Small Act of Green Rebellion: Find your green community. Jordana Vasquez is an architect turned sustainability and energy consultant. Following the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, Jordana decided to use her skills to help protect vulnerable communities with sustainable building practices. Around the same time, Jordana met her co-founder, Chante Harris, at an event where the two were the only BIPOC women in attendance. What sprang from their chance meeting was an organization, the Women of...

Small Act of Green Rebellion: Use paper (instead of plastic) to pick up your dog's poop. After 8 years of picking up her dog's poop with plastic bags, Tracy Rosensteel decided to do something about finding a greener alternative to the "biodegradable" bags on the market (which are still made of plastic). What she ended up creating is Pooch Paper, a recycled, non-bleach alternative to plastic poop bags. Pooch Paper has since been picked up by Shark Tank and can be found in big box stores like...

Small Act of Green Rebellion: Make green news go viral. Lucy Biggers started out her career as a video producer at NowThis covering stories like Standing Rock and micro plastics in your face wash. What started as an interest in technology and following the stories of passionate players in the sustainability field has turned into a full-on environmental niche for Lucy. Her Standing Rock videos have collected over 9 million views and President Obama mentioned that media attention is one of the...

Small Act of Green Rebellion: Buy carbon neutral products. Danielle Doggett took her love of sailing and nature to build a company that will sail products from Costa Rica up the Pacific in a carbon neutral vessel. The shipping cargo industry pollutes more than the 6th most polluted country in the world and 10,000 containers are lost at sea every year (check out this article about the rubber ducks lost at sea). This means a hefty impact on our planet for up to 90% of the goods that we own....

Small Act of Green Rebellion: Plant a guerilla garden. After learning about a movement called Guerilla Gardening in London, Vanessa Harden, Founder of The Subversive Gardener started her own city-wide project here in New York City. By planting flowers and vegetable gardens in public spaces, guerilla gardeners are partaking in a fun and sustainable act of green rebellion.  -- Season 3 of Trash Talking with Eco-Warriors is sponsored by Plaine Products. Plaine Products is a zero-waste...

Small Act of Green Rebellion: Use green geothermal energy to heat/cool your home. Kathy Hunnan was working at Google X, Alphabet's moonshot division, as an entry-level marketer when she got involved with a solution for heating and cooling individual homes - using geothermal energy. From there, Kathy spun off the company as her own startup and has been focused on making green heating and cooling systems affordable for all.  -- Season 3 of Trash Talking with Eco-Warriors is sponsored by...

Small Act of Green Rebellion: Donate your hair to clean up oil spills. Lisa Gautier, Founder and President of Matter of Trust, tells us about how hair, textiles and fur can be used to help soak up oil before it ever reaches the ocean. Since 1999, Matter of Trust has been making hair mats that are used in industrial settings and to help remove oil from the environment. These hair mats are then broken down by worms into usable compost, so it's completely green and renewable.  -- Season 3 of...

It’s 2020. Your local compost program has been canceled due to COVID. Shops are using single-use plastic in an attempt to curb the spread of coronavirus. Grocery stores are denying your reusable bags. Forget reusable cups at your local coffeeshop. And everyone is home, producing more disposable waste and individually trying to cool down their apartments during the hot summer. For all of us eco-warriors, this year could not be a bigger climate disaster. And as the worst fires rage on the...

“So many people climb the ladder of success only to find it was against the wrong wall.” Wendy Hapgood is the Co-Founder and COO of Wild Tomorrow Fund. She was working in electrical engineering in Australia when she decided she was following the wrong path in life. Now, Wendy and her husband run a project based out of New York and South Africa that focuses on restoration and wildlife protection in a small parcel of land that is a wildlife corridor. They recently started a program called The...

Whale poop. That was how Asha de Vos, the first and only Sri Lankan to hold a PhD in Marine Mammal research, made her first big discovery - that Sri Lanka was home to a unique population of blue whales that did not follow textbook migratory patterns. Since her first discovery, Dr. de Vos has made it her personal mission to bring marine research to her home country in a pursuit of ensuring equal opportunity education for those in developing countries. In this episode, Dr. de Vos dives deep...

Ramona Barnes was born in Thailand where she spent her childhood playing on the beach. When she became a mother, she dedicated her life to a natural lifestyle but she was frustrated by the solutions for zero waste that weren't designed the way she wanted. So Ramona started her own zero waste lifestyle line called Orez, which is zero spelled backwards. This live recorded episode finds us going through Ramona's journey to creating beautiful zero waste solutions. -- If the content we make here...

Every piece of plastic ever created still exists on this planet. After seeing the effects of plastic in our environment firsthand while working in environmental education out in the Bahamas, Lindsey McCoy decided it was time to do something about the plastic in her household. Together with her sister, Lindsey started Plaine Products, a vegan, zero-waste circular hair and body beauty company based out of Cincinnati, OH. Since launching in 2017, Planie Products has already helped to divert...

