The Indisposable Podcast®

Upstream CEO Crystal Dreisbach sits down with host Brooking Gatewood to talk about her first year on the job, about Upstream’s strategic vision refresh, and some exciting new tools and model projects in the works to help build infrastructure and normalize reuse in the years to come. Resources: Upstream’s Strategic Vision Putting Reuse into Practice  The National Park Foundation Project The ReX Pri...

Host Brooking Gatewood sits down with Manuela Zoninsein, the CEO & Founder of Kadeya , winner of the Most Innovative Company in the Food and Beverage category for the 2024 Reusies. Learn the secret to Kadeya’s 99% bottle return rate, and how their patented closed-loop beverage system can eliminate single-use bottles forever while saving GHGs, eliminating threats from microplastics and unstable sup...

Upstream was recently at GreenBiz’s Circularity 24 conference in Chicago, where as part of The Reusies, we organized a special panel discussion on the “secret sauce” to scaling circular systems. Bringing together thought leaders from multiple corners of the reuse and circular economy movement, Upstream’s CEO Crystal Dreisbach engaged panelists in a rich discussion about the key ingredients to make...

When you hear the expression “the kids are alright,” it’s referring to Sophie Horvath and Joshua Swift-Rawal, students at Berkeley High School in California. The friends noticed that a lot of their favorite restaurants were using single-use products, despite new reuse laws in their city, and they decided to do something about it. They started a project to launch a reusable container pilot at their...

Stadiums are high-leverage anchor venues for developing reuse ecosystems in metro areas. With around 350 million fans attending sports and other large-venue events each year in the US—and using approximately 3 billion single-use items—the social and business cases for shifting to reuse are becoming increasingly clear. The Green Sports Alliance has worked with key venues and implementation partners...

Join us as we navigate the ins and outs of the negotiations for a global plastic pollution treaty with Jamala Djinn, Policy Advisor for Break Free From Plastic, and Rachel Radvany, Environmental Health Campaigner for the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). These stalwart strategists have been involved in all four of the “INC” (Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee) meetings since...

With a background and passion for youth mentorship and career development, Bryan Lewis leads GreenBiz.org’s Emerging Leaders program, which aims to elevate, cultivate and support the next generation of BIPOC leaders in the climate community. The Emerging Leaders will be featured at Circularity 24 in Chicago, where Bryan will also be emceeing the fourth annual reuse awards, The Reusies. In this spe...

From Hollywood sets to festival stages, this conversation with Dianna Cohen and Annie Rothschild Farman of Plastic Pollution Coalition is filled with inspiring examples of how all-star and up-and-coming artists, event planners, and activists are working together to change culture and reduce plastic pollution and waste at events. A great listen for touring musicians, festival goers, and beyond.  Re...

The Town of Banff, located in Canada’s first National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site, receives over 4 million visitors each year and has no landfills or recycling facilities—presenting both unique opportunities and challenges to achieving the Town’s goal of moving toward zero waste. In 2023, they passed a pioneering Single-Use Item Reduction Strategy & Bylaw (for which they won a Community of...

The coalition Reusable LA has been actively advocating for a number of years on several policies pertaining to waste reduction and plastic pollution, including the switch to reuse for onsite dining. Upstream's Macy Zander interviews Reusable LA's co-leads, Alison Waliszewski of 5 Gyres and Emily Parker of Heal the Bay, to hear their key tips for advocates working on this topic. Resources: Accompan...

Even as we see increased momentum behind EPR, DRS and other policies involving reuse, the definitions of “reuse” are scattered and often ill-conceived. Now is the time to properly define reusable packaging—and especially differentiate between returnable and refillable packaging—in the policy context.  Tune into this re-cast of Indisposable Live® (Upstream’s livestream series) to learn from Zero Wa...

Dr Lisa Erdle of the 5 Gyres Institute sits down with host Brooking Gatewood to talk about 5 Gyre’s recent Better Alternatives 3.0 report, covering their latest research into how well “compostable” and “biodegradable” plastics break down in various environments, potential pitfalls, promising contenders, and the role of smart material science and composting infrastructure as we transition toward a...

Learn about some of the most innovative reuse design work happening today with Ellie Moss and Dr. Dagny Tucker, the co-founders of Perpetual. Just two years in, Perpetual is laying foundations for long-term systems change to implement reusable foodware infrastructure in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Hilo, Hawaii; Galveston, Texas; and Savannah, Georgia. They share key early insights about sustainable city-...

