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The Live Lightly Podcast, hosted by Jessica Franklin, a busy mom, wellness enthusiast, and Mother Nature lover, focuses on living a sustainable and healthy lifestyle and empowering busy moms to do the same. Jessica shares her journey of eliminating chemicals and plastic from her household and discusses the challenges of finding truly sustainable products amongst greenwashing. The podcast features interviews with founders of sustainable companies, who share their stories and the obstacles they faced to make their products healthy for you and the planet. Experts on environmental issues and chemicals also provide insights on the connection between household products and food and people's health and the environment. The Live Lightly Podcast empowers and inspires busy moms to make sustainable choices for their families and Mother Earth!
Jessica (00:01)
Hello and welcome back to the Live Lightly podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Franklin. And today I am joined by our good friend by now, Aidan Charron. He's the Associate Director of Global Earth Day with the Earth Day Organization. Welcome Aidan.
Aidan Charron (00:17)
Thank you so much for having me.
Jessica (00:18)
Yes, of course. Thank you for coming back. We're here today to talk about a really important topic. Babies vs Plastic is a report that the Earth Day Organization released a little while ago. And I just wanted to chat with you about this because no matter if you've listened to the first couple of episodes where Aidan joined me to discuss plastic, I think that this is an area of our lives that is just now coming to the surface in general.
Aidan Charron (00:21)
Yeah.
Jessica (00:47)
And it's just now starting to be scientifically researched and there's some not so wonderful as you would call it bummer situations going on with this topic. So I'm just gonna let you take the floor and tell us all about it.
Aidan Charron (01:05)
Yeah, so we released the Babies vs Plastic report in November of 2023, so last year. And we released it directly prior to the Intergovernmental Negotiation and Committee meeting taking place in Nairobi to discuss the Plastics Treaty, the Global Plastics Treaty, the UN Plastics Treaty, whatever you want to call it, and kind of to bring more attention to the health aspects of plastic and what's more concerning.
to health and our children's health especially. I don't have children of my own. I have a niece and a nephew. My nephew just recently celebrated his fourth birthday and my niece was born back in March of this year. So don't have children, but I have children in the family. And we thought it was just really important to discuss the health issues related to our children because there's a lot of health issues that come with plastic and it's additive chemicals. Some of them include, you
autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit, hyperactivity disorder, well as obesity, type 2 diabetes, infertility, and then also an increase in cancer rates among children and among adults as well.
Jessica (02:21)
Yeah, that's a lot. I feel like prior to some of this more recent research, a lot of those things were being looked at as maybe caused by diet or maybe in some cases by vaccination. But now there's some new information coming through that plastics has its role as well.
Is it coming from consumption of food or is it coming from exposure to plastics? where are we at on that? It sounds like it could be a combination.
Aidan Charron (02:54)
Yes. The answer is yes. It's coming from a combination of exposure via consumption. like you said, eating, also exposure via the air. Unfortunately, plastic breaks down, breaks down into small particles. Those particles can end up essentially in any place at any time, anywhere. Plastic has been found, know, bottom of the Marianas Trench, deepest point in our ocean, to the top of Mount Everest.
Jessica (02:57)
Okay.
Mm. Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Aidan Charron (03:24)
to places untouched by humans for hundreds of years in the French and Swiss Alps. So, plastic is everywhere. You can't avoid it at this point, unfortunately. But the bigger issue when it comes to our children and our babies is, you know, the vast majority of them spend up to 90 % of their time indoors. That could be different for each family. Some are going to be outside more than others, but the vast majority of their time is indoors for the most part.
Jessica (03:33)
Mm
Mm
Mm
Aidan Charron (03:54)
And because of how much plastic we have in our lives and we're constantly surrounded by it, it's flaking these particles off into the air and they're consuming it that way, breathing it in. Like if you look around your house right now, I'm sure the vast majority of the listeners have plastic within their viewpoint. They may not think of this, but you know, I'm looking at my carpet. It's made of plastic fibers. I need to make that switch. My flooring is made of plastic. and you know, I have a
Jessica (04:04)
Mm
Mm
Aidan Charron (04:23)
Think of lip balm from my wife that's made of a plastic in front of me, a microfiber thing for my glasses, made of a plastic, just slowly accumulates over time. And then the bigger issue is children and babies are more tactile when it comes to their interactions with the world. They're going to put things in their mouths, they're going to chew on things, they're trying to learn what everything is, and that's how they do it. That means they are ingesting more of the plastic when compared to adults, for the most part.
Jessica (04:40)
Mm.
Aidan Charron (04:53)
That's frightening and scary, but there are solutions to the problem. You just have to start moving away in your life as well. The other issue is plastic becomes so pervasive, we're finding it inside of breast milk, and we're also finding it inside of dairy milk. So because of how common plastic is and how often it's used in the world, it's everywhere.
Jessica (04:55)
Yeah.
