January 24, 2018 • 42 mins
Why does Germany use 5 different bins for their recycling efforts? Is recycling a smart business to be in? And can you really trick Bros into being greener by putting wolves on packaging? Will and Mango take a deep dive into the state of American recycling and discover some great facts. Plus, why Totes McGoats is one of the worst phrases of all time... but also, perhaps the best recycling mascot ever. Featuring HSW's Christopher Hassiotis.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guess what mango? What's that? Well, so, are you familiar
with totsmagoats? Please don't tell me you're gonna start using
that phrase. No, I'm not talking about the term though
now I'm totsmagoats gonna start using it. But I'm talking
about this weird man goat mascot that they used in
the Niagara Falls area, and you know, it's to help
people start recycling more. I can't say I've heard of that,
(00:20):
and it sounds like a horrible idea. Did you say
man Goat? I did, and it is super weird looking.
You should totally look up totsmagoats. But you know, supposedly
since introducing this really bizarre mascot a few years ago,
recycling is actually a fifty percent in this area in
the amount of trash going to landfills has dropped by okay,
So I just pulled him up, And honestly, if I
(00:42):
thought this scary looking mascot with a tiny goathead was
gonna come after me, I'd start recycling too. Maybe it's
just a scare tactic, they're you saying. I don't know.
But on the topic of how much we recycle, we've
had several questions we've been meaning to get to, and
things like, you know, what's the state of recycling in
the US, and is it a good business to be in?
Is it even worth it to recycle? And what are
(01:04):
the weirdest things people can recycle? Now it's Tots mcgoat's
time to find out. Please stop, all right, but let's
dive in. Y Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part
(01:34):
Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined
by my good friend Meno Ticketer. And on the other
side of the soundproof glass separating his number one and
number two plastics from the rest of the bunch, that's
our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Yeah, and good for
Tristan for doing that. Most folks don't even know the
numbers inside the recycling system on plastic containers and that
they're actually a way to tell which kinds can and
(01:55):
can't be recycled. But Tristan has the whole resin identification
code down and that's just the kind of guy he is, well,
and we love him for it, and especially today because
we're gonna be taking a hard look at the current
state of recycling in the world. And asking a tough question,
you know, is recycling worth it? Because when you think
about it, the practice is a pretty unique blend of
(02:16):
environmentalism and business, and it's one that the majority of
developed nations agree is a pretty sensible thing to do.
I mean, of course, recycling makes environmental sense. It reduces
the trash we send to the landfills and conserves natural
resources that you know would otherwise go into making new products.
But it also makes economic sense. For example, I was
(02:36):
looking at a study by the e p A. This
report they released back in two thousand and sixteen, and
it found that within a single year, recycling and reuse
activities in the US account for seven hundred and fifty
seven thousand jobs and almost seven billion in tax revenue
and over thirty six billion in wages. So recycling clearly
leads to some very real and valuable benefits. But of
(02:59):
course those benefits always come with a cost, right, So
today we'll try to balance the books and get a
sense of whether recycling is actually paying off both environmentally
and economically. But before we get into that, I want
to take a minute to talk about how recycling became
a thing that people do in the first place. You're
always going back to the origins of things, but with recycling, like,
I didn't even know there was an origin of recycling. Yeah,
(03:21):
I mean, wide scale recycling programs are a fairly new
phenomenon in history. They kind of arose during the industrial
and post industrial ages as manufacturing was kicking into overdrive.
So humans started using more and more natural resources to
produce more new things than ever before. And meanwhile, you know,
the thriftier people started looking for ways to just reuse
what was already out there instead. So, for example, in
(03:43):
the late eighteen hundreds, these European cities like London and Paris,
they were rife with what you'd called rag and bone men.
And these were peblers who just wandered around and collected
and carted around sacks of reusable items, and then they'd
sell those back to general stores. All right, so rag
and bone, and I'm guessing from the name that these
reusable items you're talking about were rags and for some
(04:04):
reason bones. Yeah, so these guys would scour the city
for like old rags, bones, bits of metal, any other
discarded items that could be scavenged and of course recycled.
I love how you just say this like, it's no
big deal. I still need to know, or actually maybe
I don't why and how people were reusing bones and
and why were so many random bones just all over
(04:26):
the streets of London. Well, I don't have specifics on
where the bones were actually coming from, but I imagine
there were mostly animal bones left over from you know,
meals that've been tossed in the garbage. But you know,
as for how the bones were recycled, a lot of
them were used to make gelatin for processed foods or glue,
kind of the way we still do today. And also
I've forgotten this, but prior to the rise of plastics
(04:48):
in the twentieth century, many of the buttons for clothing
were made from polished bones, so that was another use
as well. Alright, So, so what exactly happened to these
pioneers of recycling. Was it, you know, plastics that kind
of kill the bone market? I guess. Yeah. Plastic and
a few other advancements sort of put an end to
those kinds of local level of recycling schemes for a while.
After the Industrial Revolution, fewer people were making their own goods,
(05:11):
so there was just less need for reusable materials like
the ones rag and bone men were collecting, and instead
all that stuff kind of became garden variety garbage. But
I should mention that that entrepreneurial spirit still lives on
today in today's scrap recyclers. So, according to the Institute
of Scrap Recycling Industries, scrappers processed more than a hundred
(05:32):
thirty million tons of material in two thousand thirteen, and
all that helped us save energy, reduced greenhouse gas emissions,
it helped preserve natural resources, and actually limited the amount
of material that would otherwise go to landfills. Well, I know,
the scrap industry is nothing like Sandford and Sun these days,
and I mean it has its own institute now apparently,
which I wasn't aware of. But I still can't help
(05:54):
thinking of that show whenever somebody mentioned scrap dealers, which
is more often than you think, actually, But you know,
you look at the numbers that you mentioned, and it
really highlights just how much of an impact industrialization has
had on the amount of trash that we produce. So
I was flipping through this book by Tom Zaki called
Outsmart Waste, The Modern Idea of Garbage and How to
Think our way out of it, and according to his research,
(06:17):
the amount of waste that humans produced has gone up
by more than ten thousand percent over the past century.
That's ten thoent. That's insane. But you know, if there
is a silver lining to that insanely large cloud of trash,
it's that the world's recycling rate has also risen by
leaps and bounds over that same period. So, for instance,
by the e p a's last count Americans now recycle
(06:38):
nearly thirty five percent of the trash we produce, which
is up from just sixt two in the nineteen sixties.
And you know, a few other countries like Taiwan, Austria, Germany,
they now boast recycling rates as high as sixty Well,
that is a promising uptick, but I still can't help
but feel a little disappointed with our current numbers. I mean,
(06:59):
not even a full thirty five percent of our trash
gets recycled. Americans produce about two hundred and fifty million
tons of trash every single year, so recycling just a
third of that means we're still sending close to a
hundred and seventy million tons of waste, you know, off
to landfills and incinerators. Every single year. I mean, there's
got to be a better way to get our numbers up. Well,
(07:20):
there are definitely a few things we could improve on,
and we should talk about them in a bit, But
first I want to throw out another silver lining that
we shouldn't overlook. They're always looking on the positive side, alright, So,
so what's this upside to a thirty recycling rate. Well,
even at that current rate, our recycling efforts, coupled with composting,
prevent the release of a lot of carbon dioxide, so
(07:41):
about a hundred eighty million metric tons of it in
two thousand thirteen alone, And according to the e p A,
that's comparable to taking more than thirty nine million cars
off the road for a whole year. So yeah, so
even though we have like a long way to go,
we're really making some headway. Well I'm glad you mention that,
because it is important to keep progress in perspective, and
(08:03):
in fact, that might be one way we can improve
our recycling game here in the States. How's that? Actually?
I saw this survey conducted by IPSOS back in two
thousand eleven that found that only half of American adults
recycled daily about a third of the respondents said that
they recycle less frequently than that, and about thirteen percent
admitted that they never recycle at all. And some researchers
(08:24):
have since suggested that there's a psychological reason for our
spoty track records with recycling. I mean, namely, we have
trouble connecting our daily habits with their consequences, and so
if you think about it, it it actually kind of makes
a lot of sense. You know that the reward for
recycling isn't immediate, and then the fallout from recycling also
doesn't feel real either, so we don't see the benefits
(08:45):
or the harms that we're contributing to. So there's less
of an appeal to make recycling a daily behavior, and
it just this kind of all lessened in our minds
because of this. That's pretty interesting and it actually makes
me think of this study I read about in Scientific
American that suggested in other psychological hang up that people
have with recycling. So I don't know if you've heard
this before, but there have been a number of studies
(09:06):
that show that women typically have greener habits and are
more environmentally minded than men. So, for instance, women recycle more,
they literally less than they leave a smaller carbon footprint
than their average male counterparts. So do we know why
this might be? Well? Weirdly, the research report on by
Scientific Americans suggest that men might shun this eco friendly
(09:28):
behavior like recycling, because it makes them feel less macho. Really. Yeah,
So two of the researchers describe the findings of their
study this way. So quote, we showed that there is
a psychological link between eco friendliness and perceptions of femininity.