Listen in for our second discussion in this series on a Just Transition and its implications for the reuse economy—featuring highlights from a recent Alternative Economy report put out by the Center for Biological Diversity plus the INC-3 meetings in Nairobi. Guests Marcel Howard and Jessica Roff from the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives and Kelley Dennings with the Center for Biologic...

A Just Transition to reuse focuses on putting people and planet first — so simple in theory, and not at all easy in practice. But we can all help amplify the stories that spotlight green jobs and best practices for a transition that include those who have been most marginalized by our throw-away economy. Listen in for a rich discussion with Brett Nadrich from Break Free From Plastic, Marcel Howard...

Did you know? Just $28 worth of stainless steel forks can wipe out 5040 of their single-use counterparts in a school cafeteria. That’s how, one dollar at a time over the last 3 years, Plastic Free Restaurants has eliminated 9 million pieces of plastic from dining institutions around the country. Executive Director John Charles Meyer inspires us with this progress while being candid about the chall...

Host Brooking Gatewood sits down with some of the leaders of Reuse Seattle, which won The Reusies 2023 Community Action of the Year “Building Reuse” award. Zero Waste thought leaders McKenna Morrigan of Seattle Public Utilities and Moji Igun of Blue Daisi consulting walk us through the systemic approach the city has taken to build reuse into everyday life in Seattle—from a public BYO campaign and...

The healthcare worker’s mandate of “first, do no harm” should make reducing single-use waste in medical facilities a no-brainer. But as Dan Vukelich, President of the Association of Medical Device Reprocessors, illuminates—the sector with health at its heart is also a top polluter. Dan has made an impactful 20+ year career of providing hospital managers and policy makers with the tools to reduce c...

Upstream, née the Product Policy Institute, was founded on October 27th, 2003. Twenty years later, as the reuse movement continues to grow, Upstream’s COO & Chief Friendmaker Julie Lamy sits down with our longest standing board member, David Stitzhal—a.k.a Stitz—to reminisce and look ahead. From Upstream’s roots focused on packaging policy, to our pivots during Covid, to the increasing, global foc...

Host Brooking Gatewood sits down with leaders from The Reusies 2023 Most Innovative Fashion & Apparel Company, The Renewal Workshop by Bleckmann. Nicole Bassett, co-Founder of The Renewal Workshop (TRW) and now Circularity Lead at Bleckmann—which acquired TRW in 2022—and Chief Business Development Officer Jurrie-Jan Tap discuss the history and exciting future of this successful clothing renew-and-...

Upstream Policy Director and this episode’s guest host, Sydney Harris, sits down with Judy Hilton, a reuse and sustainability consultant and researcher, and co-author of the recent groundbreaking report Making Reuse a Reality: A systems approach to tackling single-use plastic pollution . The report came about as a collaborative effort between Break Free From Plastic and the University of Portsmout...

Host Brooking Gatewood talks shop with Caroline Vanderlip, Founder and CEO of Re:Dish, one of the hottest new businesses for reuse and game-changing innovation this year. With award-winning design for warewashing machines and software, Re:Dish works with companies, municipalities, schools, venues, and more to help scale reuse, one city at a time. Tune in to learn more about their business model, e...

Fifty years of data on deposit return system (DRS) laws (or “bottle bills”) in the U.S. demonstrate that these programs effectively boost collection and recycling rates, create opportunities and jobs in local economies, prevent roadside litter and plastic pollution, and catalyze reuse.  What is the importance of reuse in DRS, and how can DRS policies incorporate the latest thinking on reuse soluti...

In this installment of our Back to School Series, we head to college dining halls with Alex Freid, Founder & Director of Atlas Zero Waste Strategy at Post-Landfill Action Network. Alex and Brooking talk with two student leaders from Atlas’ fellowship program—Emily Johnson from the University of Wisconsin Madison, and Kailei Wedge at the University of New Hampshire— about their hands-on learning ex...

As part of our back to school series, this episode focuses on how K-12 schools are re-learning reuse, featuring Sasha Palmer and Rebeca Salguero of Brookline Massachusetts Public Schools, and Ben Schleifer of the Center for Environmental Health Food Program. They sit down with host Brooking Gatewood to dig into the Why, the How, and the lessons learned in making throw-away go away from school lunc...