In Review: Plastics

With five and a half years of content, The Land and Climate Podcast has an overwhelmingly large back catalogue. We have always aimed to produce evergreen episodes, however, and many of our older interviews still have insights and relevance in 2026. 

This is why we are launching a new offering, alongside our usual programming, called 'In Review'. Alasdair and Bertie pick one topic per episode, playing highlights from our favourite interviews and discussing recent developments. 

First up: plastics. 

Following reports that the current draft of the much-delayed UN Plastics Treaty is even less ambitious than the one rejected by many nations last year, Bertie and Alasdair listen to interview excerpts about microplastics, false solutions to plastic waste, and industry lobbying around the Treaty negotiations. 

Featuring clips of science journalist Matt Simon, Punyathorn Jeungsmarn (Arm) from Environmental Justice Foundation, and Dr Rob Ralston from The University of Edinburgh. 

Listen to the original episodes: 

• 'Has the plastics industry co-opted the circular economy?' with Rob Ralston, 2026
• 'What if climate politics is about power, not carbon?' with Jessica Green, 2025
• 'Can the world regulate plastics?' with Punyathorn Jeungsmarn, 2025
• 'How badly have microplastics harmed ecosystems, climate, and human health?' with Matt Simon, 2022

Further reading: 

• 'Leaked memo shows how U.S. aims to weaken global limits on plastic pollution', Washington Post, August 2026
• 'UN plastic treaty is going backwards, experts say', The Guardian, August 2026
• 'The Global Plastics Treaty must include production reduction', Land and Climate Review, 2025
• 'There is so much to say about plastic pollution. Why are we not talking about it?', Land and Climate Review, 2023
• A Poison Like No Other: How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies by Matt Simon, 2022

Find all our latest investigations, features and interviews at www.landclimate.org