The Zero Waste Countdown Podcast

Mushrooms have been eaten by people for thousands of years, or perhaps even longer. They are used as a healthy food source, as medicine, fire starter, meat replacement for vegans, and Ikea is even experimenting with using them as packaging! There is promising hope that certain types of mushrooms could help with cancer and mental health issues.       Denis Vidmar is a second-generation mushroom expert and enthusiast. He joins the Zero Waste Countdown to talk about staying healthy with mushrooms and his business TheMushHub.com .       Denis Vidmar From The Mush Hub      https://www.brianmuraresku.com/the-immortality-key

Rick Nahmias is the founder and CEO of Food Forward, an organization based in L.A. that addresses food waste and food insecurity. In July 2021 they had their biggest month on record with 7 million pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables recovered, helping to meet the food needs of 150,000 people.       Rick joins the show to talk about the growth of the organization over 9 years, how fresh fruit is recovered on such a large scale, and why Southern California and particularly L.A. is a hub for fresh fruit recovery.

    Cuba is known as a beautiful tourist destination with colourful landscapes and beach resorts. But what is it like to live under a communist government? Is it better for the environment?     Daylin Horruitiner of Spanglish Generation is a Cuban American born in Cuba. She creates content that gathers attention to the plight of the Cuban people under such strict governing, and joins the Zero Waste Countdown to discuss what environmentalism looks like under a communist regime.      While the environmental movement in the West seems to insatiably tug further and further to the left, Daylin discusses the dangers in going too far to any side of the political spectrum. She explains environmental issues such as rolling blackouts, why the Cuban government imposed food rations that particularly targeted beef, and how environmental protests in Cuba are often organized by the government themselves in order to get foreign funding.        

            Lou Corbett works with plants in a cabin in the woods north of Toronto. She founded Northshore Apothecary where she sells her products, all made sustainably. She takes great care to ensure the natural environment around her is healthy, while creating products from the natural world that benefit us and our own health.         Lou joins the Zero Waste Countdown to talk about her processes, scent distillation, sustainable harvesting, and how we can use invasive species to our advantage.         Connecting with plants, whether that be through aromatherapy, food, bath soaks, creams, or even just learning about plants and choosing not to use them, can help us forge relationships with the outdoors and with our own health.         Check out her story on Instragram: @northshore_apothecary and if you'd like to buy one of Lou's wildcraft products for yourself or for a loved one, she gave us this discount code: WILDCRAFT10 to save 10%.                    

Julie Cielo is the founder of Ferm Fatale, a shrub kombucha mocktail company offered in sustainable packaging. She started Ferm Fatale to replace alcoholic drinks with something much healthier for our gut.       Julie walks us through her autoimmune journey that led her into taking control of her own health and wellness while giving us tips on how to do so ourselves.       She discusses the link between gut, body, and mind health and how we can keep all of them working together harmoniously in these difficult times. Coupon code ZEROWASTE20 to save 20% if you'd like to try Ferm Fatale.  

NewLife Forest Restoration is a lumber manufacturer with sawmills located in Heber and Williams, Arizona. This lumber manufacturer prides itself on its Zero Waste Initiative and works closely with the U.S. Forest Service to ensure sustainable, healthy forests. Their mission is to protect Arizona from catastrophic wildfires by restoring the four national forests in Arizona to a healthier and more natural ecosystem.       Through their sustainable forestry approach, NewLife protects the health of the beautiful forestland and makes products such as animal bedding, wood chips, engineered wood and more while reducing the forests' ability to light up into forest fires. They are also creating skilled jobs in the area.       Jason Rosamond is the founder of NewLife Forest Restoration and he joins the Zero Waste Countdown to discuss his zero waste forestry initiatives.  

