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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มิ.ย. 2024
- Everyone's favorite garbage nerd, Meredith Danberg-Ficarelli, is here to answer the internet's burning (well, maybe we'll ease up on the burning) questions about waste. Why don't we just throw all our garbage into a volcano? What does zero waste actually mean? Does recycling actually do anything? Meredith answers all these questions and much, much more!
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oil deposits are past civilizations landfills that have been solar flared after resets. why you think they dumpin metals on us?
Man thanks for getting an expert on me for this.
Just ban PET bottles below 600ml and you will have a big impact in landfills and sea. If you look at sea waste, most are bottles.
I have the best solution for waste disposal.
we can use a quantum recycler that disassembles anything back into its subatomic particles
for every 100 units of waste that you are recycling, China is dumping 10,000 units of garbage into the environment ,
and the CCP loves it because it gives the westerners something to keep their hands tied 😂
"Some things probably shouldn't be made" THIS is what we need to learn.
Like people?
@@maffewranglar9464 Some people in particular.
Plastics bags. . .. even ziplocks and freezer bags. Just get reusable ones literally saves you money too :/
It makes them money, so we the people need to not buy them. This is the only way to stop the production.
the three R's of sustainability: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. They're in that order for a good reason, it's far easier to reduce and reuse than to recycle
While recycling matters, please remember that reducing is the most impactful, then reusing
Yes but nobody willingly reduces their lifestyles. People are by nature maximalists, go fast, get more, get better.
This doesn’t make sense. If I am recycling 100% of my waste I get the benefit of using the products and I am not adding the the waste. Whereas if I REDUCE my usage by 100% then I get none of the benefits of using it while also not adding to the waste. Clearly recycling is better than reducing.
Patrick, the basis is that part of the waste process is not just in the product’s breakdown, but also in its production. More items are still being made to be consumed, which requires a lot of raw material and energy waste to produce - just not the type of waste that people press on as heavily since it’s not something you can see as tangibly, like electrical waste (hence why NFTs are such a bad thing for the environment - the electrical usage and waste is enormous). Not to mention, recycling is not a 1:1 - a product needs to meet a high standard to still be viable for recycling. In reality, rather than one can being used to make one recycled can, it probably takes about 5 cans to make one recycled can (not to mention, back to the energy thing, the energy and resource waste of processing those cans). And, eventually, things that can no longer be recycled, and those that couldn’t be recycled to begin with, will end up in the landfills anyway. Not to mention, in our economy where recycling is currently the only emphasized function (much like you propose) our recycling systems are actually overloaded. And what they cannot effectively process in a timely manner, they’re told to turn away and let be taken to the landfill anyway. So basically, recycling is beneficial, but it comes with many gaps, especially when it’s the only proprietor used.
The key with reducing is to reduce the need for those waste-heavy products to begin with, so that we’re wasting less resources to produce them to begin with, and to much more greatly reduce what ends up wasted at the end of its life cycle. Buying fewer products in plastic bottles, for example, means reducing the need to produce said bottles, and reduce the wastage it takes to process said bottles at the end of their life span. Ideally, we should also have initiatives at a corporate level to reduce this as well, either by using less waste heavy vessels in general, or (in the US at least) invest more into the use of less waste heavy and more easily recyclable plastics like PET, which are not standardized as heavily here.
That also plays into a bit of the “reuse” initiative as well - reusing some of these products while you have it, but (going back to reduce) making an effort not to purchase more which needs to be reused. Instead of buying a bunch of reusable grocery bags for your grocery trips - which with the energy waste for production and how long it takes to break down accounted for would probably need to be used about 5000 times for it to make up for the energy cost of the plastic bags it’s replacing - making your own out of worn clothes or out of material you’ve already owned, to extend that material’s life cycle with further use which elongates the time before it goes into a landfill. Things like that. Much like with recycling, going out of your way to buy products for the sake of either reusing it, or making products for reuse, is contributing to the waste of producing it, so ultimately we should be pushing towards reducing first and foremost.
Basically, recycling only accounts for end cycle wastage, whereas reducing accounts for wastage in a product’s entire life span. Ideally we should be reducing our usage - and corporations should be reducing production - of waste heavy products to begin with, and then we should use reuse and recycling as means to address what cannot be reduced.
@@patrick6213 you can’t recycle even most of your waste. Reduce makes sense in that if you use less you’ll generate less waste, and can easily reduce much more material than you can recycle. For example most people can reduce their consumption by 50%, but good luck recycling half of what you use.
@@patrick6213 OP didn't say it was better, they said it was the most impactful. If you reduce by 100% it's literally 0, which is more impactful then reusing repeatedly
When parents say 'study hard so you don't be like that person collecting trash' they don't acknowledge how essential they are to keep society going. Salute to all the waste management chads out there
Also when they say if everybody could do what they loved, nobody would clean up our rubbish, I think they're missing the fact that passionate people like her exist
Well, waste engineers aren't picking up leaking bags on the street during pre-dawn winters. Also garbage collectors get paid pretty good at least in NYC, not because it's such a great job but because it's difficult and not too many want to do it
Yeah... They are... But why would you want to be that person collecting trash if you could do something else, where you don't collect trash?
If your passion is helping to keep this world alive then I don't see why not.
I urged both sons to learn as much as they can as young as they can because it never gets easier. Also my job was to raise productive citizens. If they are happy being garbage man and live within their means and not being a burden to society.