And due to this green feminine stereotype, both men and
women judged eco friendly products, behaviors, and consumers as more
(09:52):
feminine than their non green counterparts. That is such a
strange thing. But but actually, from what you're saying, so
even women thought going green was a feminine thing. Yeah,
it's weird, right. So one of the experiments had the
participants recall a time when they did something good for
the environment, and both the men and the women said
they perceived themselves to be more feminine in those instances
that they shared. Maybe it's just because they were like
(10:14):
caring nicely from other earth and I'm not sure what
it was. Wow, So is there any way to counter
this thinking so that guys will be more inclined to
you know, pitch in with recycling or these other green efforts. Yeah. So,
since this is like a psychological hurdle, the best way
to solve is for men to grow more secure with
their own masculinity, and I guess marketing can help. Like,
(10:37):
for instance, the researchers and Scientific American described this experiment
where men were found to be more likely to donate
to a green nonprofit if it had a masculine logo,
so like if it had black and dark blue colors
and like featured a howling wolf. Also if the name
was something more masculine like Wilderness Rangers, Yeah, and had
(11:00):
a bold fond apparently so and men contributed more of
that than something with like a traditional logo with light
and green tan colors, if it featured a tree, if
I had like a frilly font and a name like
Friends with Nature. So uh, it's crazy if it makes
me wish that macho man Randy Savage was still around
(11:20):
so that we could have Wilderness Rangers, a bad boy
of recycling the show us our way, So it's it's
it's clearly still all in our heads though, Yeah, so
our our psyches are worst natural enemies. When it comes
to recycling, Like, according to a survey from the National
Waste and Recycling Association, one in five Americans say that
they'll put something in a recycling bin even if they
(11:42):
aren't totally certain that it's recyclable. And this is a
phenomenon that's called wishful recycling, where people in doubt will
just go for it in the off chance that whatever
they want to get rid of can hopefully be recycled.
And of course a lot of the time we're completely
wrong with those kinds of judgments. Yeah, and if if,
if I'm being honest, mean I have definitely been guilty
of that as well. You've got a product and you're
(12:03):
just again you're hoping that it can be recycled, so
you just go ahead and toss it in there. But
you know, it does lead to all these kinds of
headaches for people who have to sort and then process
this random assortment of stuff that people are just chucking
in the recycling bins. Yeah. So some years ago Lizie
and I house sat for some friends in Portland and
they gave us like this twenty minute tour of just
(12:24):
their recycling system and the fifteen bins they had for
various types of things. It was. I know, it really
felt like a Portland episode, but and I mean that's
coming from Delaware, where we had recycling really early, but
you had to make such an effort to do it,
like I a should remember on weekends, like I'd collect
stuff around the house with my dad, all the newspapers
(12:45):
and cardboard, and throwned his hatchback and we drive off
to recycling center a few miles away. And that's because
the city didn't pick it up yet. But I'm a
little off topic. I definitely want to talk about the
problems that come from the so called single stream approached
recycling that we go by in the US. Before we
do that, let's take a quick break. You're listening to
(13:16):
Part Time Genius, and we're breaking down the pros and
cons of recycling. I meano a minute ago you mentioned
single stream recycling, which of course was intended to make
recycling more approachable for the average citizen, but really in
practice the system has proven to be both bad for
the environment and bad for business. Yeah. So basically, the
idea behind single stream was to put all of your
(13:36):
different recyclables, whether that's glass or paper or plastic, all
into one bin. And this was an idea that first
cropped up in California back and was later rolled out
nationwide as almost the best, most user friendly shot for
getting people on board with recycling. And really though this
approach just kind of kicked the can a little further
down the road because you know, all those materials still
(13:59):
need to be sort of actually, so instead of placing
that added responsibility on individuals, we we just invested in
processing plans to do all that sorting for us. Right.
And you know, in the opposite end of the spectrum,
you have somewhere like Germany and it adopted this system
in the early nineties that actually required households to use
a total of five different bins. They're all color coded
(14:19):
and they help indicate where you should dispose of different
kinds of waste and a little bit like the Portland
example you gave earlier. And you know, while it sounds complicated,
that approach has led to a recycling rate that's nearly
double what we see here in the States. Yeah, I
mean that's incredible, But the drawbacks of this single like,
single stream system go far beyond making us look bad
in front of the Germans. So one of the biggest
(14:41):
issues the system poses is cross contamination. So that's when
like little pieces of plastic get mixed in with paper
or worse, when they're like food particles from containers that
weren't clean well enough, and all of this slows down
the sorting process, it comes up the machines. It leads
to this inordinate amount of would be recyclable as being
thrown out instead of being recycled. Well, then, according to
City Lab, as much as of the recyclable waste that
(15:05):
passes through the single stream system winds up in landfill.
And if you ask Tom's aiki, that number is close
to either way. It really calls it a question whether
are already not so stellar percent national recycling rate is
even accurate. There's a good chance it's way lower. Yeah,
you know, and I was reading that an even bigger
problem for materials recovery facilities or merphs. I guess they're
(15:27):
called m r F, so that that's what they call
them in the industry, that this all these unrecyclables that
end up in the plants thanks to the wishful recycling
that you were talking about earlier. According to Susan Robinson,
she's the director of public affairs for waste management. But
we also get a surprising number of garden hoses, Christmas lights,
and shower curtains. And I can just imagine how much
(15:49):
time is lost by like trying to shut down the
equipment and fish out all that junk. Yeah, and that
loss and productivity has started to take its toll on
recycling's profitability. I mean, all the cross the country, recycling
companies are reporting drastic decreases in profit and that's partly
because of the higher processing costs associated with contamination and
faulty users sorting practices. You know, for example, in the
(16:12):
District of Columbia, they replaced those thirty two gallon binds
with ones that were fifty larger, and this was back
in two thousand fourteen. And so these larger bins lead
to a higher rate of wishful recycling among the residents,
so much so that all that non recyclable material that
wound up in d c s mervs. It drove up
the city's processing costs and it cut their profits from
(16:33):
recyclable sales by more than fifty percent back in two
thousand fifteen. Wow, So clearly there's room for improvement in
this single stream system, and still in the interest of balance,
I do want to point out a few parts of
the recycling industry that are still paying out despite our
somewhat you know, flawed way of doing things. So one
example is aluminum, which is actually the most recycled product
(16:54):
in the world, with close to seventy percent of aluminum
cans being recycled around the world. And their reason for
that huge turnover rate is that aluminum nets recycling companies
the most money of any recyclable material out there. It's
about as per ton in the US as of two
And another area where business is booming is corrugated cardboard,
(17:15):
and that's thanks to online shopping. You know, the recycling
stream is just flushed with cardboard boxes, which you know,
it can be valuable so long as they aren't contaminated
by pizza grease or whatever other organic bits have mistakenly
made their way into the recycling bin. Yeah, and I
do want to be careful not to harp too much
on the business side of things, because there's still other
areas where recycling definitely benefits the economy, like reducing the
(17:37):
use and cost of landfills and reducing the energy expense
of harvesting more natural resources for all the new products
that we need to create. Well. And another reason not
to stress too much about the money saving benefits of
environmentalism is that it can actually make people less likely
to recycle. Wait what, so, how does that work? So
this comes from a team of researchers at Cardiff University
(17:59):
in the UK, and they found that appealing to somebody's
self interest actually makes them less likely to behave in
a helpful manner. So, in this experiment, one group of
students was told about the environmental benefits of car pooling.
Another group was told about the potential to save money
by car pooling. And things get a little devious from there.
And here's how Wired explained the next part of the experiment.
(18:20):
So the students then filled out paper questionnaires about unrelated topics,
which they were told to dispose of at the session's end.
Unbeknownst to them, this was the experiment's real purpose and
a microcosm of environmental tensions. Would they use a recycling
basket inconveniently located under another table or a general waist
bin at arm's length Among those students primed, as psychologists say,
(18:43):
with the message of car pooling, self transcending benefits recycled.
Of the group that learned about the cost saving, just
fifty recycled. Wow. So so the environmental impact turned out
to be a bigger draw than saving their own cash,
which I guess that's actually a little bit heartening. Yeah,
And the study also highlights the biggest risk of pushing
(19:05):
recycling mainly as a way to save time or make
money instead of as a way to preserve the beauty
of the natural world, like people might forget that nature
is in its own right reason enough to care about
conservation efforts. That's a really good point, you know. One
of my favorite examples of just how effective that naturalist
mentality can be is this this tiny town. It's in
(19:26):
southwestern Japan and it's called kama Katsu. So there's about
people who live there, and since two thousand three, the
town residents have been engaged in this long running quest
that becomes zero waste by and so in order to
get there, citizens are responsible for separating their trash into
thirty four distinct categories and then getting it all delivered
(19:47):
to the nearest recycling center. Thirty four has ever been
and no trash trucks Like I thought the Germans had
it rough. Yeah, I mean this is more Portland than Portland.
It's pretty impressive. But that's actually not all either. So
to sidestep the contamination problem that we have here in
the States, town residents are also required to thoroughly wash
all thirty four kinds of recyclables and then separate out
(20:11):
all their organic waste and compost that at home. That's great,
it sounds like such an imposition, but are the residents
really okay with putting in all that extra effort or
is everyone just miserable and exhausted by the end of
the week. Well, that's the thing. I mean, most people
in common coats who say that despite the hard work,
they appreciate this push to be more thoughtful about how
and what they consume. And in an interview that was
(20:33):
on the BBC, there was one local woman who summed
up the feeling this way. She said, I have to
do it every day, and it's certainly a bit of work,
but it's a good idea to send things back to
the earth, so I support it. That's awesome, And in fact,
what do you say we keep these positive vibes going
and take a look at some other unique recycling programs
as well as the weirdest things they figured out how
to reuse. Sounds good to me. But first, let's take
(20:55):
a quick break. Okay, mango, So it's quiz time now.
