Can we ever get rid of plastics for good?

Plastic is everywhere. It’s in our food packaging, our electronics, our cars and even our clothes. As plastic pollution piles up, especially from single-use products, some environmentalists and consumers have tried turning to a “plastic-free” lifestyle. But that’s much easier said than done. Plastic-free alternatives are often more expensive and more costly to transport, making the environmental-impact calculus much more difficult to compute.

Today on Studio 2, we’re talking about our plastic problem: How practical is it to think we can significantly reduce our plastic usage? How much more expensive is it to go plastic-free? And how can average consumers make a difference?

Guests: 

• Jenna Jambeck, professor of environmental engineering at the University of Georgia and a 2022 MacArthur Fellow for her work investigating plastic pollution
• Maurie Cohen, chair of the Humanities and Social Sciences Department at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and editor of the journal “Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy”
• Alisa Shargorodsky, director of ECHO Systems, a Philly-based non-profit focusing on reuse and reducing waste in food packaging