In our first-ever episode of The Indisposable Podcast, we celebrated the passing of the 2019 Single Use Foodware and Litter Reduction Ordinance in Berkeley, California. More than 100 episodes later, host Brooking Gatewood welcomes back Martin Bourque, Executive Director of The Ecology Center, to discuss the organization’s new toolkit to help others learn from this unique model for both policy and research. 

Joined by Jessica Heiges, researcher at the Environmental Science Policy and Management Program at UC Berkeley, the three talk about the unique conditions that led to the ordinance’s passing, the importance of campaign finance limits for environmental policy, the unexpected setback of COVID-19 – and what we’re learning now as implementation and enforcement are finally under way. Tune in for this rich policy and practice discussion as the city of Berkeley works to get off the disposable treadmill. 

Resources:

The Disposable Free Berkeley Toolkit

The Ecology Center