From winning a contest with her modular outerwear collection. Carmen Gama landed a one-year fellowship to work at Eileen Fisher’s Renew program. Her mission, to figure out something to do with the 35% of 1.3 million garments that have been sent back over the years through the company’s Renew program. Carmen tells us about how she build a program for textile reclamation and helped figure out a circular design for beloved pieces. If you’re in the NYC area, there’s an opportunity for you to...

From Eataly to Google, CEO Christina Grace's company Foodprint has been asked to help take some of the biggest companies to zero waste. What is a Foodprint, you ask? Your foodprint is the result of everything that it takes to get food to your plate, including the effect your food has on the farmers who make it, the land where it’s grown and the animals who are part of it. Mentioned in this episode: ReFED RISE Rockaway -- If the content we make here at Trash Talking inspires you, become...

Amber English, Co-Founder of Pixie Cup, grew up in the midwest where she never had curb-side recycling. When she went to live in South Korea, where they recycle everything, Amber realized the importance of reducing her impact on the planet through reducing waste. Amber started Pixie Cup with her brother and they now sell reusable silicone menstrual cups that are better for both women and the environment. They also have a give back program where a cup is donated when one is...

The Rockaway waterfront South of Manhattan was an area prone to illegal dumping and destruction. Through activating the youth in the area, Jeanne Dupont has been able to help protect this land and allow the local youth to connect with it as well. Jeanne founded Rockaway Waterfront Alliance 15 years ago and has run the center as the Executive Director ever since. From a background in fashion and costume design, Jeanne has made nature her stage. Join us for a end of summer beach clean up on...

Leftovers from your office party? Replate has a solution for you. Utilizing paid workers, Replate gives companies a way to connect their leftover food with non-profits that are helping to combat food insecurity. Katie Marchini, COO of Replate, shares with us how the company utilizes Project DASH (DoorDash's philanthropic arm) to establish new markets and just how much water is saved through the 2 million pounds of food they helped divert from landfill. Resources mentioned in this...

Tal Chitayat, Co-Founder and CEO of Full Circle Home, and his partners founded their company because they believe consumers should have a sustainable option for everything - even for something as mundane as a dish sponge. Tal shares what it was like to grow a sustainability company after the 2008 economic crash, landing and then failing to sell products at Target, to the sponge problem at the New York City Marathon and Full Circle Home's seemingly quirky sponsorship of this year’s race. If...

Martyna Sztaba is a quintessential self-made millennial founder - she started her first company when she was 19 and her previous careers include being in publishing. When her fellow co-founders of Syntoil wanted to take the company to the next level, they asked Martyna to come on as CEO. Why Martyna took a job in an industry she knew nothing about and what the heck is carbon black? Listen in to hear how Syntoil is changing the tire industry and why a revolution in this hidden industry is so...

After working for the Social Responsibility Department at Converse and changing to a vegan diet, Florencia Gallino started dreaming of how she could make a bigger impact on the planet. What started as an idea to start a vegan restaurant became a rooftop farming initiative that is now in Mexico City and Argentina. This became Sitopia, an urban farming initiative for educating people about sustainable urban farm systems. PRIVATE TOUR OF BROOKLYN GRANGE NEXT WEEK ON JULY 11TH If you're...

Imagine going to work everyday on a 1.2 acre farm in the heart of New York City, with beautiful views and fresh produce daily. For Michele Kaufman and her colleagues, this is their every day routine at Brooklyn Grange, an urban farm with 3 locations, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Long Island City and Sunset Park. Michele explains how awe-inspiring it is to get your hands dirty at Brooklyn Grange and all of the amazing green rooftops around NYC that have been created by this group. WE'RE HAVING A TRASH...

Yvanna Lacémon was traveling the world when she realized that she wanted to start her own project to help the environment. We lived together at a surf camp in Ecuador and after seeing my own reusable water bottle, Yvanna decided this was an easy way to get people in her native France to change their habits. With that, Yvanna founded Oaï (pronounced why), a company that produces and sells insulated stainless steel bottles in France and neighboring countries in Europe. Having worked in the...

 Imagine if your experience of going to get your shopping done each week was meeting up friends, educating yourself and building community with others. That was exactly what Flavie envisioned when she opened up the bulk store, La Récolte, in Quebec City. While working as a server and running her business on the side, Flavie turned her vision of sharing zero waste living in her hometown into a reality. La Récolte now has two locations and hosts a number of events to give others the opportunity...

 Naama Tamir founded The Lighthouse restaurant in Williamsburg with her brother. Before sustainability became hip, the Tamir siblings wanted to open a place that fed affordable food with a light footprint in an atmosphere that was warm and welcoming. Since opening the Lighthouse, Naama has gone from being a small player in a non-existent field to being a big voice the movement for sustainable restaurants. Naama will be one of the participating chefs at the Zero Waste Challenge during this...

New York City recently banned all single-use plastic from being purchased for city agencies, including schools and prisons. Lauren Liles is the Communications Advisor for Rafael Espinal, Council Member for District 37 here in NYC, covering parts of Brooklyn in Bushwick, Brownsville, Cypress Hills, and East New York. Council Member Espinal was responsible for this push towards a plastic-free NYC government and green roofs being required now in all city buildings. We chatted with Lauren about...