#21 Businesses and Plastic Pollution: A Long, Winding Path - Matt Prindiville | The Plastic Shift

Matt Prindiville is the CEO and Chief Solutioneer at UPSTREAM Solutions, a nonprofit uniting many stakeholders together to support reuse systems and culture. Matt has decades of experience with working on issues from plastic waste, most recently working to show businesses the benefit of reusable containers.    To explore some other resources on the global plastic pollution issue please visit www.theplasticshift.com.    To learn more about UPSTREAM's work, you can visit their website (https://upstreamsolutions.org/) or listen to their fantastic podcast (https://theindisposablepodcast.simplecast.com/)

Jay Sinha is Cofounder and Co-owner of Life Without Plastic, a Canadian shopping platform for plastic-free products. Jay has decades of experience in scientific research, environmental policy, and entrepreneurship regarding plastics.    To explore some other resources on the global plastic pollution issue please visit www.theplasticshift.com.    To learn more about Life Without Plastic's work, you can visit their website (https://lifewithoutplastic.com/) or read their book (www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/33533744-life-without-plastic)

Charlotte Maiden is a Publicist at Terracycle Loop, a company creating a door-delivery reusable shopping platform. Their work is among the first to scale reusable packaging for large consumer brands and across multiple countries.    To explore some other resources on the global plastic pollution issue please visit www.theplasticshift.com.    To learn more about Loop's work, please visit their website (www.loopstore.com).

Kelly McBee is the Waste Program Coordinator at As You Sow, a nonprofit uniting financial shareholders of large public companies to achieve sustainability. As You Sow represents the voices of these shareholders when engaging large companies to make sustainable changes on issues like decreasing plastic waste.    To explore some other resources on the global plastic pollution issue please visit www.theplasticshift.com.    To learn more about As You Sow's work, you can visit their website (https://www.asyousow.org/) or read their report

Prof. Failler is the Director of the Centre for Blue Governance. He holds a PhD in Economics, an MSc in Economics of Marine Resources and a Master in Philosophy. He is coordinating complex research projects with multidisciplinary teams for more than 25 years in Europe, Africa, Asia, Caribbean and Pacific coastal countries (more than 40 to date) in collaboration with national research institutions and universities and a close link with policy bodies.

Laura Diaz Sanches is a Campaigner for Microplastics at the Plastic Soup Foundation in the Netherlands. Their work encourages solutions to several aspects of plastic pollution and Laura is responsible for their initiatives like promoting washing guidelines to prevent clothes from releasing as many microfibers.   To explore some other resources on the global plastic pollution issue please visit www.theplasticshift.com.    To learn more about the Plastic Soup Foundation's work, you can visit their website (https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org)

Dr. Amy V. Uhrin is the Chief Scientist of NOAA's Marine Debris Program. Their work routinely supports marine debris research through grants and outreach and Dr. Uhrin oversees their research priorities.    To explore some other resources on the global plastic pollution issue please visit www.theplasticshift.com.    To learn more about the NOAA Marine Debris Program's work, you can visit their website (https://marinedebris.noaa.gov) - They offer grants to researchers and institutions at https://grants.gov/web/grants/search-grants.html?keywords=marine%20debris - Results from research they fund is available at https://clearinghouse.marinedebris.noaa.gov - Publicly-available research from all of NOAA is available at https://repository.library.noaa.gov/   - NOAA also has science-related webinars about their work for the public at https://nodc.noaa.gov/seminars/ The visuals in this podcast are created with MusicVid (musicvid.org) The music used was created by Joseph McDade (https://josephmcdade.com/) This interview was recorded on Sep. 22, 2020

Dr. Valter Castelvetro is Associate Professor of Polymer Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry at the University of Pisa, Italy. In the last years he has become interested to some less understood issues about the environmental pollution by micro- and nano-plastics, developing new polymer-selective methods for their detection and quantification, and studying the release of potentially harmful volatile molecular fragments as a result of polymer degradation.

Ana Silva is the CEO and Cofounder of COMITATVS, a sustainable plastics trading company that helps businesses find more sustainable materials for their products. This is an interview of her thoughts on the status quo of sustainable plastics after economic shocks with COVID-19 and a global recession.

David Lefebvre is the Director of Public Affairs at RecycleBC, a coalition of businesses in British Columbia that manage waste generated from their products. He is the spokesperson for all of RecycleBC's initiatives, from educating consumers on how to recycle waste streams to developing alternatives for increasing the recycling of flexible plastic packaging.   This is an interview of Dave's thoughts on the status quo of British Columbia's legislation to involve producers in the management of their waste, recorded by Madhav Malhotra (one of the students at The Plastic Shift). To explore some other resources on the global plastic pollution issue please visit www.theplasticshift.com.    To learn more about RecycleBC's work, you can visit their website (https://recyclebc.ca/) or read their annual reports (https://recyclebc.ca/about-recyclebc/program-overview/annual-reports/). To see more about some of their projects, you can find them on any social media @recyclebc or learn more via their app (https://recyclebc.ca/app/)