But with education if they change their mind they will have more options.
@sshysterr9075 because it is paid very well. I remember a teacher once telling me that I need to buckle down or I'd be collecting trash. Then I find out that they were paid double her salary, for entry positions.
You do the math.
I'm embarrassed to admit that I thought a Starbucks cup counted as paper. Totally didn't factor in a cup lining. Yikes. Learned a lot, thank you! 💜
You should, where do you live, under a rock? USA??
FWIW the even more zero waste version of Starbucks is to bring your own cup. I think Starbucks gives you a discount too
And if you really want a crap your pants, do you know that all aluminum cans whether it's soda or food or soup or anything else are really just plastic bottles with an aluminum coating for durability? It's still plastics you're ingesting aka cancer. Glass is always better.
Hey don't be embarrassed, it's an honest mistake and you shouldn't have to be second guessing that kind of stuff! that's on starbucks, not you
now you know, and you can plan accordingly. nothing to be embarrassed by at all
No wonder forever chemicals are in us all now.
"If we continue on this trend, the whole world will be landfills."
- The literal premise of Wall-E
😱your so right
or Idiocracy
That was my first thought when she answered that questioned.
The whole world will never be landfills lmao. Do you realize how much space we have.....
And ready player one
I’m a civil engineer, and I can tell you, almost every city needs a revamped wastewater system. They’re all outdated and way over their designed capacity.
Are you based in Europe or the US?
@@andreadahl441 both fall victim to this
"They’re all outdated and way over their designed capacity." - Literally every public infrastructure/service everywhere.
Civil engineer in usa, you mean. What a stupid blanklet statement.
@@tony5422 yup!
I thought recycling was really confusing and complicated before watching this video. But after watching it, I realize that is actually much much more confusing than I originally thought.
Yay learning! 😂
Yeah no it’s not that complicated
Wired is so based for having this series and platforming these experts. I've learned more than I ever thought I would about things I didn't used to care about
The one time when you can call someone a "garbage person" and it's a compliment
One of those phrases in English where the position of the primary stress _really_ matters for the meaning.
This is a joke, it's totally inappropriate, cringy and weird. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm a horrible person. I already know this. I don't have to write this at all... But she can call me Oscar anytime.
I'm so sorry, you don't have to forgive me. I know I'm scum. My brain just couldn't let it go. I'll report myself to HR.
@@kekz0r Huh?
This video wasn't total garbage; she also talked about recycling.
Kinda wish she talked more about shifting more responsibility onto companies and manufacturers of goods rather than the individual user being solely responsible.
Exactly, even if everyone starts recycling, that won't change anything, it's the companies waste thats got us f****d
THIS!! Because even though yes, we are able to choose what to buy and whether or not to recycle, we actually have little to no control on “reducing our carbon footprint” due to companies and manufacturers not really caring about the environment and would rather go with cheap routes for saving money purposes.
THANK YOU! Someone who understands life through a systems point of view!
Given her comments at 0:50 and 11:10 I imagine she agrees with you - it's possible the lack of focus on systemic change in the video comes more down to editing than to her actual responses to the questions.
I absolutely agree.
It's like an adult giving stuff to a child and saying "here, now like it. No, you cannot substitute it. No, you cannot hand it back to me once you're done. Stay with it. Like it. Deal with it. But you can never, ever get rid of it. It lives longer than you ever will..."
My issue with recycling even though I do it all the time while trying to reduce is that I am putting my faith into my local council to actually do their job that they're telling me they're doing when it's been proven in the UK that they're not. Some of the councils in the UK are actually just shipping it to other countries where it's just going into landfill instead of actually recycling. The new one my council has come up with is I'm not allowed to put cardboard in my recycling bin as the companies who are taking the cardboard and paper don't want it mixed with plastic. I have to put it in this tiny little bag even though the majority of my recycling bin was full of cardboard. I have asked for another bag three times now and told they have sent it when clearly they haven't. First world problems I know.
I live in the U.S. and for the past few weeks I've seen our garbage truck also pick up our recyclables the past few weeks...
@@emankcin1334 the recycling truck completely skips the neighborhoods in my town 99% of the time
In Escondido, California, we are very interested in recycling and my niece works for the company that collects the "clean greens ", the trash, and another container for all recycling. Three different trash containers. It really works. My niece's company gives tours.
This is a first global problem clearly
We should stop supporting charities because some charities have no impact or outright embezzle the funds. We should also stop writing an reading books because some books have falsehoods in them.
That one journalist report about British bottles sitting in a Polish and Chinese landfill did more harm to recycling that that journalist who made it realizes. That journalist gave people an excuse.
I'm an Environmental Engineer, and I really wish everyone was educated enough to know what's recyclable and landfillable. Honestly, I didn't know much about it either when I first started my job, but I learned while I went. The Starbucks cup was the perfect example of how one item can be 4 different waste streams. Normal people would have put the whole cup in the recycling bin, generalizing it as a "paper cup."
Also "wishcycling" can be dangerous because it only takes one item to ruin an entire collection. There is just so much room for improvement in the US when it comes to wastes and recycling.
I don't know what country you are in, but in the US it is problematic to even do this because what is or is not recyclable varies by town. Even whether or not you need to rinse things out varies.
Ah man I’m going back to school to get my degree and become an environmental engineer. Super excited to step into the world you’re living in!