  Each year, 11 billion kilograms of dried green coffee is processed for export, but it's only a tiny portion of the plant. Over 45 billion kilograms of cascara (the fruity pulp that surrounds the coffee bean on the plant) is also produced, and 70% is thrown to waste.     Paul Evers has come up with a solution to mitigate coffee waste, support coffee farmers, and clean up the planet by using cascara for an energy drink called Riff.     If you'd like to try it, you can use discount code ZEROWASTE for 20% off within the United States at letsriff.com.

Aura 7 Activewear is made with recycled fibers from ghost fishing nets and other ocean waste. Their mission is to clean more seas and plant more trees by donating 1% of all revenues to Healthy Seas and with every purchase, a tree is planted with One Tree Planted. The Southern California brand became a celebrity favorite worn by Kristen Bell, Gabrielle Union, Jessica Alba, Lucy Hale, and Keke Palmer to name a few. Aura7 has been featured in VOGUE, Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, US Weekly, and The Zoe Report for revolutionizing the activewear industry by bringing in some much needed changes in sustainability.     Francisksa Bray-Mezey, Aura7 Founder  Francisksa Bray-Mezey is a yoga instructor, mother, and founder of Aura7 Activewear. She joins the Zero Waste Countdown to discuss her brand and the sustainability behind it.     Host Laura Nash wearing Aura7

    Iryna Rosetti Pacheco spent many years as a chemist in the cleaning industry before developing a new cleaning product called Neatly, which comes without plastic packaging or harmful chemicals.      Her product is available on her shop's website Dew South, a zero waste shop based in Canada.        

  Sarah Midlane-Jones is the communications coordinator for Bay of Quinte Remedial Action Plan, an organization dedicated to keeping the water clean in the Bay of Quinte on the northern shore of Lake Ontario.   Photo of Moira River flowing into Bay of Quinte from https://www.greatlakesscuttlebutt.com/news/featured-destination/come-ashore-discover-the-bay-of-quinte-region/     For thousands of years rivers have been used around the world for waste removal. Cities would throw waste in and watch it head downstream where it's no longer their problem. Sadly this still happens all over the world today in developing countries. When the city of Belleville, on the north shore of Lake Ontario was settled and developed, a lot of waste ended up going down the Moira River into the Bay of Quinte. Locals here still remember when Zwick's Park was a landfill and the Bay of Quinte had a dirty reputation.         Fast forward to today and the landfill mound is a grassy hill, popular for tobogganing in the wintertime, with a few short pipes allowing any gases to escape. The water is closely monitored and usually safe for swimming. The Bay of Quinte is one of the best spots in the world for walleye fishing while turtles, ducks and swans are spotted on the surface.   BELLEVILLE, ONTARIO- AUGUST 1, 2013- South George Park. photo by Simon Wilson/ Canadian Press Images     The Bay of Quinte is an environmental success story and proof that we can restore our eco systems and waterways while continuing to grow our population in a sustainable way.  

Canada has some of the most ethical and environmentally friendly processes for extracting and transporting oil and gas in the world, yet we've become a hotspot for pipeline protestors who often recruit indigenous people to strengthen their efforts. The truth is that not all indigenous people and groups oppose pipelines in Canada for many different reasons. We explore some of these reasons from an indigenous perspective, as well as the process Canada goes through to put a pipeline through or near indigenous land.   Melissa Mbarki is a Policy Analyst and Outreach Coordinator in the Indigenous Policy Program at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. She works in acquisition/divestment, environmental site assessments and abandonment/reclamation projects and has joins the Zero Waste Countdown to talk about pipelines on indigenous land. Photo Source: https://www.commodityresearchgroup.com/us-canadian-pipelines-refineries-map-capp/ We discuss throughout this episode how pipelines are the safest mode of oil and gas transport and when environmental groups block them, it means we get our oil from countries with poor human rights and environmental records while increasing the number of dangerous rail cars and polluting diesel trucks.

      Sunnking is an electronic waste recovery service in New York that recycles over 25 million pounds every year.   Adam Shine is the Vice President of Sunnking, one of the biggest electronic waste recyclers in the country.       Adam tells us how electronic recycling works, why it's so important, and what it takes to keep electronics out of landfill.          