Before we jump into the quiz, we we had a
couple other questions that we wanted to ask about recycling
since that's our topic today, and we're joined by one
(21:15):
of the brilliant researchers here and how stuff works, Christopher Haciotis. Christopher,
welcome to Part Time Genius. Thanks for having me. All right,
so we gave you the heads up we were talking
about recycling and we had a couple of questions. Now,
now Tristan, we've informed our listeners, is an expert on
all the numbers that you see on the plastics and
what they mean and which ones you can recycle and
(21:35):
which ones you can't. I know you're not surprised because
Tristan is pretty much good at everything. But for those
of us that don't know everything about recycling and the
numbers that are on the plastics, can can you just
give us like the cheat sheet to that what those
one through seven numbers mean and why some can be
recycled and others can't. Be sure. Yeah, it's this. It's
this really labyrinthing convoluted system of coding known as the
(21:59):
r I see, it's the Reson Identification coding system, and
it was put in place. So you've got these seven
different types of plastic, and basically what it comes down
to is what the plastics are made out of and
what you can do with them. Some will be recyclable immediately,
Some are reusable but not recyclable. Some should not be
reused or recycled. And what you've got to do is
(22:22):
flip your jug of water, your jug of milk, your
plastic cup upside down, take a gain or at what's
underneath it, and then get on the internet. Because honestly,
nobody knows this system. Triston does what you won't say
anything about. Okay, So I think what we need is
everyone needs a system to just give Tristan a call
(22:42):
right away. So, yeah, you've got these seven types of plastic.
Number one polyethylene telethylate also known as PET number two
high density polyethylene. So these are the kinds that are
generally recyclable and most commonly accepted in your neighborhood or
community recycling centers. Then there are a bunch of others
that are technically recyclable but just basically just a hassle
(23:06):
for the people to do it. So, you know those
plastic bags you get at the grocery store, right right,
everyone's got opinions about them. Should I get paper, should
get plastic? Should I bring my own? If you're getting
the plastic bag, it's the same substance that makes up
milk jugs and toys and other kinds of bottles that
are recyclable, but it's so thin and it's so spread
up that it's not worth it to recycle them. And
(23:28):
those plastic bags can also jam up the gears and
get caught in the machines that do the recycling. And
those numbers, you know, you you generally see one through seven,
but they go up way beyond there. There's a plastic
that's number nine. That's the kind of plastic your cell
phones are made out of, your TVs that, But then
the numbers go all the way up into the hundreds. Um. Yeah,
I feel like you need a field guide to plastics
(23:50):
where people are like bird spotting, but for rare plastics.
And so I used to see glass recycling all over
the place, and that used to be pickups neighborhoods and
stuff in and now I don't really see that as much.
Do you know anything about that? I do. Yeah, So
recycling aluminum, you are spending about less energy than if
you were just making it from raw materials. Glasses all
(24:13):
the way at the other end of that spectrum, so
you're only saving about the energy to recycle glass. Petroleum,
which makes up plastic, is generally expensive item. It's dropped
in price recently, but it's cost more for companies who
make plastic to get the virgin materials out of the
ground than it does to reuse it. It's not necessarily
(24:34):
the case for glass. Glass, as anyone who's I don't
spend a lot of time with kids cartoons is made
out of sand. I think it might have been an
episode of He man Or rubs his hands really fast
on the desert floor and creates some sort of glass.
But yeah, basically, so you can either take glass, go
(24:56):
through the whole process recycle it, or you can just
go get some new sand. Well that's super helpful, Christopher.
Now we can't let you go though, before playing a
super important quiz the mango What what quiz are we
playing today. It's called recycled Sesame Street shows. And so
according to muppet WICKI uh, Sesame Street has to produce
something like a hundred thirty shows a season, and they
(25:16):
often recycled their main storylines. So we're gonna tell you
a recycled plot and you just have to tell us
which Sesame Street character starting it. They do a hundred
and thirty shows a season. I mean, this is wikipedia side.
I assume my muppet up alright, that that is a lot. Okay,
I mean I guess that's every year. That that that
(25:36):
is a ton of picture behind the screen kind of contributing.
That's where he shines. Alright, We've got five questions for you, Christopher.
Question number one. On episode three thousand, eight hundred and
twelve an episode three thousand, nine hundred and thirty three,
this friendly vampire wanders around Sesame Street enumerating all the
mistakes on Sesame Street. Who are we talking about? So
(25:59):
that is none other than Count Bond. Count assume, Yeah,
that's right. And according to his origin story on Sesame Street,
he's not the only member of his family that loves numbers.
His uncle Juno also loves to count. Alright, alright. Question
number two on episodes five, eighteen and seven ninety two,
this character conducts a philharmonic orchestra of similar grumps instead
(26:20):
of musical instruments. The orchestra makes annoying sounds, like that
of an airplane or a fire engine. Who are we
talking about? Wow? Okay, so you said of similar grumps,
which would point me in the direction of Osccar the
Grouch or Statler and Waldorf. But and there's Rolf, who's
the musical talented one. So um, I'm gonna go. I'm
(26:42):
just gonna say Rolf because he's the piano playing dog
and I dig him. Oh, you're on the right track.
It was Oscar the ground. Wow. That was really a
really impressive rundown of all the possible answers. Okay, still
have time to recover here a question number three episodes eight, nine,
four and one thousand fourteen. This character orders a radio,
(27:05):
but instead he gets a box containing its parts. But
even worse, it doesn't contain any baked goods. What character
are we talking about? So you've got the Okay. My
initial thought was the sweetest chef, because he's the one
who's going to be putting things together. And and making
something and cooking, but then baked goods? Who would be
(27:28):
upset about not getting baked goods? Unless it were in
a health oriented episode, I would say cookie Monster. Yeah,
that's right, it is cookie Monster. And you know what
one of the producers on the show said earlier when
they were starting the show, a typist used to correct
all of Cookie monsters grammar in the scripts and had
to stop after mappening. Wow, that's pretty great, okay? Question
(27:50):
number four. On episodes four one, seven, four and four
four one three, this character organizes a nest sale where
all his old toys can be bought for five seeds.
What character are we talking about? I'm gonna go with
one of the friendliest characters I can think of, and
that's Big Bird. M That's right, you got it all right?
Question number five for the big win Here on episodes three, four, six, five,
(28:14):
and three seven to two, this once imaginary character is
depressed because every time he tap dances, it causes an earthquake.
What character are we talking about? So? I'm pretty happy
that a tap dancing earthquake is a more than one
time occurrence, but I don't know who that would be.
Although I'm gonna I'm just gonna guess that it's snuffle
(28:35):
up agus because I think he's sizeable enough that he
could do it. That's right. And also I didn't realize
this until we did the research, but Snuffy's favorite foods
are cabbage, spaghetti and sassafras tea. So wait, mangoes at
a tea made out of cabbage, spaghetti and sassafras. Now
those are separate items. I'm glad you. I'm glad you
(28:55):
added those little fun facts in there. Mango. That's that's
really valuable. So so, how did christ for do today? Well,
Christopher one an amazing four for five, which entitles them
to our big prize, our total admiration. Congratulations Christopher, and
thanks for joining us anytime. Okay, Well, so I love
(29:26):
Kamikaze zero waste Plan, but let's be honest, getting people
on board to recycle is one thing in a town
with fewer than two thousand residents, but it's a lot
harder to get the tens of thousands or even millions
of residents of the city to all commit to that
extra effort of recycling. So I know cities like San
Francisco and Portland are making huge strides and boosting the
recycling rates. But some cities are taking an even boulder
(29:50):
approach the challenge. For example, they're about cities across the
US that have adopted a so called paisy throw system.
You know, I'm pretty sure there's a lot of people
that would not like the sound of that. So is
this is this some kind of garbage tax or something? Yes,
sort of. So the idea is that municipal garbage trucks
won't pick up any trash unless it's been placed inside
(30:10):
specially marked bags that residents buy from the city. So,
for example, in Maldon, Massachusetts, it's one dollar for each
fifteen gallon bag or two dollars for a thirty three
gallon bag. And so I'm a little confused by this.
So how exactly does this encourage people to recycle? Well,
cities with pays you throw programs still pick up recyclables
and yard waste for free. So it's really just the
(30:31):
landfill bound waste that costs you money. And the hope
is that the added expense will encourage presidents to you know,
take the initiative recycle and compost and just be more
thoughtful about their garbage. It's definitely an interesting idea. But
but what about all that research you mentioned earlier about
the whole recycling saves you money angle being kind of
a dead end approach. Yeah, it's not something that's going
(30:52):
to be compelling to everyone, and in fact, some cities
have experienced pushback in the form of like residents who
will buy regular trash bags and then just leave them
on the guard of bit or in public binds or
in front of a neighbor's house. But there's evidence that
the pay as you throw system is convincing enough people
to make it worthwhile. So according to this Atlantic article
about this type of program, the city of Malden's trash
(31:13):
tonnage was actually cut in half between two thousand and
sixteen and two thousand thirteen, which was the year it
adopted the pay to throw model, and the same thing
happened in Worcester, another Massachusetts city that cut it solid
waste tonnage by for in the first year of its program. Well,
I see your point, and those are some pretty solid results.