Hey fellow environmental engineer!! ☺️
When I worked in office, there were signs of what went where because so many people were throwing coffee cups in recycling.
You guys just ship it to China anyway.
It's all a problem of responsibility shift. Companies know exactly what they use in their products (especially packaging), so they should be responsible for recycling.
Recycling at that scale usually costs money, which means goods would be more expensive, which consumers don't want. Few companies are willing to add that to their overhead. The government doesn't seem interested in mandating it because it's bad for business which we can't have and consumers mostly only half-heartedly push for it
They must be *responsibilized*, 'cause they won't do that willingly. Plastic must be regulated (world wide preferably)
@@supernova622 places like france have government sponsored initiatives for companies to recycle, and a similar thing for grocery stores not throwing away food and their recycling rates shot up by a lot but i cant remember specifics because i learned about this in my french class last year
Not only companies, but humanity in general, we were all involved in this damage.
Just curious though, why are we as consumers not responsible, at least for some huge portion of it?
What a well-spoken, intelligent, good-humoured garbage expert! So glad I clicked on this rather than scroll by, as I realized I knew little about waste removal, water treatment methods, and infrastructure. Thank you - I learned a lot, and your enthusiastic and knowledgeable delivery made garbage almost exciting!
Recycling is pointless when gas-powered trucks haul them off, spewing gas fumes in the air
@@nimzi4479 yeah but you got keep one thing going while the other is still in improvement.
@@nimzi4479 improve the system a step at a time. That's what engineering is my friend.
We didnt get to where we are today with any of our technology or processes by making it perfect on the first try.
@@nimzi4479 you are a certified silly head if you really believe recycling is pointless
@@epiclexi1234 the 'purpose' of recycling is to clean up the environment by re-using materials. We put more co2 producing vehicles, dirtying the air we breathe, and we put out more plastic by putting out the recycling bins.either it's pointless or we're robbing peter to pay Paul,so to speak.
This stuff really ought to be taught in schools as general education. This information could really make a difference.
I was thinking the same exact thing, you read my mind
If major companies were able to transition into using "mycelium" based packaging that would be HUGE. Not only would it kickstart an eco-focused industry, it would also increase public perception of the big players. Good video, I dig it.
It is good but has too little social momentum behind it
Just look at the plastic to paper movement in straws. It's all because a turtle having a plastic straw in its nose got social attention, not because of any actual pro-environment reason.
You can see how humans are a disgraced bunch when you think it's fine to enslave the nature to keep consumption. Just stop using packaging. Use big containers... And a scale... That's all.
@@luminaspargo4630
I'm sure most people here would agree w/ your initial sentiment about our behaviors being somewhat shameful but what I was referring to is utilizing the properties of nature to accommodate a situation that will not go away. Way more reasonable than insisting everyone to just stop using packaging .. Doesn't even make sense and not a practical suggestion in the slightest.
@@angrydragonslayer People on Reddit constantly post images being angry about unnecessary plastic use, even when the material turns out to not even be plastic (such as constantly complaining about cellulose book covers as wasteful plastic use).
@@angrydragonslayer Yet despite all that kerfuffle, we still don't have a good alternative to the simple plastic straw. We don't need social movements to back what's effective, we need corporations to buy into it and pour money in to R&D. "Imagine the branding of being styrofoam free!" or "100% natural packaging!" and other attractive gimmicks. We need manufacturers for appliances to have mycelia products available on the cheap to easily make the switch.
One thing we should point out is: there have been reports of “recycling” ending up in landfills anyway. This apparently is fairly common in my part of the US and contributes to many people giving up on trying to recycle in the first place. How would you like it if you found out the things you’ve set aside for recycling and in some cases are being charged for just end up with the rest of the garbage anyway? Very discouraging.
According to a National Geographic article, only 9% of all plastics are recycled. The remainder is either incinerated or sent to landfills.
I hear this in my town, but I tell people, it gets you into the habit, and then when the tech is ready, when the infrastructure is there, when the cost to not recycle rises above the cost to recycle we're already doing what we need to.
It's probably because those things can't be recycled
@@lettuce1626 Right, many people don't realize recycle needs to be completely cleaned and dried before turning it in. More often than not, people are just throwing their plastic trash and packaging with food still in it in a bin and calling it a day.
Most people who are adamant about recycling don't really care about the planet to begin with, they care about their own safe clean space. Not to mention the worry of the planet isn't the actual problem, it's only harming us. The planet is fine and always has been fine. The earth is 4.543 billion years old and through all of that there's been catastrophic natural disasters. Volcano eruptions, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and tornados, meteor strikes, tsunami's, things that if we had the major cities we do now back then they'd have been completely wiped out. The earth is still here. But yeah the plastic bags and styrofoam is gonna be the end of it all, mhmm. Everybody in our current lifetime worried about saving the planet will never experience a catastrophic event capable of leveling an entire state.
So when you see somebody freaking out over recycling and saving the planet think if they actually care about nature and the planet or if they're just worried their living space is gonna become dirty. Cause I don't think the earth needs us to care for it, it's gonna shake us off like a bad case of fleas one day and we'll have been a small blip in the grand scheme of things.
The fact she brought compost samples!! Love it!! This is such great content
on the whole "don't put soiled items in the recycling" thing, I've always wondered, is it better for the environment to just throw it in the trash or to use a bunch of soap and water to clean out, for example, a used peanut-butter jar?
Why are you using lots of soap and water? You fill up the container with water for a soak and put it through the dishwasher later.
