 2s

When it comes to solving the issue of plastic pollution, who would you say is responsible? Is it individuals like you and me, is it the corporations that produce plastics or products made from it, or is it the government with its rules and regu

The Discovery of Plastic Pollution

Jul 10th, 2020 56m 22s

Plastic pollution seems to be a pretty new issue, right? In the past few years, the topic has been all over the media. But if you explore the history of science, it turns out that the problem really isn’t all that new. Some scientists have been

Plastics and the Coronavirus

Apr 28th, 2020 37m 9s

For this episode, Anja tried something new: She asked listeners, researchers and podcasters to send her audio comments on what is happening now during the coronavirus pandemic. In this episode, you’ll hear some of the messages that arrived in h