And I guess since it is densely populated cities that
(31:34):
churn out the most trash, this extra push from programs
like this could could be worth it, you know, to
get people on the same page. But so, how about
we look at a few novel recycling programs that use
of I don't know, let's say, like a less, less
compulsory approach. Sure. So one of my favorites is the
clean Wave program that's run by this ecological nonprofit in
San Francisco called Matter of Trust. They accept donations of
(31:57):
human hair and pet fur and then they turn it
into these like oil absorbing mats and brooms that has
matt teams can use to soak up oil spills. It's amazing,
and it's actually a great way to make sure your
hair clippings that would otherwise wind up in landfills are
recycled and put to good use. So if you work
in a barbershop or a pet groomers, or if you're
just someone with a bunch of cats or really shaggy dog,
(32:19):
you should really check out the website to find out
how to done it. Oh that's a pretty cool and well.
Another recycling program that's making a real difference in the
world is called the Limbs for Life Foundation. And I
didn't know this before today's show, but it's actually illegal
to reuse prosthetic limbs in the United States, and since
they're often made from plastics and other materials that can't
be recycled that easily, there's a lot of perfectly functional
(32:42):
prosthetics that just wind up in the trash, you know.
But the organizations like Limbs for Life have found an
amazing loophole here because it turns out it is legal
to disassemble them and then ship those used prosthetics to
other countries. So that's exactly what these programs do. They
collect and they distribute these used prosthetics free of charge
to landmine victims and other amputees and countries around the world.
(33:05):
I love then, what a great work around. So this
one's kind of in the same vana. It's called New
Eyes for the Needy, and it collects, recycles and distributes
old eyeglasses and hearing aids to impoverish children and adults,
both in the US and abroad. And the group has
been working to improve the world's vision since two So
far they've distributed over eight million pairs of glasses to
(33:26):
people all over the globe. Oh wow, that's pretty neat. Well,
speaking of glasses, I came across this really neat recycling
program where people can donate their eclipse glasses that you
know that they used to view last year's total eclipse. Wait,
aren't those only safe to look at like for a
few years. Well, that's true here in the US, but
actually South America and Asia they're getting ready experience their
(33:46):
own total eclipse in two thousand nineteen, and so of
course that's well within that three year span where it's
safe to use all those glasses that we had last year.
So that's where a nonprofit called Astronomers Without Borders comes in.
That's such a great name. I love how many of
the fill in the blank without borders there are, but
it is a great name. And you know, the group
is currently collecting these used and certified eclipse glasses to
(34:09):
distribute to people who might be unable to afford or
otherwise get their hands on a parent time for next
year as a clip. So if you've held onto your
glasses as memento or just haven't gotten around to tossing
them yet, this is a great chance to help someone
else have their own once in a lifetime experience. Well,
the last unusual recycling program I want to mention isn't
(34:29):
as altruistic as some of the others we've talked about,
but it does help take a bite out of the
problem with plastics. So one thing I found out while
researching is that most credit cards, as well as things
like hotel keys and I D cards are made from PBC,
and as Tristan will tell you, that's one of the
five out of seven main plastic types that usually can't
be recycled at all. Whenever people cut up their expired
(34:50):
cards or turn in their old driver's licenses, all those
strips of plastic typically head straight to the dump. But
I don't. So if PBC is unrecyclable, then than how
is the recycling program supposed to help? Yeah, so there
are actually some groups. A major one in Ohio is
called Earthworks, for example, and they've recycled old cards by
chopping them up and melting them back into sheets of
(35:11):
raw PVC and then the plastics able to be turned
into well new cards. It's kind of like with those
plastic bags that everyone has a million of under their sink, Like,
we can't actually get rid of them completely, so the
best bet is to just keep reusing the ones we have,
so we don't, you know, expand new resources to make
more of them. Well, it makes a lot of sense,
you know. It actually kind of reminds me of this
(35:31):
cool design project that came across. It's a d I
y machine that can turn plastic trash into brand new housewares.
The project is called Precious Plastics and it's the brainchild
of a Dutch designer named Dave Hawkins, and so he
wanted to create a system that makes recycling plastic an
easier and more accessible prospect for the public, and so
to that end, he's released these free to download blueprints
(35:54):
for the Precious Plastics machine, and the hope is that
communities will build their own and then use them to
establish these small scales centers, locals that can then drop
off their unwanted plastic waste and in exchange for that
they get a little bit of cash. And then the
centers can actually recycle these old plastic bottles and containers
and then turn them into new goods that can be
sold in this on site shop there. I mean, that's
(36:16):
a great idea, and it it sounds like some kind
of three D printer, but one that's designed to run
on recyclables. Yeah. The machines are these all in one
units and they house a plastic shredder, and then three
kinds of manufacturing devices. There's a rotational molder, an extruder,
and an injection molder, and that kind of covers all
your basics in terms of plastic making and so unlike
(36:38):
three D printers, though, these precious plastic systems that they
wouldn't cost towns an arm and a leg to get
everything needed to construct one can be easily obtained from
scrap yards. So I think what I like most about
this idea goes back to something we talked about at
the top of the show, and that's the way that
the invention of plastic kind of did away with the
tradition of people making their own goods on a small scale.
(36:59):
It big aim easier to just buy mass manufactured products,
so entire skill sets were left by the wayside, and
a lot of communities suffered as a result. But something
like this precious plastics machine that almost returns some of
that self sufficiency to local communities. Well, that's a good point,
and it's actually one that that Hawkins touches on while
he's speaking about his inspiration for the project. So he said,
(37:21):
it's sort of all started when I noticed we have
a lot of plastic waste, but for a lot of reasons,
we can't do anything with it like we would with
wood or with metal. Do you have a carpenter or
a metal worker, and now you can have a plastics person,
And with a little luck, every town on the map
will have a plastics person to help boost the national
recycling ran the years ahead. But until then, there's still
(37:41):
plenty of other interesting ways to help produce, reuse and recycle.
So how about you say we feature a couple of
those in our fact off before we go. Sounds good
to me, all right, So we've all read about roads
built from her tires or other materials, but did you
(38:02):
know that in the Netherlands there's actually a bike path
made with recycled toilet paper. That toilet paper provides the
cellulose that's helpful in maintaining traction when it's really wet
or slippery out and and while there are other sources
of cellulos, this is a good use for recycled material
that people really aren't that excited about being used in
other ways, even though it does go through a serious
(38:24):
sterilization process. Yeah, so I can see there being a
bit of a mental block with toilet paper being recycled
into things. So I had read about the repurposing of crayons,
but I'd never actually seen a figure out how many
new crayons coming into the world each day. Apparently the
Crayola factory in eastern Pennsylvania produces about twelve million crayons
every single day. Wow, every day. Yeah, it's insane, right,
(38:47):
And that's because people often treat crayons is disposable, but
crayons aren't actually biodegradable. So there's a nonprofit called the
Crown Initiative that collects old crayons from schools and restaurants
and then it melts them down and gives brand new
crowns to hospitals and other places that could use them.
It's it's pretty neat. That is pretty neat. Alright. Well,
I talked about the Netherlands before, and now I'm going
(39:08):
to talk about Sweden. So did you know they've gotten
so efficient with their recycling that they actually now import
waste from nearby countries to send through their recycling plants
just to keep them going. Overachieving it is, they're definitely overachievers.
Here's another way that they overachieved. I saw this crazy statistics,
so less than one percent of household waste and Sweden
(39:29):
goes to the landfill each year. That's amazing. So earlier
this week I was looking at photos of the beach
at Usuri Bay in Russia, and it's really worth looking
up because it's strange and beautiful. At one point it
was a dumping ground for old glass bottles, and that
obviously doesn't sound great. But the crazy thing is over
quite some time. The waves on these beaches have worn
(39:51):
down all these beer and vodka bottles into these beautiful,
beautiful pebbles. There's a protected area there now called the
Glass Beach, and that's become this really popular tourist spot. Huh.
All right, Well, in doing our research this week, I
was pleased to see that there are two items that
I have lots and lots of that can also be
recycled now. The first is old CDs. So there's a
(40:12):
CD recycling center that grinds the CDs up into a
fine powder, and then later on that powder has melted
down and that could be used in several ways, but
the most common uses in cars and building materials. So
I can now feel better about, you know, doing something
with that old toad the Wetsprocket CD from the early nineties.
Feel pretty good knowing it's in somebody's car. And then
(40:33):
the other item is something I know you and I
both had lots of old ones of, and that's tennis balls.
And so there's this organization called Rebounces and they actually
repressurize the old tennis balls so that they can be
used again. That's really cool. Well, here's a quick fact
for you. Did you know there's actually more gold and
a ton of mobile phones than there is in a
ton of gold or and so I read that from
(40:55):
a ton of gold or you can actually get one
gram of gold, but it only takes a little over
four mobile phones to get that same amount. Oh wow, Well,
sing as, I probably have about forty old phones. That
might be an exaggeration, but I've got a lot of
old phones that I didn't know what to do with.
But now I know what to do with him. I'm
gonna make some gold mango. But before I do that,
I'm going to give you today's fact off trophy. Thanks
(41:17):
so much, Will, But I don't know if I want
this recycled trophy. Is there a new one you can
hand me instead? All right? Well, thank you guys for listening.
We'd love to hear from you. If we've forgotten any
great facts about recycling, and I know you guys have
a ton of them, feel free to send them our way.
You can email us part Time Genius at how stuff
Works dot com or call us on our seven fact
hotline that's one eight four four pt Genius. You can
(41:39):
also hit us up on Facebook or Twitter. Keep the
messages coming and thanks so much for listening. Thanks again
for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of House
(42:00):
of Works and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people
who do the important things we couldn't even begin to understand.