@@nunyabusiness3786 the obvious response to your question is that not all of us have dishwashers. In fact I’d wager most of us don’t lol
@@nunyabusiness3786 respectfully, this was fairly tone deaf.
Cleaning it out definitely is better. I try to rinse out things I recycle like milk jugs, plastic containers, etc. For the peanut butter example, you put soap and water (make sure the lid is closed so water doesn’t leak out) and shake it up. Even letting water soak in it several hours helps.
Cleaning it out definitely is better. I try to rinse out things I recycle like milk jugs, plastic containers, etc. For the peanut butter example, you put soap and water (make sure the lid is closed so water doesn’t leak out) and shake it up. Even letting water soak in it several hours helps.
I'm glad to learn biodegradable doesn't automatically mean "earth friendly" I'll be on the lookout for that!
That shocked me…
that shocked me, now I know not to toss that "bio degradable shopping back in with my compost, they didn't last long but every once in a while the grocery store has them pop up.
😮
@@David_Quinn_Photography Shopping bags make great mini garbage bags, reducing the need to purchase (just to throw away) as many new "garbage" bags. Paper grocery bags make great recycling bins as they stand up on their own and can easily be carried out and Tetris'ed into the bin.
yeah I was ignorant too; what shameful false marketing... it's all purely buzz-words to get consumers to buy their products.
I think the question "Does recycling matter?" was pointing to the larger issue.. that many of the things we "recycle" end up in landfills anyway. Estimates vary, but many sites suggest only about 35% of the things we "recycle" ACTUALLY get recycled. The rest ends up in a landfill like the rest of our garbage.
And I'm kind of mad this wasn't referenced. The main reason why recycling doesn't get recycled is because people put the WRONG THINGS in the recycling and it ends up jamming the equipment. So countries stopped taking the recycling. It's genuinely not as simple as putting things into the recycling bin.
@@ayannababii maybe a way to help sove this is to make it a requirement to have the material type or recycle type of every material so consumers can easily differentiate and properly place the right things into the right boxes
@@lesussie2237 most people don't want to have 3 different recycling bins in their house and don't have the means to take those separated containers to the appropriate place. Even if it was clearly labeled, people have to care AND have access to a recycling center AND other countries would have to trust the US again and be willing to accept our recycling
@Eric excellent obvious point. A less obvious point would be that she knew and intentionally avoided the question so why is that and how much is she being paid to pollute our planet?
That is the sad fact that I learnt very recently. Most people assume all that they give for recycling gets recycled.
I worked some years for a company that made stuff out of precious metals (that's what google gave me) like gold, rhodium, platinum, etc. You get the point. I worked at different worksites and everywhere they were welcoming electronic waste. They had these boxes with pictures on them what to throw in there. Phones, Batteries, cookers.... they took in everything as long as they could get the materials out of it. :D
She seems cool
The big problem with recycling is that a large percentage of it STILL goes to waste, so the way that we recycle needs to change along with changing packaging to be more renewable
Also corporations don't do their part and somehow its consumers fault for not recycling
@@bluehornet197 It falls more on consumers. Individuals actually produce far more waste than the companies do. Also keep in mind, most companies are to get stuff to you, now you hold all the waste, should the company do something about your waste now, or should you?
@@OmniscientWarrior thats purely false corporations produce 10yrs worth of household waste in one year many studies back this up most people know to recycle and actually do but corporations and companies can get away with not recycling cause they are industry and these corporations are sending the plastics overseas and having them dumped I would like to know how thats on individuals? When clearly these plastics were put into the allocated trash heap did individual people haul that garbage overseas to rot? Or was it corporations that had the means and facilities to dump said plastic?
@@bluehornet197 And how many more households are there than corporations? We outnumber them by a large amount. That is why you don't need to hit a large customer base to become very wealthy and have a large business.
@@OmniscientWarrior lol are you trying to debunk the studies that have been done that actually say corporations produce more? Regardless if there are more households AGAIN all the research shows corporations are polluting the planet more then households are and corporations have far more resources to produce the rubbish and pollutant and far more resources to send it overseas but I guess all that research is wrong because you a random dumbass on the internet disagrees? Lol you're a joke
When people say things like "why dont we shoot it into space", it shows how hard it is for humans to think on a large scale...
Like imagining how much waste a single city produces. Not even thinking about 8 billion people.
Plus so many people don’t think, or care, about what ultimately happens to waste. As long as it goes away they’re happy thinking it’s all fine and dealt with.
Shooting waste into space just means there will be a bunch of waste in space. It isn’t like it’ll break down and disappear just because it’s in space.
Even traditional garbage dumps are basically a pit you pile everything in and wait for it to break down.
They never watched WALL-E, apparently
I imagine one day, when energy becomes massively easy to produce, we will have to resort to some sort of accelerator system to just auto-fling all the garbage into space.
Billionaires rotted their minds
Most people are idiots.
