28 - Why don't we recycle more? - with Rick Sofia

I am joined this week by recycling entrepreneur Rick Sofia, a 40 year veteran of the plastics recycling industry and holder of many patents in this space.

He educates me on why the US doesn't recycle more, where we need innovation in recycling and where that innovation is coming from, workforce shortages and talent succession in his industry, and what individuals can do to personally improve whether their waste goes to landfills or gets recycled.

This was pretty far out of my wheelhouse, so I learned a ton.

Chapters
00:00 Intro
02:02 Why don't we recycle more?
04:06 Where do we need innovation in recycling?
08:11 Centralization in plastics supply chain
11:22 Improvements in financials & tech of recycling
18:40 Chemical Recycling - too energy intensive to be useful?
21:25 Microplastics, carbon credits, and incentives
23:56 Workforce shortages and succession in recycling
29:00 How does one get started in this industry?
31:59 Are landfills one day going to be mined for plastic?
35:01 Why don't we increase standards in plastics manufacture?
37:10 Vote with your dollars to support recycling
40:11 Outro

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Title credit music: Punk Rock Opera’s The Road, pub 2018