Available On
The Countdown Is On
What is Zero Waste?
Zero Waste is a concept that eliminates unnecessary waste from the regular consumer cycle to decrease our impact on the planet as a whole. A countdown to zero waste is a pledge to reduce waste in personal lives, organizations, communities, and even entire cities or nations. While zero waste living is difficult, a countdown is a manageable approach to get as close as possible.
The Host: Laura Nash
The ocean is on a countdown to 2050, when scientists predict there will be more plastic than fish. Laura is on her own countdown: to get as close as possible to zero waste within one year. Through research, interviews, and personal experience, Laura is on a mission to produce less waste and leave a happier, healthier planet for future generations.
Countdown Importance
Not only are our oceans on a countdown to destruction, so too are our current waste management and landfill systems. Most of our drinking water is already contaminated with plastics. It's time we reverse this negative countdown to a positive one, where we can countdown to a safer, healthier, greener, and less wasteful planet. The countdown starts with each and every one of us.
Podcast Episodes
S01E01: What's Wrong With Plastic?
The convenience of single-use plastics, from water bottles, take-out utensils, and straws to food wraps and grocery store containers has taken over our way of life. Studies are beginning to warn us that plastics contain chemicals leaching into our food and drinks with potentially devastating consequences for our children's health as well as our planet's.
S01E20: Jo Kaminska Foundation
Meet Joanna Ruda: her company Jo Kaminska Ethical Jewelry has been funding the Jo Kaminska Foundation for years, which focuses on educating others about the dangers of single use plastic overconsumption.
Originally from Poland she’s spent many years living in Sri Lanka and she’s spoken to the UN multiple times regarding plastic pollution. But lately she’s been frustrated as the world keeps pumping out single use plastic with disregard for the consequences – and those consequences are adding up.
E29: Bea Johnson On Tour
CNN calls her the mother of the zero waste lifestyle movement and The New York Times calls her the priestess of waste free living. Her book Zero Waste Home has been printed in over 20 different languages, she’s spoken in 55 different countries, and her family of four only produces one jar of trash per year.
Join the ZWC as we find out what Bea’s been up to since her book was published and learn a few zero waste tips on traveling and how to refuse items we simply don’t need.
Featured Episode
S01E27: Zero Waste Daniel
Host of The Zero Waste Countdown Laura Nash met up with revolutionary fashion designer Daniel Silverstein, better known as Zero Waste Daniel, at his design shop in Brooklyn.
Fast fashion is quickly causing our planet a lot of problems - it's using too much water, too much oil, too many petroleum-based dyes, dumping too much effluent into rivers, synthetic clothing causes trillions of microfibres to enter our aquatic systems, it's wrapped in too much plastic, and then the quality just isn't there so after a year or so of being worn, fast fashion is wrapped in plastic garbage bags and trucked away to landfill where it will sit for the next few centuries buried under our soil. How can we get away from this system?
Zero Waste Daniel is changing the way fashion looks and feels - his designs are inclusive, genderless, they come in all sizes, and they represent conscious forward thinking that's very much needed in today's world. Tune in as we learn all about off-cuts and how Daniel is removing millions of them from landfills and spreading a positive message around the world that fashion is about to change for the better.
Guests on the zero waste countdown
19. Plastics & Politics With Catherine McKenna
Catherine McKenna, the Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change, speaks about plastic pollution and her role in Ottawa. Laura discusses the cap and trade system.
9. Recycling With Quinte Waste Solutions
Rachel Revoy is the communications coordinator for one of the best and longest running Canadian recycling program in Ontario. Find out what she recycles in her area.
15. Environmental Defence With Tim Gray
How can we stop the outflow of single use plastics going to landfills and out into the environment? Bottle return programs have been shown to increase recovery rates by up to 90%.
14. Sea Of Life: Julia Barnes
This award-winning filmmaker is showing the world what's happening to our oceans and all the life within it - and it might just encourage you to stop eating seafood.
18. Restaurants & Tech
Josh Walters founded Feedback App in Toronto that allows restaurants to offsell their food in realtime to hungry customers and help out a food sharing charity.
17. BPA In Our Diets
Scientist Lorna Harries talks about her study that found teenagers couldn't get BPA out of their bodies even when they tried, and what that means for our health.