I saw a special on recycling where the recycling company told the interviewer approximately 85% of all plastic that goes to the recycling plant is incinerated. Plastic seems to be one of the largest pollutants on the planet and it comes down to ease of companies distributing products and the profit margins. For instance, when I was young all soft drinks came in a glass bottle, you would pay a deposit on the bottle and when you brought the bottle back you could get your deposit back or you brought your bottle with you when you went to buy another one and just use that bottle as the deposit. That created a "wealth" of money for many people, especially the young, because so many people wouldn't bother returning the bottle and in many cases threw them out the window of their vehicles while they were driving. Then others would walk along the roads picking up the bottles, cleaning them, and selling them back to stores to collect the deposit money. Usually a bottle would get you between 5 to 10 cents apiece which doesn't sound like much but it did add up and also considering the typical full sized candy bar back then cost 5 cents it was a very easy way for a kid to buy one... just trade in a bottle and get a candy bar... and I got a lot of them that way. Not sure how expensive it was to recycle a soft drink bottle back then but it was a lot cheaper for the company to fill a plastic bottle and just let it go to the consumer without the worry of having to recycle bottes. Many other products were handled in similar fashion until cheaper made plastic arrived on the scene and that is when pollution started becoming a much larger problem. So how do you get large corporations to quit using so much plastic? I have no idea because they mostly care about their profit margins and reusable containers aren't as profitable.
I think the solution is to literally force them to take on the cost by making the alternative more expensive thru fines AND by incentivizing everyone else to do better. as more people become interested in true sustainability, the companies that do right by the environment will be more profitable than the ones that don't. and to be fair, there are a lot of companies genuinely interested in doing good. it's just a matter of making them more accessible to everyone and penalizing the ones that aren't making efforts to do better.
Recycling is like an infinite resources glitch. You have a bottle, you break it, you make another bottle out of that bottle - to infinity and beyond!
I want to listen to this person for hours. She needs a podcast, or she needs to be invited to a podcast with regularity; this is fascinating. I love it!
She's got a great voice for it too
I support this. It's been 3 minutes and I'm already obsessed with her.
"sinking in lava" is an oxymoron for a majority of materials. Rock is denser than most objects and it keeps that density when it melts, throw something in lava and it will just sit on top of it as it catches fire.
Seems like you didn't throw hard enough
What if you throw the object tied to a rock?
Most thing catch on fire before it even touch the magma it would be useless.
And a lot of organic waste would simply explode.
Nice try. I’ve seen the Lord of the Rings. Gollum obviously sinks
I came out of this video with a different perspective on her Waste Expert title than when I came in. Her passion is contagious and she's clearly knowledgeable about the subject. Thank you for sharing and I wish the systemic change she hopes for happens soon.
2:32 I think they were asking if recycling matters in a practical now that we know that a vast majority of our recycled goods end up in landfills because the profit incentive isn't there for most recycling facilities. China stopped buying our recycling and now we're hardly recycling anything that ends up in those blue and green bins.
Yeah, she really floated over that question and didn't address real concerns about recycling efficacy. Not only is China not taking our recycling anymore, but the amount of energy and pollution that occurs because of recycling -- does it balance out? Or is it just making people feel better about themselves, instead of encouraging them to do what really makes a difference (buying fewer new things).
She did address it, just in a big systems way instead of a small way. That's part of what she meant by making sure that the recycled goods were accessible and didn't have to travel as far. (That means having recycling facilities closer to a) the place of collection and b) close to the places of production that are using recycled goods.
It’s a marketing ploy by plastic manufacturers to make you feel better about throwing it away
Listening to a nerd talk about what makes them nerd out is always so interesting. Keep on nerding!
nerd out! 🤘
Lmao what nerd, she doesn’t know anything about her supposed “field of expertise”
@@annaSHRRR What do you mean by that?
Yes! I'm loving it. She's geeking out for sure
@@annaSHRRR you're in another comment section I saw... what a capitalist shill. Not everything is a conspiracy or "Marketing Strategy," this includes the Recycling Industry/Movement. Its time you confront your Capitalist biases and adopt a different view... maybe you'll learn something that doesn't revolve around greed, selfish behavior, and predatory ideals.
Always enjoy the passionate & knowledgeable guests you guys have on the channel!
Waste to energy plants should be used a lot more
I really wish she talked about the cradle-to-cradle concept. Honestly, if we don't push companies to think their products under that concept, things are gonna get wild really fast by the amount of plastic we're consuming.
Yeah she did kinda touch on the circular economy concept near the start tbf, I guess you can't go in too deep in a video like this
It's already WILD!!
@@SlightlyDazed. it should be about going deeper about those things, 'cause it ppl don't get to know those concepts they probably gonna stay inside libraries never to be used
@@Cangaca777 it can always get wilder
Cradle to Cradle (the book) should be required reading. It really is the kind of stuff most of us would not dream up, but it makes perfect sense and could revitalize a lot of the economy in addition to reducing waste. Things like a pair of running shoes where the soles are made of organic compounds blended specifically to enrich the ground you’re running on.
I was thinking 'how interest can garbage be' and this lady is SO smart and there is SO much to this 🤯 I wish amazon would make that change she mentions
I was hoping the volcano question got answered with more detail or some interesting stories. Maybe some stories about how dangerous it is to throw trash into a volcano, how the volcano may spurt the trash back out, etc.
For one, it's dangerous like you said(yes they do spurt the trash back and they'll be burning and accompanied by lava to top it off).
Second, volcanoes give off harmful gasses as is, we don't need to add more harmful gasses by burning trash.
Also there aren't a lot of volcanoes with active lava lakes.
well the obvious is burn pits for United States military base or 9/11 word trade center terrorist attack and all the cancers that follows for both but it kind of break the mood...
She explains things SO well! Bring her back for more videos!
Great segment. EXCEPT, as an amateur plumber. DO NOT, put anything down your toilet except human waste and toilet paper.