Tristan McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the
theme song and does the mixy mixy sound thing. Jerry
Rowland does the exact producer thing. Gave Louesier is our
lead researcher, with support from the research Army including Austin Thompson,
Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve Jeff Cook gets
(42:20):
the show to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you
like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe. And if
you really really like what you've heard maybe you could
leave a good review for US. Did you? Did you
forget j Jason who
Guess what mango? What's that? Well, so, are you familiar
with totsmagoats? Please don't tell me you're gonna start using
that phrase. No, I'm not talking about the term though
now I'm totsmagoats gonna start using it. But I'm talking
about this weird man goat mascot that they used in
the Niagara Falls area, and you know, it's to help
people start recycling more. I can't say I've heard of that,
(00:20):
and it sounds like a horrible idea. Did you say
man Goat? I did, and it is super weird looking.
You should totally look up totsmagoats. But you know, supposedly
since introducing this really bizarre mascot a few years ago,
recycling is actually a fifty percent in this area in
the amount of trash going to landfills has dropped by okay,
So I just pulled him up, And honestly, if I
(00:42):
thought this scary looking mascot with a tiny goathead was
gonna come after me, I'd start recycling too. Maybe it's
just a scare tactic, they're you saying. I don't know.
But on the topic of how much we recycle, we've
had several questions we've been meaning to get to, and
things like, you know, what's the state of recycling in
the US, and is it a good business to be in?
Is it even worth it to recycle? And what are
(01:04):
the weirdest things people can recycle? Now it's Tots mcgoat's
time to find out. Please stop, all right, but let's
dive in. Y Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part
(01:34):
Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined
by my good friend Meno Ticketer. And on the other
side of the soundproof glass separating his number one and
number two plastics from the rest of the bunch, that's
our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Yeah, and good for
Tristan for doing that. Most folks don't even know the
numbers inside the recycling system on plastic containers and that
they're actually a way to tell which kinds can and
(01:55):
can't be recycled. But Tristan has the whole resin identification
code down and that's just the kind of guy he is, well,
and we love him for it, and especially today because
we're gonna be taking a hard look at the current
state of recycling in the world. And asking a tough question,
you know, is recycling worth it? Because when you think
about it, the practice is a pretty unique blend of
(02:16):
environmentalism and business, and it's one that the majority of
developed nations agree is a pretty sensible thing to do.
I mean, of course, recycling makes environmental sense. It reduces
the trash we send to the landfills and conserves natural
resources that you know would otherwise go into making new products.
But it also makes economic sense. For example, I was
(02:36):
looking at a study by the e p A. This
report they released back in two thousand and sixteen, and
it found that within a single year, recycling and reuse
activities in the US account for seven hundred and fifty
seven thousand jobs and almost seven billion in tax revenue
and over thirty six billion in wages. So recycling clearly
leads to some very real and valuable benefits. But of
(02:59):
course those benefits always come with a cost, right, So
today we'll try to balance the books and get a
sense of whether recycling is actually paying off both environmentally
and economically. But before we get into that, I want
to take a minute to talk about how recycling became
a thing that people do in the first place. You're
always going back to the origins of things, but with recycling, like,
I didn't even know there was an origin of recycling. Yeah,
(03:21):
I mean, wide scale recycling programs are a fairly new
phenomenon in history. They kind of arose during the industrial
and post industrial ages as manufacturing was kicking into overdrive.
So humans started using more and more natural resources to
produce more new things than ever before. And meanwhile, you know,
the thriftier people started looking for ways to just reuse
what was already out there instead. So, for example, in
(03:43):
the late eighteen hundreds, these European cities like London and Paris,
they were rife with what you'd called rag and bone men.
And these were peblers who just wandered around and collected
and carted around sacks of reusable items, and then they'd
sell those back to general stores. All right, so rag
and bone, and I'm guessing from the name that these
reusable items you're talking about were rags and for some
(04:04):
reason bones. Yeah, so these guys would scour the city
for like old rags, bones, bits of metal, any other
discarded items that could be scavenged and of course recycled.
I love how you just say this like, it's no
big deal. I still need to know, or actually maybe
I don't why and how people were reusing bones and
and why were so many random bones just all over
(04:26):
the streets of London. Well, I don't have specifics on
where the bones were actually coming from, but I imagine
there were mostly animal bones left over from you know,
meals that've been tossed in the garbage. But you know,
as for how the bones were recycled, a lot of
them were used to make gelatin for processed foods or glue,
kind of the way we still do today. And also
I've forgotten this, but prior to the rise of plastics
(04:48):
in the twentieth century, many of the buttons for clothing
were made from polished bones, so that was another use
as well. Alright, So, so what exactly happened to these
pioneers of recycling. Was it, you know, plastics that kind
of kill the bone market? I guess. Yeah. Plastic and
a few other advancements sort of put an end to
those kinds of local level of recycling schemes for a while.
After the Industrial Revolution, fewer people were making their own goods,
(05:11):
so there was just less need for reusable materials like
the ones rag and bone men were collecting, and instead
all that stuff kind of became garden variety garbage. But
I should mention that that entrepreneurial spirit still lives on
today in today's scrap recyclers. So, according to the Institute
of Scrap Recycling Industries, scrappers processed more than a hundred
(05:32):
thirty million tons of material in two thousand thirteen, and
all that helped us save energy, reduced greenhouse gas emissions,
it helped preserve natural resources, and actually limited the amount
of material that would otherwise go to landfills. Well, I know,
the scrap industry is nothing like Sandford and Sun these days,
and I mean it has its own institute now apparently,
which I wasn't aware of. But I still can't help
(05:54):
thinking of that show whenever somebody mentioned scrap dealers, which
is more often than you think, actually, But you know,
you look at the numbers that you mentioned, and it
really highlights just how much of an impact industrialization has
had on the amount of trash that we produce. So
I was flipping through this book by Tom Zaki called
Outsmart Waste, The Modern Idea of Garbage and How to
Think our way out of it, and according to his research,
(06:17):
the amount of waste that humans produced has gone up
by more than ten thousand percent over the past century.
That's ten thoent. That's insane. But you know, if there
is a silver lining to that insanely large cloud of trash,
it's that the world's recycling rate has also risen by
leaps and bounds over that same period. So, for instance,
by the e p a's last count Americans now recycle
(06:38):
nearly thirty five percent of the trash we produce, which
is up from just sixt two in the nineteen sixties.
And you know, a few other countries like Taiwan, Austria, Germany,
they now boast recycling rates as high as sixty Well,
that is a promising uptick, but I still can't help
but feel a little disappointed with our current numbers. I mean,
(06:59):
not even a full thirty five percent of our trash
gets recycled. Americans produce about two hundred and fifty million
tons of trash every single year, so recycling just a
third of that means we're still sending close to a
hundred and seventy million tons of waste, you know, off
to landfills and incinerators. Every single year. I mean, there's
got to be a better way to get our numbers up. Well,
(07:20):
there are definitely a few things we could improve on,
and we should talk about them in a bit, But
first I want to throw out another silver lining that
we shouldn't overlook. They're always looking on the positive side, alright, So,
so what's this upside to a thirty recycling rate. Well,
even at that current rate, our recycling efforts, coupled with composting,
prevent the release of a lot of carbon dioxide, so
(07:41):
about a hundred eighty million metric tons of it in
two thousand thirteen alone, And according to the e p A,
that's comparable to taking more than thirty nine million cars
off the road for a whole year. So yeah, so
even though we have like a long way to go,
we're really making some headway. Well I'm glad you mention that,
because it is important to keep progress in perspective, and
(08:03):
in fact, that might be one way we can improve
our recycling game here in the States. How's that? Actually?
I saw this survey conducted by IPSOS back in two
thousand eleven that found that only half of American adults
recycled daily about a third of the respondents said that
they recycle less frequently than that, and about thirteen percent
admitted that they never recycle at all. And some researchers
(08:24):
have since suggested that there's a psychological reason for our
spoty track records with recycling. I mean, namely, we have
trouble connecting our daily habits with their consequences, and so
if you think about it, it it actually kind of makes
a lot of sense. You know that the reward for
recycling isn't immediate, and then the fallout from recycling also
doesn't feel real either, so we don't see the benefits
(08:45):
or the harms that we're contributing to. So there's less
of an appeal to make recycling a daily behavior, and
it just this kind of all lessened in our minds
because of this. That's pretty interesting and it actually makes
me think of this study I read about in Scientific
American that suggested in other psychological hang up that people
have with recycling. So I don't know if you've heard
this before, but there have been a number of studies
(09:06):
that show that women typically have greener habits and are
more environmentally minded than men. So, for instance, women recycle more,
they literally less than they leave a smaller carbon footprint
than their average male counterparts. So do we know why
this might be? Well? Weirdly, the research report on by
Scientific Americans suggest that men might shun this eco friendly
(09:28):
behavior like recycling, because it makes them feel less macho. Really. Yeah,
So two of the researchers describe the findings of their
study this way. So quote, we showed that there is
a psychological link between eco friendliness and perceptions of femininity.
