Our planet is awash in garbage, especially plastic. Our land, oceans, lakes and rivers are choked with plastic. It’s even been found in the Marianas Trench 6.5 miles under the sea and all over Mount Everest. It has permeated the food chain, and the air we breathe, and it falls in rainwater. For decades, recycling was billed as the panacea that would save us from our garbage. Why didn’t it work?

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Links & Resources

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

Crisis Text Line: text HOME to 741 741

Domestic Violence Helpline: 1-800-799-7233

VictimConnect, a referral helpline for victims of crime: 1-855-484-2846

For veterans, Make The Connection

• NPR’s Is Plastic Recycling a Lie? How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled
• The Atlantic’s Is This the End of Recycling? What Happens Now That China Won’t Take U.S. Recycling
• Kurzgesagt’s Plastic Pollution: How Humans are Turning the World into Plastic

Written and produced by Anna Roberts

Burning palm tree artwork by Perry Vasquez

Intro music by Elliot Middleton