Glad to see someone point that out, that was the one bit that struck me as quite strange. It really is so subjective to just generally say everyone can do it too as some people are on septic systems for example
Such a hard agree I wish they'd delete that part of the video, even with her caveats its just such bad, bad advice.
I dunno. Like chili is a good example of something that's fine. Like if it's a food that's generally quite sloppy, mostly liquid with very small solids, there's no real risk. But if you're thinking of putting chicken bones down there or a whole meat loaf then you're an idiot.
I would even say toilet paper is a no-no for most cities. I certainly know that in my country you should throw used paper in a bin as most cities are not prepared, infrastructure-wise, to receive toilet paper. Remembering that toilet paper can add-up in fatbergs.
You don't put toilet paper down the drain, you put in a sanitary waste bin. Here, we don't use toilet paper, we use hand flushes - not a problem for us.
Don't flush food down the toilet. Especially your example of Chili. That food, amongst others, contains fat which turns into giant fatbergs which clog sewer lines. Nothing except toilet paper, and the stuff that comes out of you should go down a toilet.
People please use bidets, cleaner and greener.
@@wilhelmpaulm Why does it matter to you how other people clean their asses? Are you just a big weirdo, or what
I cringed when she said flushing chili down the toilet would be okay. That can cause major issues, as you stated. For me, that one statement discredits everything else this "expert" said.
She already mentioned composting, why wouldn't she tell people to compost their food waste.. flushing it down the toilet is literally the last thing you would do.. If you're that concerned about just throwing it in your trash, throw it out in the woods and let nature take care of it
Even toilet paper can be troublesome
I've watched a LOT of these videos but this was genuinely my favourite! What a cool lady
I truly adore Meredith's enthusiasm. Great energy all around, but when she spoke of Amazon using post-consumer recycled packaging she lit up!
I love how genuinely passionate she is about this topic
Honestly, systemically recycling should have a more universal process so that we know something is either recyclable or not everywher (including hazardous/electronic waste)
Love her energi and enthusiasm :)
One of my favorite things to do is to listen to experts get really excited and passionate about their subjects when they discuss them. This woman is so knowledgeable and engaging. I loved how dramatically she whipped out the thermometer 😂
I used to be a facilities manager and people would throw company silverware away because they were too lazy to wash it in the break room
We need a way to incentivize each of us to give a crap about proper waste disposal
Wow that’s lazy on a whole new level. 😳
Just don’t replace it i guess
Good lord. People are awful.
I don't really think one can incentivise a moron. It's really like talking to a wall.
Beyond the incineration problems, and still important, putting trash into a volcano induces turbulent, unpredictable, and violent activity within the lava, highly increasing the risk of damage for everything around the volcano. To put it more fundamentally, not economically viable (per any proposed implementation).
This is the part I needed to know. Thank you for adding!
@@taimatsuko thank you for adding, I wanted to know if it would be a theoretical option, not if it's morally okay...
Thank you for the info !
@agentid36 Your proof?
So surface perturbation does not demonstrate that the volcano is more or less dangerous without it. There are quite a few factors that are not given consideration here. How much perturbation is caused? Does 100 liters of water create a magnitude of surface disturbance greater than 10 liters? That is an extremely important question to consider. Given that a volcano that could be used for incineration is extremely unlikely to have people or vegetation in close proximity, how much does surface perturbation “matter”? The entire topic was treated in a most cursory of manner. This is minimal effort theater and I was hoping for more substance.
She’s really an example of Be The Change. She sees vast societal problems and is putting energy and resources into changing the world. It’s an uphill battle, and she acknowledges this, but she should be very proud of herself and I am now inspired to do more of my part to recycle
its so amazing how dedicated and passionate she is about helping the earth
Great garbage nerd expert! I really wish she would have touched on the subject of our current recycling crisis or given an update. The US exports most of it's recycling and now China and other countries have stopped taking it. It's going to other countries that can't handle their own. Why are we still exporting our recycling and not handling it here where we could create more jobs instead of sending it away so we don't have to deal w it anymore? We don't even know where our recycled goods are going anymore
Yes and we only recycle certain materials and #s if plastics in our local areas, I try to buy products that will for sure be recycled and locally when possible
democrats.
@@robert9595 Sure, OK.
@@crankfastle8138 We continue to sell our resources to china, and than buy the products they make with our resources.
Obama sent more jobs overseas with his policies that affected production (those "green" laws made it very expensive to manufacture over here. Thats why companies went over seas, less environmental laws..less cost of manufacturing)
Now that the democrats hold congress they're free to pass and restrict any measures they so choose, especially since they have a puppet in office to sign off on these bills instead vetoing them due to their costliness.
But aye, if you wanna sit there and say
"Sure, OK" when you can very easily get informed on the negative impact these green laws cause, insyead of following blindly bcuz "We GoTtA sAvE tHe EnViRoNmEnT (even though other countries contribute far more pollution than the US even without our "environmentally friendly" laws)
Than so be it.
The reason why we don't recycle it here is because we can't. If we kept it here, it would keep piling up. And instead, we dump it on other countries when they can hardly handle their own. We make Americans feel good about recycling, but it just gets sent off to other countries that may not have strict environmental standards. The stuff they can't recycle gets illegally dumped into rivers and then flows into the ocean. Or they burn it in illegal burn pits that cause toxic fumes for the local communities.
