As a materials engineer, Jade Katherine Castro sees plastic as beneficial. The issue is how to sustainably manage, produce, and consume plastic so it doesn’t harm the environment. In this episode, the Manila-based engineer also talks about plastic recycling technologies, creating post-consumer plastic waste supply chain, and how important it is to ‘go touch some grass’.

Ecology activist Ralyn 'Lilly' Satidtanasarn, 16, is known as the Greta Thundberg of Thailand. Since she was 8 years old, Lilly has been talking to government officials, corporate executives, and civic leaders, about the pollution caused by single-use plastic. She paddles Bangkok canals, picking up rubbish, and she convinced a supermarket to stop offering plastic bags for one day every week. Amid the ongoing plastic crisis, Lilly urges everyone to stop talking about change but instead push forward and take that step to change.

Plastic is versatile, resistant, lightweight, and inexpensive. But the amount of plastic waste in the environment and its negative impacts on our marine ecosystem have been alarming. An Indonesia-based researcher talks about the magnitude of the problem and how young people can help address marine plastic litter issue.