Evelina Lundqvist and Malin Leth host the Love Zero Waste Podcast and share what it's like living zero waste in Austria and Sweden. 

There has been a gigantic increase in the demand for plastic food packaging since the Covid pandemic started. Kevin Kelly is the CEO of Emerald Packaging, a family-owned plastic packaging company in the US. He's disturbed by the significant, increased demand in plastic packaging on food due to Covid. He's even been kicked out of Whole Foods for trying to bring his own grocery bags! Kevin joins the Zero Waste Countdown to talk about the plastic packaging industry and what he feels we can do to reduce plastic waste while working with producers and consumers to come up with reasonable solutions.

    Sahar Mansoor and Tim de Ridder are the co-authors of Bare Necessities: How to Live a Zero-Waste Life.     Sahar is also the founder and CEO of https://www.memphistours.com/India/india-travel-guide/festivals-in-india/wiki/festival-of-colors-in-india  

Leonardo Alvarez is the Chief Executive Officer of Protera, a biotech company he founded in his early 20's alongside his colleague, now Chief Operating Officer Francia Navarrete. Mr. Alvarez has a biotechnology engineering degree from Universidad Andres Bello in Santiago, Chile.       He joins the show to talk about how AI and biotech are helping to solve our food waste problem as well as our destructive addiction to palm oil. Palm Oil is approximately a $57 billion market, making it the largest commercialized edible oil in the world. This harvesting of palm oil for corporations to produce many household products can lead to mass deforestation and larger environmental issues that follow. Protera is working on solving this issue by developing a better alternative.

Early in 2021 Elon Musk offered $100M in prize money for new carbon capture technology and there's a company already using carbon capture tech: Aether Diamonds.       Aether Diamonds is taking that captured carbon from the air and turning it into diamonds, which also alleviates the need for massive diamond mine operations and conflict or blood diamonds.       Ryan Shearman is a mechanical engineer turned entrepreneur with a background in material science and over 10 years of professional experience in jewelry and tech. He joins the Zero Waste Countdown to tell us all about his company that makes diamonds from the air.

    Liat Arad is the VP of Marketing for UBQ Materials, a company that's spent many years developing a patented process to convert unsorted waste -- everything from banana peels to yogurt containers to mixed plastics and paper -- to create a sustainable, plastic alternative that can be used in the production of everyday goods.      UBQ just unveiled the use of its material in a new sustainable McDonald's fast food tray, through a partnership with the world's largest McDonald's franchisee, Arcos Dorados. (See coverage of that partnership in Fast Company).   The company has also struck deals with the State of Virginia and Daimler, among other notable customers.        

Joshua M. Pearce, Ph.D., is the Richard Witte Professor of Materials Science & Engineering, Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Director of the Michigan Tech Open Sustainability Technology (MOST) Lab at Michigan Technological University. He's also the Visiting Professor of Photovoltaics and Nanoengineering at the School of Electrical Engineering at Aalto University, Finland, and the author of Create, Share, and Save Money Using Open-Source Projects.   His new book is a treasure trove of resources for anyone getting into 3D printing! How is this sustainable? Josh has figured out how to turn waste into high value products by using a plastic shredder for household plastic waste, and then he's built a recyclebot that turns that shredded plastic into filament for 3D printing.  A 3D printer can also be paired with a portable solar panel and operated anywhere in the world, an exciting implication for places with intermittent or no electrical grid at all.  

Jussara Lee is a longtime fashion designer in New York City who came to New York to study fashion from Brazil and now focuses on fashion sustainability. Jussara joins the Zero Waste Countdown to talk about overseas labour issues in fashion, organically grown fabrics, natural dying, and what the zero waste scene is like in New York with her friends and zero waste advocates Zero Waste Daniel and Lauren Singer.