I was today years old when I learned that there are waste experts and there's a thing called "waste lingo" I love how our technology can give us the opportunity to learn things we didn't even know existed.
I love, love, LOVE her enthusiasm for composting!!
'Fun' fact about recycling in Alaska! Some of the recyclables (typically non-compostable ones) have to be shipped down to the Lower 48, which is wildin'
Aren't most of the twitter's questions, garbage questions anyway?
I see what u did there
So says a youtube comment lol
Ayyyye
You got a snort out of me. Good one.
That's why they recycled them into a TH-cam video
Several years back, my employer's building management introduced recycling bins in the offices. I was glad to see that, since we produce A LOT of paper waste, everyday. Not to seem too progressive, around that same time, they took out all of the coffee pot brewers and replaced them with K-Cup, single cup machines. So instead of producing several wads of compostable coffee grounds and filters, there are now dozens of of those horrid little unrecyclable cups each day. This is just what I witness at the coffee bar near my desk. We have 6 floors with 3 coffee bars on each floor. Not the biggest building, but it does make me think of how big this problem is, taking into account every office building around the world and how few of them treat their waste in a responsible way.
Kcup has a recycling program specifically for the cups
@@emzealous It doesn't take a genius to know it't a cop-out. No company actually recycle stuff like this because of the perceived "biohazard" that's inherent in such designs. All heavily subsidised "waste management" companies love schemes just like this.
@@emzealous I'll have to let my building manager know. At this point, they all just get dumped into the trash (right next to the recycling bin). All of the coffee bar stuff is delivered by a coffee-service company, (Parks). I wonder if they have a program tied to the cup recycling. Another question for the building manager.
"Not to seem too progressive" -- heaven forbid you'd want to be seen as an intelligent person who wants to improve the world. Jesus Christ what is happening to people...
Even the inventor of those coffee pods regrets doing so.
Such an informative video, always wondered about a lot of the stuff she covered 😊
This is one of the most enlightening videos I've ever watched on youtube, kudos!
Yes! I love how she brought up increasing accessibility for recycling. I would actually recycle way more if there was more accessibility and infrastructure for such in my area.
My supermarket has a soft plastics bin. Once I started doing that I only put one very small bag of rubbish a week in the normal bin. And that's mostly food scraps that can't be composted and dirty tissues.
@@em84c yes
For the question about electronics - there's a charity in my country that takes old/broken tech and electronics, refurbishes them and donates them to people who can't afford stuff like people in women's shelters or economically disadvantaged school pupils. Maybe there's one where the person who asked the question is?
When she was explaining recycling with the cup I thought that's exactly why hardly anyone does it.
not sure who you're hanging out with but there's so many regular people out there who are doing their best. just because you may not care much to learn how you can do your best doesn't mean other people are the same way.
I am so excited about this information, thank you first of all. And dang, that melon sweater looks fricken amazing! Brings joy and education in one video!!!
3:28 she wasn’t asking literally. She was saying “why is it so hard for people to recycle, it’s not that hard”
bc most recycling just ends up in a landfill, and people have been recycling for years and years and nothing has changed. More pollution is happening, wasteful packaging hasn't changed. People are exhausted trying to help the planet, but at the end of the day it's all about money those in charge of facilities for recycling see no real profit in trying to do sustainable recycling. The amount of plastic in the world has already did enough damage to last millions of years, and companies are just making more.
@@rutela3668 I think they meant "how can people think it's difficult to put plastic in the plastic bin, paper in the paper bin, glass in the glass bin, etc?? It's literally so simple"
You're right. People who are willing to recycle their waste have no problem discerning different types of waste. It's just that most of us are aware of how insignificant effect it ends up having.
@@rutela3668 Yup. Technology is useful to us and we cannot realistically wean off of it. `we shouldn't have to. The problem to solve, and quick, is to achieve a complete turnover of waste in order to limit the use of processes that build new things out of virgin materials. Recycling may be a big part of it but it's never gonna cut it on its own. I say we burn what we can't recycle. Responsibly.
@@rutela3668 I was just clarifying what the commenter in the video was saying because the presenter didn’t understand their question. The question “why is it so hard” is rhetorical. The person who replied to you worded it better than I did lol
I wasn’t asking the question or making a point, just trying to clarify what was being asked in the video
Never thought trash management could be made so interesting
You never watched The Sopranos
Most of these "Tech Support" videos teach me a few factoids. I don't know how many specifics I'll remember here, but this one actually changes the way I think about waste in the first place. Definitely glad I clicked on it.
just do what I do - come back to this video every so often for a refresher! that's the beauty of TH-cam. unless a channel deletes a video or it is taken down for TOS reasons, it'll always be here with its information. and you can always write down the most important parts to you so you can bring them along long term in your life! :)
this is honestly the most informative wired interview i’ve seen
On electronics recycling, the best place to get rid of your old stuff would be eBay. Electronics recycling can be pretty dodgy, if you can find one near you. But selling old electronics (even broken stuff) provides parts to repair shops and DIYers.
There are also charities that collect old electronics, especially cellphones, to give to needful families, refugees or people living in very poor countries. Also, sometimes it is possible to upcycle something, if you are a craftsman. I once upcycled an older computer into a MAME arcade emulator machine that looks just like a typical arcade machine :) An old iPhone can be made into a baby monitor for example. Upcycling is great because often times it means you also reduce waste. Because if you use an old iPhone as a baby monitor, you don't need to buy one, so one less item that needs to be produced and might end up as e-waste down the road.
you're right about one thing: it's important to be aware of what you're doing and not just rely on a company's sales pitch. doing just a little research into your options can pay off in dividends.
