Burning plastic sounds wrong.

But what if the real problem isn’t plastic — it’s the fact that half the world isn’t connected to waste collection at all?

In this episode, Axel Pieters — former executive at GeoCycle, one of the world’s largest waste treatment companies — explains co-processing: how cement kilns use waste as fuel at extremely high temperatures, leaving zero residue behind.

We talk about:

• Why landfills may be the real climate villain

• Why technology isn’t the bottleneck — money is

• The economics of waste in developing countries

• Lock-in effects and investment risks

• Why zero waste is unrealistic

• And why solving plastic pollution requires funding operations — not just building infrastructure

This is a grounded, practical look at what it actually takes to manage waste at scale.

If you want climate realism instead of slogans, this episode is for you.