And due to this green feminine stereotype, both men and
women judged eco friendly products, behaviors, and consumers as more
(09:52):
feminine than their non green counterparts. That is such a
strange thing. But but actually, from what you're saying, so
even women thought going green was a feminine thing. Yeah,
it's weird, right. So one of the experiments had the
participants recall a time when they did something good for
the environment, and both the men and the women said
they perceived themselves to be more feminine in those instances
that they shared. Maybe it's just because they were like
(10:14):
caring nicely from other earth and I'm not sure what
it was. Wow, So is there any way to counter
this thinking so that guys will be more inclined to
you know, pitch in with recycling or these other green efforts. Yeah. So,
since this is like a psychological hurdle, the best way
to solve is for men to grow more secure with
their own masculinity, and I guess marketing can help. Like,
(10:37):
for instance, the researchers and Scientific American described this experiment
where men were found to be more likely to donate
to a green nonprofit if it had a masculine logo,
so like if it had black and dark blue colors
and like featured a howling wolf. Also if the name
was something more masculine like Wilderness Rangers, Yeah, and had
(11:00):
a bold fond apparently so and men contributed more of
that than something with like a traditional logo with light
and green tan colors, if it featured a tree, if
I had like a frilly font and a name like
Friends with Nature. So uh, it's crazy if it makes
me wish that macho man Randy Savage was still around
(11:20):
so that we could have Wilderness Rangers, a bad boy
of recycling the show us our way, So it's it's
it's clearly still all in our heads though, Yeah, so
our our psyches are worst natural enemies. When it comes
to recycling, Like, according to a survey from the National
Waste and Recycling Association, one in five Americans say that
they'll put something in a recycling bin even if they
(11:42):
aren't totally certain that it's recyclable. And this is a
phenomenon that's called wishful recycling, where people in doubt will
just go for it in the off chance that whatever
they want to get rid of can hopefully be recycled.
And of course a lot of the time we're completely
wrong with those kinds of judgments. Yeah, and if if,
if I'm being honest, mean I have definitely been guilty
of that as well. You've got a product and you're
(12:03):
just again you're hoping that it can be recycled, so
you just go ahead and toss it in there. But
you know, it does lead to all these kinds of
headaches for people who have to sort and then process
this random assortment of stuff that people are just chucking
in the recycling bins. Yeah. So some years ago Lizie
and I house sat for some friends in Portland and
they gave us like this twenty minute tour of just
(12:24):
their recycling system and the fifteen bins they had for
various types of things. It was. I know, it really
felt like a Portland episode, but and I mean that's
coming from Delaware, where we had recycling really early, but
you had to make such an effort to do it,
like I a should remember on weekends, like I'd collect
stuff around the house with my dad, all the newspapers
(12:45):
and cardboard, and throwned his hatchback and we drive off
to recycling center a few miles away. And that's because
the city didn't pick it up yet. But I'm a
little off topic. I definitely want to talk about the
problems that come from the so called single stream approached
recycling that we go by in the US. Before we
do that, let's take a quick break. You're listening to
(13:16):
Part Time Genius, and we're breaking down the pros and
cons of recycling. I meano a minute ago you mentioned
single stream recycling, which of course was intended to make
recycling more approachable for the average citizen, but really in
practice the system has proven to be both bad for
the environment and bad for business. Yeah. So basically, the
idea behind single stream was to put all of your
(13:36):
different recyclables, whether that's glass or paper or plastic, all
into one bin. And this was an idea that first
cropped up in California back and was later rolled out
nationwide as almost the best, most user friendly shot for
getting people on board with recycling. And really though this
approach just kind of kicked the can a little further
down the road because you know, all those materials still
(13:59):
need to be sort of actually, so instead of placing
that added responsibility on individuals, we we just invested in
processing plans to do all that sorting for us. Right.
And you know, in the opposite end of the spectrum,
you have somewhere like Germany and it adopted this system
in the early nineties that actually required households to use
a total of five different bins. They're all color coded
(14:19):
and they help indicate where you should dispose of different
kinds of waste and a little bit like the Portland
example you gave earlier. And you know, while it sounds complicated,
that approach has led to a recycling rate that's nearly
double what we see here in the States. Yeah, I
mean that's incredible, But the drawbacks of this single like,
single stream system go far beyond making us look bad
in front of the Germans. So one of the biggest
(14:41):
issues the system poses is cross contamination. So that's when
like little pieces of plastic get mixed in with paper
or worse, when they're like food particles from containers that
weren't clean well enough, and all of this slows down
the sorting process, it comes up the machines. It leads
to this inordinate amount of would be recyclable as being
thrown out instead of being recycled. Well, then, according to
City Lab, as much as of the recyclable waste that
(15:05):
passes through the single stream system winds up in landfill.
And if you ask Tom's aiki, that number is close
to either way. It really calls it a question whether
are already not so stellar percent national recycling rate is
even accurate. There's a good chance it's way lower. Yeah,
you know, and I was reading that an even bigger
problem for materials recovery facilities or merphs. I guess they're
(15:27):
called m r F, so that that's what they call
them in the industry, that this all these unrecyclables that
end up in the plants thanks to the wishful recycling
that you were talking about earlier. According to Susan Robinson,
she's the director of public affairs for waste management. But
we also get a surprising number of garden hoses, Christmas lights,
and shower curtains. And I can just imagine how much
(15:49):
time is lost by like trying to shut down the
equipment and fish out all that junk. Yeah, and that
loss and productivity has started to take its toll on
recycling's profitability. I mean, all the cross the country, recycling
companies are reporting drastic decreases in profit and that's partly
because of the higher processing costs associated with contamination and
faulty users sorting practices. You know, for example, in the
(16:12):
District of Columbia, they replaced those thirty two gallon binds
with ones that were fifty larger, and this was back
in two thousand fourteen. And so these larger bins lead
to a higher rate of wishful recycling among the residents,
so much so that all that non recyclable material that
wound up in d c s mervs. It drove up
the city's processing costs and it cut their profits from
(16:33):
recyclable sales by more than fifty percent back in two
thousand fifteen. Wow, So clearly there's room for improvement in
this single stream system, and still in the interest of balance,
I do want to point out a few parts of
the recycling industry that are still paying out despite our
somewhat you know, flawed way of doing things. So one
example is aluminum, which is actually the most recycled product
(16:54):
in the world, with close to seventy percent of aluminum
cans being recycled around the world. And their reason for
that huge turnover rate is that aluminum nets recycling companies
the most money of any recyclable material out there. It's
about as per ton in the US as of two
And another area where business is booming is corrugated cardboard,
(17:15):
and that's thanks to online shopping. You know, the recycling
stream is just flushed with cardboard boxes, which you know,
it can be valuable so long as they aren't contaminated
by pizza grease or whatever other organic bits have mistakenly
made their way into the recycling bin. Yeah, and I
do want to be careful not to harp too much
on the business side of things, because there's still other
areas where recycling definitely benefits the economy, like reducing the
(17:37):
use and cost of landfills and reducing the energy expense
of harvesting more natural resources for all the new products
that we need to create. Well. And another reason not
to stress too much about the money saving benefits of
environmentalism is that it can actually make people less likely
to recycle. Wait what, so, how does that work? So
this comes from a team of researchers at Cardiff University
(17:59):
in the UK, and they found that appealing to somebody's
self interest actually makes them less likely to behave in
a helpful manner. So, in this experiment, one group of
students was told about the environmental benefits of car pooling.
Another group was told about the potential to save money
by car pooling. And things get a little devious from there.
And here's how Wired explained the next part of the experiment.
(18:20):
So the students then filled out paper questionnaires about unrelated topics,
which they were told to dispose of at the session's end.
Unbeknownst to them, this was the experiment's real purpose and
a microcosm of environmental tensions. Would they use a recycling
basket inconveniently located under another table or a general waist
bin at arm's length Among those students primed, as psychologists say,
(18:43):
with the message of car pooling, self transcending benefits recycled.
Of the group that learned about the cost saving, just
fifty recycled. Wow. So so the environmental impact turned out
to be a bigger draw than saving their own cash,
which I guess that's actually a little bit heartening. Yeah,
And the study also highlights the biggest risk of pushing
(19:05):
recycling mainly as a way to save time or make
money instead of as a way to preserve the beauty
of the natural world, like people might forget that nature
is in its own right reason enough to care about
conservation efforts. That's a really good point, you know. One
of my favorite examples of just how effective that naturalist
mentality can be is this this tiny town. It's in
(19:26):
southwestern Japan and it's called kama Katsu. So there's about
people who live there, and since two thousand three, the
town residents have been engaged in this long running quest
that becomes zero waste by and so in order to
get there, citizens are responsible for separating their trash into
thirty four distinct categories and then getting it all delivered
(19:47):
to the nearest recycling center. Thirty four has ever been
and no trash trucks Like I thought the Germans had
it rough. Yeah, I mean this is more Portland than Portland.
It's pretty impressive. But that's actually not all either. So
to sidestep the contamination problem that we have here in
the States, town residents are also required to thoroughly wash
all thirty four kinds of recyclables and then separate out
(20:11):
all their organic waste and compost that at home. That's great,
it sounds like such an imposition, but are the residents
really okay with putting in all that extra effort or
is everyone just miserable and exhausted by the end of
the week. Well, that's the thing. I mean, most people
in common coats who say that despite the hard work,
they appreciate this push to be more thoughtful about how
and what they consume. And in an interview that was
(20:33):
on the BBC, there was one local woman who summed
up the feeling this way. She said, I have to
do it every day, and it's certainly a bit of work,
but it's a good idea to send things back to
the earth, so I support it. That's awesome, And in fact,
what do you say we keep these positive vibes going
and take a look at some other unique recycling programs
as well as the weirdest things they figured out how
to reuse. Sounds good to me. But first, let's take
(20:55):
a quick break. Okay, mango, So it's quiz time now.
