New Podcast Series Explores China’s Recycling Revolution

How China’s National Sword policy caused global recycling disruption: China’s changes to recycling didn’t happen overnight. This episode tracks back to how and why China’s approach to waste affected the U.S. and Australia and how it inspired nations across Southeast Asia to follow its example to reject contaminated waste exports from Western nations.

Shanghai’s new waste system and the big question—what trash are you: A new four category waste system has been brought in to China’s second most populous city—and with it a deluge of headlines about surveillance, social credit and high-tech garbage bins. This episode explores what’s really happening.

One trashcan, two systems—Hong Kong and Taiwan: In 1997, Hong Kong and Taiwan took two very different paths to disposing their trash. One of them involved an instantly recognizable English folk song. The other created a sub-class of elderly people, called “cardboard grannies.” This episode introduces people at the frontline of recycling, facing some tough decisions.

Rethinking recycling—the global plastic crisis and what comes next: The world is embracing a new approach to recycling, but there’s a new app that’s causing a tsunami of single-use plastic both in China and the west. This episode looks at the cause and also what some of the solutions might be.