Sustainably Speaking

What happens to your car when it reaches the end of the road? A lot more than you might think. In this episode of Sustainably Speaking, host Mia Quinn sits down with Mark Bacchus of Toyota Motor North America and Derick Corbett of Pull-A-Part to follow a vehicle through the automotive recycling process—from removing fluids and reusing parts to recovering more plastics. Today, about 98% of a vehicle is recyclable—but that doesn’t mean 98% actually gets recycled. Making that happen requires automakers, dismantlers, recyclers and others across the value chain to work together in new ways. What You’ll Learn From Special Guests, Mark and Derick: What really happens to an end-of-life vehicle, from depollution and parts reuse to crushing and shredding. Why automotive plastics can be difficult to recover. A single component can contain multiple different plastics, each chosen for a specific job. How automakers are designing with recycling in mind, including simplifying materials and making components easier to separate at the end of a vehicle’s life. Why economics matter as much as technology. Recycling more material ultimately depends on creating enough value for each participant in the recycling chain to recover it. You’ll also discover just how complicated a seemingly simple car part can be: one exterior mirror can contain 15 different plastics, with each material delivering a different function. The takeaway? Building a more circular future for vehicles won’t come from one breakthrough. It will take thousands of better decisions—from how cars are designed to how their materials are recovered and reused at the end of the road. Press play for a behind-the-scenes look at what it will take to keep more automotive materials in use. 

We interact with packaging every day—opening a bag of chips, twisting the cap off a soda bottle or grabbing something from the freezer aisle. But how often do we think about everything that package has to do? Probably not very often. In this episode of Sustainably Speaking, host Mia Quinn heads to an experiential grocery store in Chicago with Anita Budiman of Mars Snacking and John Avolio of Borouge International to unpack the surprisingly complex world of packaging design. Today’s packages have a big job. They need to protect products, preserve freshness, meet stringent food-safety requirements, perform the way consumers expect—and be designed to be recycled and incorporate recycled content. And getting all those things right at once isn’t as simple as swapping one material for another. What You’ll Learn  Mia, Anita and John unpack what goes into designing packaging that protects products, meets safety and performance requirements, and can work within recycling systems. You’ll hear about: Why recyclability starts with design. Packaging has to work not only for the product, but also within the recycling infrastructure available to process it. Why recycled content is especially complex for food packaging. Materials must meet strict food-safety and performance standards, while brands also need access to a consistent supply of suitable recycled material. How packaging is evolving. From reducing pigments to simplifying multi-layer structures, companies are exploring ways to make more packaging easier to recycle. What consumers can do. The conversation covers practical recycling tips, including keeping caps on bottles and knowing when flexible packaging belongs at a store drop-off location instead of in the curbside bin. Along the way, you’ll also find out why a soda bottle is more sophisticated than it looks—and why some pets can make recycled-content packaging especially tricky. The takeaway: everyday packaging involves a surprising amount of engineering, innovation and collaboration.  Press play for a look at what’s happening behind the package. 

What happens at Red Rocks after the encore ends, the lights come up and thousands of concertgoers head home? The real show is just getting started. In this episode of Sustainably Speaking, host Mia Quinn goes behind the scenes at Colorado’s iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre with Katie Zarachowicz, Sustainability Administrator for Denver Arts & Venues, to see how one of the country’s best-known concert venues tackles recycling, composting and waste after every show. Red Rocks consistently diverts more than half of its waste from landfill through recycling and composting. A big reason why? Instead of relying entirely on concertgoers to put everything in the right bin, Red Rocks takes sorting backstage. After events, crews separate materials overnight—sometimes working until sunrise. What You’ll Learn Mia and Katie explore what it really takes to make recycling work at a busy entertainment venue, including: Why back-of-house sorting can make such a difference. How smarter concessions and production decisions before an event can prevent waste later. Why recycling education still matters—even when someone else does the sorting. How recycling policy could affect venues like Red Rocks. Katie discusses Colorado’s emerging extended producer responsibility (EPR) program and the potential to grow markets for materials that are harder to recycle today. Why Red Rocks thinks zero waste may eventually be within reach.  And because this is Red Rocks, there are a few things you probably won’t hear in your average recycling conversation—like how to design recycling bins around bears, mountain lions and raccoons, which fans create the most waste, and why Katie’s dream concert might be a little heavier than you’d expect. Press play for a backstage look at how practical decisions, creative problem-solving and a lot of late-night sorting can help keep valuable materials in circulation long after the music stops.

Step inside the beauty industry's sustainability journey and discover how salons, brands and consumers are working together to keep more materials in use and out of landfills. What happens to your shampoo bottle after it's empty? Or the foils, applicators and other materials from your trip to the salon? In this episode of Sustainably Speaking, host Mia Quinn travels to SalonCentric in Chicago to meet with Ben Thompson—a chemical engineer and sustainability leader—to explore how the beauty industry is rethinking packaging, recycling and waste. The beauty industry generates significant amounts of waste every day, and Ben shares how they’re working to change that. From SalonCentric's partnership with Green Circle to smarter packaging design, brands, salons and recyclers are working together to recover more materials and build a more circular system. You'll hear how SalonCentric's recycling program helps salons recycle up to 95% of their waste. It’s expanding to stores nationwide and has already diverted more than 550,000 pounds of material from landfill in 2025, during the initiative’s early stages. Along the way, Ben explains why simpler packaging design can make recycling easier, how refill systems are reducing waste, and why creating a more sustainable future sometimes starts with something as simple as taking a few extra seconds to recycle an empty bottle. It's an inspiring conversation about innovation, collaboration and choices that can make a big difference.

Most of us toss a plastic bottle into the recycling bin without thinking twice. But where does it actually go? Does recycling really work? And what happens after the truck drives away? On this episode of Sustainably Speaking, Mia Quinn sits down with Laura Stewart, executive director of NAPCOR, to discuss the recycling system most people never see. From high-tech sorting systems powered by AI to the surprisingly important role of bottle caps and labels, Laura walks through how plastic bottles move through the recycling stream and why designing products to be more easily recycled matters more than ever. The conversation also tackles some of the biggest misconceptions about recycling, why access to curbside collection still varies across the country, and what it will take to build a more circular system that keeps a lot more valuable materials in use. In this episode: What actually happens after recyclables leave your curbside bin  Why some communities recycle far more effectively than others  How AI is helping modernize recycling facilities  How recycled materials are finding new life in packaging, clothing, automotive applications and more  What U.S. recycling could look like in the next 10–15 years  Laura shares what it’s really like inside a modern recycling facility, where advanced sorting systems can identify and separate materials in seconds to be recycled into everything from new bottles to carpeting and apparel. And Laura responds to claims that “recycling doesn’t work,” explaining why seeing the process firsthand tells a very different story. Plus: Wisconsin travel recommendations, favorite streaming shows and outdoor adventures in a favorite state.