Before we jump into the quiz, we we had a
couple other questions that we wanted to ask about recycling
since that's our topic today, and we're joined by one
(21:15):
of the brilliant researchers here and how stuff works, Christopher Haciotis. Christopher,
welcome to Part Time Genius. Thanks for having me. All right,
so we gave you the heads up we were talking
about recycling and we had a couple of questions. Now,
now Tristan, we've informed our listeners, is an expert on
all the numbers that you see on the plastics and
what they mean and which ones you can recycle and
(21:35):
which ones you can't. I know you're not surprised because
Tristan is pretty much good at everything. But for those
of us that don't know everything about recycling and the
numbers that are on the plastics, can can you just
give us like the cheat sheet to that what those
one through seven numbers mean and why some can be
recycled and others can't. Be sure. Yeah, it's this. It's
this really labyrinthing convoluted system of coding known as the
(21:59):
r I see, it's the Reson Identification coding system, and
it was put in place. So you've got these seven
different types of plastic, and basically what it comes down
to is what the plastics are made out of and
what you can do with them. Some will be recyclable immediately,
Some are reusable but not recyclable. Some should not be
reused or recycled. And what you've got to do is
(22:22):
flip your jug of water, your jug of milk, your
plastic cup upside down, take a gain or at what's
underneath it, and then get on the internet. Because honestly,
nobody knows this system. Triston does what you won't say
anything about. Okay, So I think what we need is
everyone needs a system to just give Tristan a call
(22:42):
right away. So, yeah, you've got these seven types of plastic.
Number one polyethylene telethylate also known as PET number two
high density polyethylene. So these are the kinds that are
generally recyclable and most commonly accepted in your neighborhood or
community recycling centers. Then there are a bunch of others
that are technically recyclable but just basically just a hassle
(23:06):
for the people to do it. So, you know those
plastic bags you get at the grocery store, right right,
everyone's got opinions about them. Should I get paper, should
get plastic? Should I bring my own? If you're getting
the plastic bag, it's the same substance that makes up
milk jugs and toys and other kinds of bottles that
are recyclable, but it's so thin and it's so spread
up that it's not worth it to recycle them. And
(23:28):
those plastic bags can also jam up the gears and
get caught in the machines that do the recycling. And
those numbers, you know, you you generally see one through seven,
but they go up way beyond there. There's a plastic
that's number nine. That's the kind of plastic your cell
phones are made out of, your TVs that, But then
the numbers go all the way up into the hundreds. Um. Yeah,
I feel like you need a field guide to plastics
(23:50):
where people are like bird spotting, but for rare plastics.
And so I used to see glass recycling all over
the place, and that used to be pickups neighborhoods and
stuff in and now I don't really see that as much.
Do you know anything about that? I do. Yeah, So
recycling aluminum, you are spending about less energy than if
you were just making it from raw materials. Glasses all
(24:13):
the way at the other end of that spectrum, so
you're only saving about the energy to recycle glass. Petroleum,
which makes up plastic, is generally expensive item. It's dropped
in price recently, but it's cost more for companies who
make plastic to get the virgin materials out of the
ground than it does to reuse it. It's not necessarily
(24:34):
the case for glass. Glass, as anyone who's I don't
spend a lot of time with kids cartoons is made
out of sand. I think it might have been an
episode of He man Or rubs his hands really fast
on the desert floor and creates some sort of glass.
But yeah, basically, so you can either take glass, go
(24:56):
through the whole process recycle it, or you can just
go get some new sand. Well that's super helpful, Christopher.
Now we can't let you go though, before playing a
super important quiz the mango What what quiz are we
playing today. It's called recycled Sesame Street shows. And so
according to muppet WICKI uh, Sesame Street has to produce
something like a hundred thirty shows a season, and they
(25:16):
often recycled their main storylines. So we're gonna tell you
a recycled plot and you just have to tell us
which Sesame Street character starting it. They do a hundred
and thirty shows a season. I mean, this is wikipedia side.
I assume my muppet up alright, that that is a lot. Okay,
I mean I guess that's every year. That that that
(25:36):
is a ton of picture behind the screen kind of contributing.
That's where he shines. Alright, We've got five questions for you, Christopher.
Question number one. On episode three thousand, eight hundred and
twelve an episode three thousand, nine hundred and thirty three,
this friendly vampire wanders around Sesame Street enumerating all the
mistakes on Sesame Street. Who are we talking about? So
(25:59):
that is none other than Count Bond. Count assume, Yeah,
that's right. And according to his origin story on Sesame Street,
he's not the only member of his family that loves numbers.
His uncle Juno also loves to count. Alright, alright. Question
number two on episodes five, eighteen and seven ninety two,
this character conducts a philharmonic orchestra of similar grumps instead
(26:20):
of musical instruments. The orchestra makes annoying sounds, like that
of an airplane or a fire engine. Who are we
talking about? Wow? Okay, so you said of similar grumps,
which would point me in the direction of Osccar the
Grouch or Statler and Waldorf. But and there's Rolf, who's
the musical talented one. So um, I'm gonna go. I'm
(26:42):
just gonna say Rolf because he's the piano playing dog
and I dig him. Oh, you're on the right track.
It was Oscar the ground. Wow. That was really a
really impressive rundown of all the possible answers. Okay, still
have time to recover here a question number three episodes eight, nine,
four and one thousand fourteen. This character orders a radio,
(27:05):
but instead he gets a box containing its parts. But
even worse, it doesn't contain any baked goods. What character
are we talking about? So you've got the Okay. My
initial thought was the sweetest chef, because he's the one
who's going to be putting things together. And and making
something and cooking, but then baked goods? Who would be
(27:28):
upset about not getting baked goods? Unless it were in
a health oriented episode, I would say cookie Monster. Yeah,
that's right, it is cookie Monster. And you know what
one of the producers on the show said earlier when
they were starting the show, a typist used to correct
all of Cookie monsters grammar in the scripts and had
to stop after mappening. Wow, that's pretty great, okay? Question
(27:50):
number four. On episodes four one, seven, four and four
four one three, this character organizes a nest sale where
all his old toys can be bought for five seeds.
What character are we talking about? I'm gonna go with
one of the friendliest characters I can think of, and
that's Big Bird. M That's right, you got it all right?
Question number five for the big win Here on episodes three, four, six, five,
(28:14):
and three seven to two, this once imaginary character is
depressed because every time he tap dances, it causes an earthquake.
What character are we talking about? So? I'm pretty happy
that a tap dancing earthquake is a more than one
time occurrence, but I don't know who that would be.
Although I'm gonna I'm just gonna guess that it's snuffle
(28:35):
up agus because I think he's sizeable enough that he
could do it. That's right. And also I didn't realize
this until we did the research, but Snuffy's favorite foods
are cabbage, spaghetti and sassafras tea. So wait, mangoes at
a tea made out of cabbage, spaghetti and sassafras. Now
those are separate items. I'm glad you. I'm glad you
(28:55):
added those little fun facts in there. Mango. That's that's
really valuable. So so, how did christ for do today? Well,
Christopher one an amazing four for five, which entitles them
to our big prize, our total admiration. Congratulations Christopher, and
thanks for joining us anytime. Okay, Well, so I love
(29:26):
Kamikaze zero waste Plan, but let's be honest, getting people
on board to recycle is one thing in a town
with fewer than two thousand residents, but it's a lot
harder to get the tens of thousands or even millions
of residents of the city to all commit to that
extra effort of recycling. So I know cities like San
Francisco and Portland are making huge strides and boosting the
recycling rates. But some cities are taking an even boulder
(29:50):
approach the challenge. For example, they're about cities across the
US that have adopted a so called paisy throw system.
You know, I'm pretty sure there's a lot of people
that would not like the sound of that. So is
this is this some kind of garbage tax or something? Yes,
sort of. So the idea is that municipal garbage trucks
won't pick up any trash unless it's been placed inside
(30:10):
specially marked bags that residents buy from the city. So,
for example, in Maldon, Massachusetts, it's one dollar for each
fifteen gallon bag or two dollars for a thirty three
gallon bag. And so I'm a little confused by this.
So how exactly does this encourage people to recycle? Well,
cities with pays you throw programs still pick up recyclables
and yard waste for free. So it's really just the
(30:31):
landfill bound waste that costs you money. And the hope
is that the added expense will encourage presidents to you know,
take the initiative recycle and compost and just be more
thoughtful about their garbage. It's definitely an interesting idea. But
but what about all that research you mentioned earlier about
the whole recycling saves you money angle being kind of
a dead end approach. Yeah, it's not something that's going
(30:52):
to be compelling to everyone, and in fact, some cities
have experienced pushback in the form of like residents who
will buy regular trash bags and then just leave them
on the guard of bit or in public binds or
in front of a neighbor's house. But there's evidence that
the pay as you throw system is convincing enough people
to make it worthwhile. So according to this Atlantic article
about this type of program, the city of Malden's trash
(31:13):
tonnage was actually cut in half between two thousand and
sixteen and two thousand thirteen, which was the year it
adopted the pay to throw model, and the same thing
happened in Worcester, another Massachusetts city that cut it solid
waste tonnage by for in the first year of its program. Well,
I see your point, and those are some pretty solid results.
And I guess since it is densely populated cities that
(31:34):
churn out the most trash, this extra push from programs
like this could could be worth it, you know, to
get people on the same page. But so, how about
we look at a few novel recycling programs that use
of I don't know, let's say, like a less, less
compulsory approach. Sure. So one of my favorites is the
clean Wave program that's run by this ecological nonprofit in
San Francisco called Matter of Trust. They accept donations of
(31:57):
human hair and pet fur and then they turn it
into these like oil absorbing mats and brooms that has
matt teams can use to soak up oil spills. It's amazing,
and it's actually a great way to make sure your
hair clippings that would otherwise wind up in landfills are
recycled and put to good use. So if you work
in a barbershop or a pet groomers, or if you're
just someone with a bunch of cats or really shaggy dog,
(32:19):
you should really check out the website to find out
how to done it. Oh that's a pretty cool and well.
