Finally! Some good news for you! On this episode, Lucia and Tyler discuss congress passing the Inflation Reduction Act, which is a climate, tax, and healthcare bill that is expected to reduce carbon emissions roughly 40% by 2030 through an unprecedented $369 billion investment in climate, clean energy, and environmental justice. It is estimated that these investments will create more than 9 million good-paying jobs over the next decade. Since this episode was recorded, President Biden signed it into law (it's possible!). Yes, Inflation Reduction Act is a horrible name that doesn't actually make it sound like a climate bill! Welcome to the United States government!

Woooof - this one is a doozy. On this episode of What a Waste, Lucia and Tyler talk microplastics. Microplastics are small plastic pieces less than five millimeters long that break down in large bodies of water and can be harmful to our ocean and aquatic life. And guess what - they've made it into the food chain and we are now filled with them! Lucia forgot to include any positive news with this one, but if you listen to the whole thing you will be entered into a drawing to listen to future episodes. Enjoy!

Ahhhh it's that time of year again when we ignore the absolutely devastating ongoing political disappointments in the United States and gather to eat watermelon and watch toxic metallic compounds explode over our heads (this one was written by Lucia). On this episode of What a Waste, Lucia and Tyler get into the science behind fireworks and why it's actually sort of insane that we keep using them every year. You'll learn things like how many pollutants fireworks release into the air, how fireworks increase pollution more in environmental justice communities that are already overburdened by air quality issues, and how some places in Canada have chosen the most Canadian alternative to toxic fireworks. 

Not sure if you could have guessed this yourself, but landfills are BAD. On this episode of What a Waste, Lucia and Tyler discuss why a sustainable, circular economy isn't possible under capitalism, the history of landfills, landfill juice (leachate), externalities, and the father of trash, George Landfill. Make sure to rate and review!

Hating plastic straws is all the rage, but how did we get here? In this episode Lucia and Tyler explain the history of plastic straws and the sea turtle that started a revolution, and why we need fo focus on the bigger issue of plastic waste (plastic straws only make up a measly amount of the plastic polluting oceans). You also get to meet some of the unhinged characters from the straw world that led to the demise of our oceans!

Lucia teaches Tyler what compost is and how food waste in the landfill worsens greenhouse gas emissions, and Tyler teaches Lucia how to build her pantry so that she wastes less food at home. In this episode you'll also learn how to connect with a compost pick-up program near you so that you can start composting food waste without having to get your hands dirty or be reminded that food isn't always beautiful and is sometimes stinky and slimy! For this episode, Lucia had to google the correct spelling of teensy weensy, which felt like a new low. 

For this episode, Lucia was forced to understand how cryptocurrency works, which is an impossible task, and she does a surprisingly good job of explaining the basics to Tyler. She explains concepts like mining and why it is taking a serious toll on the environment, the dark side of unregulated currency, how to get onto the dark web through Mozilla Firefox, and what Reddit users FattyMcButtface, HennyNWaffles, and BongWater69 have to say about the environmental ethics of crypto. 

On this episode of What a Waste, Lucia explains to Tyler how the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is roughly twice the size of Texas, is filling the ocean with harmful microplastics (bad) and creating a new habitat for marine species like barnacles, who are apparently loving it (good? no bad). Lucia also introduces Tyler to a video of her future husband, a man named Richard, who built his own plastic island where he now lives after seeing it in a vision. 

Do you go around pretending like you actually know how climate change works? On this episode of What a Waste, Lucia explains to Tyler the basics of global warming, and Tyler explains to Lucia why it isn't actually basic.