environmental regulations

Tom Szaky runs a recycling company, but he’d rather live in a world where recycling was obsolete... 

Today, his company recycles everything from shampoo bottles and makeup containers to snack wrappers and cigarette butts. And through their recent Loop initiative, TerraCycle works with consumer brands to develop packaging that is actually reusable -- an even more effective waste-reduction tactic than recyclable packaging. 

This week on How I Built This Lab, Tom recounts his entrepreneurial journey launching a worm poop fertilizer company from his college dorm room, then transforming that company into a multimillion dollar recycling business. Also, why Tom’s ultimate goal is to put himself out of business, and how our actual path to eliminating waste is radically reducing consumption.  

This episode was produced by J.C. Howard and edited by John Isabella, with research by Kerry Thompson and music by Ramtin Arablouei. Our audio engineer was James Willetts. 

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Hey Smarties! Make Me Smart is taking a little summer vacation this week. We’ll be back in your feeds soon. But for now, enjoy a rerun of one of our favorite episodes of the year so far.

To reach the Joe Biden administration’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, the country’s energy infrastructure needs a massive overhaul, and fast.

But many communities are not on board with the idea of a massive wind or solar farm in their area. Some counties are banning renewable energy developments before the planning can even begin.

“All those wind turbines and solar panels, and then all the transmission lines that you need to build … it has a big footprint. And that creates lots of land-use conflicts,” said Ted Nordhaus, founder of The Breakthrough Institute.

On the show today, Nordhaus breaks down climate NIMBYism, the threat it poses to our green-energy economy and what it might take to keep the green transition moving forward.

In the News Fix: Work as we know it is changing. Many U.S. companies are already using ChatGPT in one way or another, and the artificial intelligence chatbot is replacing jobs. Plus, workers in Asia and Europe are going back to the office at much higher rates than American workers.

Then, we’ll hear from listeners about how later school start times have improved their family’s mornings, the debate about what to call mocktails, and why Americans keep eggs in the fridge.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• • “Decarbonization and its Discontents” from The Breakthrough Institute

• • “Will NIMBYs sink new clean energy projects? The evidence says no – if developers listen to local concerns” from The Conversation

• • “The Environmentalists Undermining Environmentalism” from The Atlantic

• • “America needs a new environmentalism” from The Economist

• • “Should I Learn Coding as a Second Language?” from Wired

• • “1 in 4 companies have already replaced workers with ChatGPT” from Resume Builder

• • “As Americans Work From Home, Europeans and Asians Head Back to the Office” from The Wall Street Journal

• • “What’s happened to the lunch places in office neighborhoods?” from Marketplace

• • “Why do we refrigerate eggs and other countries don’t?” from the Egg Safety Center

What have you been wrong about lately? We want to hear your answer to the Make Me Smart question! Leave us a voice message at 508-U-B-SMART, and your submission may be featured in a future episode.

RFK Jr discusses poison cartels and pollution with John Wathen. There are 350 Waterkeepers around the world and John Wathen is a favorite within the movement.