Another recycling program that's making a real difference in the
world is called the Limbs for Life Foundation. And I
didn't know this before today's show, but it's actually illegal
to reuse prosthetic limbs in the United States, and since
they're often made from plastics and other materials that can't
be recycled that easily, there's a lot of perfectly functional
(32:42):
prosthetics that just wind up in the trash, you know.
But the organizations like Limbs for Life have found an
amazing loophole here because it turns out it is legal
to disassemble them and then ship those used prosthetics to
other countries. So that's exactly what these programs do. They
collect and they distribute these used prosthetics free of charge
to landmine victims and other amputees and countries around the world.
(33:05):
I love then, what a great work around. So this
one's kind of in the same vana. It's called New
Eyes for the Needy, and it collects, recycles and distributes
old eyeglasses and hearing aids to impoverish children and adults,
both in the US and abroad. And the group has
been working to improve the world's vision since two So
far they've distributed over eight million pairs of glasses to
(33:26):
people all over the globe. Oh wow, that's pretty neat. Well,
speaking of glasses, I came across this really neat recycling
program where people can donate their eclipse glasses that you
know that they used to view last year's total eclipse. Wait,
aren't those only safe to look at like for a
few years. Well, that's true here in the US, but
actually South America and Asia they're getting ready experience their
(33:46):
own total eclipse in two thousand nineteen, and so of
course that's well within that three year span where it's
safe to use all those glasses that we had last year.
So that's where a nonprofit called Astronomers Without Borders comes in.
That's such a great name. I love how many of
the fill in the blank without borders there are, but
it is a great name. And you know, the group
is currently collecting these used and certified eclipse glasses to
(34:09):
distribute to people who might be unable to afford or
otherwise get their hands on a parent time for next
year as a clip. So if you've held onto your
glasses as memento or just haven't gotten around to tossing
them yet, this is a great chance to help someone
else have their own once in a lifetime experience. Well,
the last unusual recycling program I want to mention isn't
(34:29):
as altruistic as some of the others we've talked about,
but it does help take a bite out of the
problem with plastics. So one thing I found out while
researching is that most credit cards, as well as things
like hotel keys and I D cards are made from PBC,
and as Tristan will tell you, that's one of the
five out of seven main plastic types that usually can't
be recycled at all. Whenever people cut up their expired
(34:50):
cards or turn in their old driver's licenses, all those
strips of plastic typically head straight to the dump. But
I don't. So if PBC is unrecyclable, then than how
is the recycling program supposed to help? Yeah, so there
are actually some groups. A major one in Ohio is
called Earthworks, for example, and they've recycled old cards by
chopping them up and melting them back into sheets of
(35:11):
raw PVC and then the plastics able to be turned
into well new cards. It's kind of like with those
plastic bags that everyone has a million of under their sink, Like,
we can't actually get rid of them completely, so the
best bet is to just keep reusing the ones we have,
so we don't, you know, expand new resources to make
more of them. Well, it makes a lot of sense,
you know. It actually kind of reminds me of this
(35:31):
cool design project that came across. It's a d I
y machine that can turn plastic trash into brand new housewares.
The project is called Precious Plastics and it's the brainchild
of a Dutch designer named Dave Hawkins, and so he
wanted to create a system that makes recycling plastic an
easier and more accessible prospect for the public, and so
to that end, he's released these free to download blueprints
(35:54):
for the Precious Plastics machine, and the hope is that
communities will build their own and then use them to
establish these small scales centers, locals that can then drop
off their unwanted plastic waste and in exchange for that
they get a little bit of cash. And then the
centers can actually recycle these old plastic bottles and containers
and then turn them into new goods that can be
sold in this on site shop there. I mean, that's
(36:16):
a great idea, and it it sounds like some kind
of three D printer, but one that's designed to run
on recyclables. Yeah. The machines are these all in one
units and they house a plastic shredder, and then three
kinds of manufacturing devices. There's a rotational molder, an extruder,
and an injection molder, and that kind of covers all
your basics in terms of plastic making and so unlike
(36:38):
three D printers, though, these precious plastic systems that they
wouldn't cost towns an arm and a leg to get
everything needed to construct one can be easily obtained from
scrap yards. So I think what I like most about
this idea goes back to something we talked about at
the top of the show, and that's the way that
the invention of plastic kind of did away with the
tradition of people making their own goods on a small scale.
(36:59):
It big aim easier to just buy mass manufactured products,
so entire skill sets were left by the wayside, and
a lot of communities suffered as a result. But something
like this precious plastics machine that almost returns some of
that self sufficiency to local communities. Well, that's a good point,
and it's actually one that that Hawkins touches on while
he's speaking about his inspiration for the project. So he said,
(37:21):
it's sort of all started when I noticed we have
a lot of plastic waste, but for a lot of reasons,
we can't do anything with it like we would with
wood or with metal. Do you have a carpenter or
a metal worker, and now you can have a plastics person,
And with a little luck, every town on the map
will have a plastics person to help boost the national
recycling ran the years ahead. But until then, there's still
(37:41):
plenty of other interesting ways to help produce, reuse and recycle.
So how about you say we feature a couple of
those in our fact off before we go. Sounds good
to me, all right, So we've all read about roads
built from her tires or other materials, but did you
(38:02):
know that in the Netherlands there's actually a bike path
made with recycled toilet paper. That toilet paper provides the
cellulose that's helpful in maintaining traction when it's really wet
or slippery out and and while there are other sources
of cellulos, this is a good use for recycled material
that people really aren't that excited about being used in
other ways, even though it does go through a serious
(38:24):
sterilization process. Yeah, so I can see there being a
bit of a mental block with toilet paper being recycled
into things. So I had read about the repurposing of crayons,
but I'd never actually seen a figure out how many
new crayons coming into the world each day. Apparently the
Crayola factory in eastern Pennsylvania produces about twelve million crayons
every single day. Wow, every day. Yeah, it's insane, right,
(38:47):
And that's because people often treat crayons is disposable, but
crayons aren't actually biodegradable. So there's a nonprofit called the
Crown Initiative that collects old crayons from schools and restaurants
and then it melts them down and gives brand new
crowns to hospitals and other places that could use them.
It's it's pretty neat. That is pretty neat. Alright. Well,
I talked about the Netherlands before, and now I'm going
(39:08):
to talk about Sweden. So did you know they've gotten
so efficient with their recycling that they actually now import
waste from nearby countries to send through their recycling plants
just to keep them going. Overachieving it is, they're definitely overachievers.
Here's another way that they overachieved. I saw this crazy statistics,
so less than one percent of household waste and Sweden
(39:29):
goes to the landfill each year. That's amazing. So earlier
this week I was looking at photos of the beach
at Usuri Bay in Russia, and it's really worth looking
up because it's strange and beautiful. At one point it
was a dumping ground for old glass bottles, and that
obviously doesn't sound great. But the crazy thing is over
quite some time. The waves on these beaches have worn
(39:51):
down all these beer and vodka bottles into these beautiful,
beautiful pebbles. There's a protected area there now called the
Glass Beach, and that's become this really popular tourist spot. Huh.
All right, Well, in doing our research this week, I
was pleased to see that there are two items that
I have lots and lots of that can also be
recycled now. The first is old CDs. So there's a
(40:12):
CD recycling center that grinds the CDs up into a
fine powder, and then later on that powder has melted
down and that could be used in several ways, but
the most common uses in cars and building materials. So
I can now feel better about, you know, doing something
with that old toad the Wetsprocket CD from the early nineties.
Feel pretty good knowing it's in somebody's car. And then
(40:33):
the other item is something I know you and I
both had lots of old ones of, and that's tennis balls.
And so there's this organization called Rebounces and they actually
repressurize the old tennis balls so that they can be
used again. That's really cool. Well, here's a quick fact
for you. Did you know there's actually more gold and
a ton of mobile phones than there is in a
ton of gold or and so I read that from
(40:55):
a ton of gold or you can actually get one
gram of gold, but it only takes a little over
four mobile phones to get that same amount. Oh wow, Well,
sing as, I probably have about forty old phones. That
might be an exaggeration, but I've got a lot of
old phones that I didn't know what to do with.
But now I know what to do with him. I'm
gonna make some gold mango. But before I do that,
I'm going to give you today's fact off trophy. Thanks
(41:17):
so much, Will, But I don't know if I want
this recycled trophy. Is there a new one you can
hand me instead? All right? Well, thank you guys for listening.
We'd love to hear from you. If we've forgotten any
great facts about recycling, and I know you guys have
a ton of them, feel free to send them our way.
You can email us part Time Genius at how stuff
Works dot com or call us on our seven fact
hotline that's one eight four four pt Genius. You can
(41:39):
also hit us up on Facebook or Twitter. Keep the
messages coming and thanks so much for listening. Thanks again
for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of House
(42:00):
of Works and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people
who do the important things we couldn't even begin to understand.
Tristan McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the
theme song and does the mixy mixy sound thing. Jerry
Rowland does the exact producer thing. Gave Louesier is our
lead researcher, with support from the research Army including Austin Thompson,
Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve Jeff Cook gets
(42:20):
the show to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you
like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe. And if
you really really like what you've heard maybe you could
leave a good review for US. Did you? Did you
forget j Jason who
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.