Summer 2021

Table of Contents

The Solving Plastic Issue

From the Editors

Introduction: The Solving Plastic Issue

In this issue we explore the history of plastic, its global impacts, and some of the most inspiring solutions we’ve come across.

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Plastic World or Plastic-Free World?

The plastic crisis is tied not only to ecological destruction, but also drives systemic injustice. With plastic’s fall, will we rise?
Erica Cirino

The First Giant Step? Unpackage

Plastic’s largest market is packaging.
Tracy Matsue Loeffelholz

Don’t Let Consumerism Co-opt the Zero-Waste Concept

The movement began as anti-consumerist. Yet now there are marketing ploys, feelings of inadequacy, and misplaced responsibility.
Alden Wicker

Should I Wear Plants or Plastic?

Textiles are the second largest source of plastic waste.
Tracy Matsue Loeffelholz

Toward Eco-Social Justice

The disconnection and buried shame that hold us back.
Nicci Attfield

What Comes After This Plastic-Filled Pandemic?

A new generation of medical professionals is tasked with undoing decades of hospitals’ easy reliance on single-use plastic.
Jaime Kaiser

One of the World’s Biggest Cities Outlawed Single-Use Plastic

Mexico City’s 22 million people discovered change is not that simple.
José Luis Granados Ceja

The Fallacy of Our Carbon Footprint

Big Oil says citizens should do more to stop climate change.
Emma Pattee

View From a Tiny Deep-Sea Diver

I hope to inspire people to want to change, to cut off their plastic usage little by little.
Ravi Koranga

Toward Disability Justice

Don’t forget the plastic that gives me freedom.
Luticha André Doucette

Solutions We Love

Explore Section
Indigenous Foodways

Wildflower Apothecary Recipes

Meet seven deserving medicinal wildflowers to invite into your world.
Valerie Segrest
Small Works

How to Get Rid of Throwaway Culture

Waste is built into modern culture. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Sarah Lazarovic
People We Love

Closing the Digital Divide

How communities are addressing the digital divide equitably and quickly.
Isabella Garcia

Culture Shift

Explore Section
Books+Film+Music

Tough Love for Mediocre White Guys

Getting White men to give up dominance is a challenge.
Robert Jensen
Books+Film+Music

Why Are We Expected to Love Our Jobs?

For decades, Americans have been told they should love their jobs. But is this a healthy relationship?
Alex Gallo-Brown
Books+Film+Music

Survival as Transformative Justice: “Live and Work and Be Free and Heal”

Transformative Justice is not just replacing the cops. It’s a completely different worldview.
adrienne maree brown & Autumn Brown
Making the Connection

The Work of Breaking Free

A conversation with YES! Media Executive Director Christine Hanna and Casey Camp-Horinek, Environmental Ambassador, Matriarch and Hereditary Drumkeeper of the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma.
Christine Hanna & Casey Camp-Horinek