@@Sicho84people like you are so inspiring! I wish I had the skills (or the time and energy to learn these skills) to do cool stuff like you. this isn't to say I don't have skills, but unfortunately I do have to rely on companies and organizations to make use of my old and broken stuff
This woman is amazing. She needs to be in commercials explaining things. Seriously. She packages and delivers information in enjoyable bite-sized excerpts. No fluff.
One of the best Tech Support ever,
Would love to see an episode 2.
This is actually very helpful information and provided some clarity on things that I did not know or had a slight misconception of.
1:35 The question wasn't surrounding the ZWIA policy in place. The question was why cant we use volcanoes as an incinerator? The answer is: It would displace lava and possibly cause small eruptions leading to a larger eruption. Not sure why she completely ignored that question by talking about generic incinerator ZW issues while we literally still incinerate...
Thank you for answering the question clearly, she did a little sneaky on us! :D
That's honestly the first thing I was concerned about. Messing with nature like that doesnt sound smart or safe. But honestly I dont think she intentionally didnt mention this, she probably just didnt know the answer because that sounds more biology knowledge based.
Probably because she’s not a geologist
@@jonathansilvestri7648 agree, she's answering her field
@@jonathansilvestri7648 Yep, I never thought about it lol
This lady definitely needs a podcast. Sooooo interesting to listen to, what a great video! I wish we would strengthen our recycling system, we are so fan behind.
I've never thought so deeply about trash. This woman did an excellent job at explaining all this stuff.
This was genuinely so amazingly informative
I absolutely agree that we should recycle everything but plastic recycling is a lie. Most number 1 and number 2 is recyclable but on a practical level no other plastic is recycled.
I just found out that my county accepts pizza boxes in the recycling. Domino's had sent me an email stating to check my county website to see if they recycled the boxes and they did. Great piece of information to know.
My little local pizza shop used to offer a free medium pizza when you brought back 10 empty boxes for recycling before my town had curbside recycling.
That’s great to hear! Just make sure to never recycle the greasy parts of pizza boxes because they cannot be recycled if they’ve been contaminated with food residue.
@@pronalitysangles6027 so basically.. the pizza box.
The upper lid of the pizza box may be clean and recyclable if the little plastic table in the middle did it's job to not let it sink on to the pizza, so just cut the lid off and recycle it
@@pronalitysangles6027 You are wrong. The county stated you could recycle the whole pizza box. I'm guessing they figured out how to recycle the box even with some grease on it.
6:03 I *highly* recommend keeping your own compost pile especially if you have backyard space but there are many in-house solutions as well. I just started about 6 months ago and I"m hooked.
Watching so much of what would normally be put in the trash easily turn itself into a nice pile of (nice smelling)dirt is so satisfying and accomplishing feeling.
Please tell it's not something like this th-cam.com/video/d8M9E_XC3So/w-d-xo.html
14:00 - A lot of oils can freeze down-pipe and create "fat-bergs" which can cause clogs. I compost as much of my foodstuffs as I can. Meat & dairy are not great for indoor composting due to the smell, but can be buried outside.
I loved this one a lot. She was fantastic. She had great energy and personality.
As a teenager, I remember getting on my family's bottoms about recycling glass and stuff. They would always call me annoying but I did not care because I always thought that it was an amazing thing that were were doing.
good on you for doing that!
I love when my online seller makes me a custom box or envelope sized to exactly what I ordered.
Flushing leftover food down the toilet is basically just cutting out the middle man.
"Recycling is different in different places" = why recycling will never beat garbage.
Completely dodged the question about if recycling in our daily lives matters (hint it usually does not because we truly recycle very little)
Her face when she whips out the thermometer lmao she really enjoyed that, so did I.
I love how, NO matter what, nerds will be nerds and get stuff that's really cool but also unnecessary for what they actually need. but we're nerds! we gotta have our nerd stuff lol
"So the cup actually belongs in the trash."
Can't believe she said that.😂
We need her and other like her educating all generations regularly
She's so good at teaching what she knows I feel like I'm with a really fun teacher.
Wow, Meredith! I love how you speak to this, so upfront, accessible, thorough, complex and connected. Deep appreciation for your nerd perspective!
This is one of those jobs I never realized existed, but now that I do I'm glad it does. I mean I'm not glad it's needed, but yknow
Didn't realize that my recycling program accepted plastic codes 1-7 until now. Will now be recycling those Starbucks lids. Thanks for the info!
What a missed opportunity, you could have called it " Trash Support"😂😂😂
I hope I can be like you in the future! I'm currently working on getting my environmental engineering papers! My main focus is on recycling, circular economy and waste management 🥰
I hope your studies are going well!!
this is the funniest way of learning new things about everything, I loved these videos!!!!
Amazing video, answered some great questions, gave some top notch info!!
Also participating in compost is participating in Magick is my new favorite phrase.
This was way more interesting than I expected it to be. She is very intelligent and well spoken. Great video.
I love people who have important jobs no one thinks about
She is AMAZING. Like the coolest nerd that's not a nerd but a genius and fabulous human being
This was seriously awesome! Makes me feel motivated to keep recycling and doing things responsibly. How do you dispose of used razors?