Yeah, that's interesting. That's one I haven't actually heard yet. I know a lot of the listeners probably haven't heard it's being found in breast milk, but that makes sense being that, you know, people are exposed to plastic all the time. But cow's milk?
Aidan Charron (05:32)
Yes, so plastic is really good at getting into water as well. So they're ingesting it that way and then it's not as easily processed. I mean, if it's going to end up in breast milk, it's going to end up in cow milk.
Jessica (05:37)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sure,
Aidan Charron (05:48)
Yeah, it all comes from how microplastic or plastic becomes a microplastic and how plastic breaks down so plastic doesn't ever truly degrade or break down the same way. Like wood is eventually going to return to its base materials, its base elements. Cotton is going to return to its base elements. Most of our materials around the world are going to basically, over time, eventually break down. Plastic, on the other hand, just becomes smaller and smaller and smaller.
and still holds that same structure, and with it, it's carrying those dangerous chemicals that are associated with so many different health effects.
Jessica (06:23)
Yes, and it's something to think about when it's put that way that we are putting this out into the environment and we're not quite sure how to clean it up. And so that's one layer, of awareness that we can.
take from this for sure. And in addition to that, how exposed our babies are from day one. I've even read reports and I think your report was maybe something that laid the foundation and then it led me to, different information that I researched that was talking about how they're exposed from, basically the moment they're conceived
Aidan Charron (06:58)
Yeah, yeah, so, plastic is also found in the placenta and it just comes from the consumption of the mother consuming the foods or the birthing person consuming the foods that just end up having plastic in them, unfortunately, and that can lead to issues. The big one we see and the one that people probably be most familiar with is something called endocrine disruption. I'm not a scientist in terms of I don't have a PhD in a certain.
Jessica (06:59)
Mm -hmm.
Mm
Aidan Charron (07:25)
Discipline but I spend a lot of time talking to these people and my job at Earth day.org is to be a translator for these scientists They can go talk about these issues for three hours at a time and the vast majority of people are to be like What the hell's going on? What are you talking about? And my job is to take that information condense it and make it so I can understand it and frankly
Jessica (07:33)
Mm
Aidan Charron (07:50)
So my family can understand it. I go to my wife and be like, do you get what I'm saying here? And she'd be like, yes. I'm like, perfect. I can talk about it. Endocrine disruption is the big one. The endocrine system describes a series of interconnected glands and organs working together within your body to manage your metabolism, your reproduction, your development, your mood, everything. People associate it most with hormones. And when people hear hormones, they think,
Jessica (07:57)
Yeah.
Aidan Charron (08:19)
It's only time I get really worried about hormones. But hormones are really important to keeping things running. And the chemicals that are used in the production of plastic, that are added to plastic to give certain materials cause something coined by Dr. P. Myers from the Endocrine Society called endocrine disruptors or endocrine disrupting chemicals, EDCs.
Jessica (08:41)
Mm
Aidan Charron (08:42)
When they disrupt it they can lead to these issues such as autism spectrum disorder and all those other things that are listed by just interrupting the way the hormones operate within your body and they just change it. It can be scary. Something that really opened up the eyes of the community was the effect of something known as BPA, Bicephalol A. I sure used to plastic bottles in my house. I'm sure I can dig one up that says BPA -free on
Jessica (08:56)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Aidan Charron (09:13)
they did issue with doing that and it's great that we got rid of BPA because it was associated with health risks for children. So it's no longer legal to use it, at least in the United States for baby bottles. We can't use BPA or companies will say they're not using BPA. The issue is plastic and the industry is really good at what they do and they're really good at coming up with different chemicals that do the exact same thing.
operate in the same way. So what they're able to do is take BPA, move a molecule a little bit, it becomes BPS. And then BPS, same effects, but it doesn't have the same amount of regulations. And then those regulations don't break down, they don't move down to that. So people are exposing themselves to these issues.
Jessica (10:06)
Yeah, that's pretty scary that they can actually have something that's been proven to cause some harm. And well, we now need to pivot and get rid of it. And what are we going to do? And they don't have to prove that the new thing that they're going to use in its place is not causing the same or worse harm first. It's just, wow.
Aidan Charron (10:28)
Yeah, we're seeing, researchers are seeing an uptick in autism spectrum disorder around the world over the last decade or so. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the America's leading public health science -based, really great data -driven organization has seen this increase. And in one report from 2023, they focused on eight -year -olds. found one out of every 36 children of this age group.
had some form of autism spectrum disorder. were on the spectrum for it. This is an increase from 2021, which found it was one in 44, increase from 2006, that was one in 110. And just keep going down the line. And of course, we have better testing and diagnosis for autism spectrum disorder. But it also is a link between the direct usage and the direct increase of plastic as well.
Jessica (11:07)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Aidan Charron (11:26)
And then we've seen this link in certain plastics like polyethylene and these traits in mice. So mice were exposed to water that was tested, cleared of any plastic or any chemical and then water that had the chemical. And the mice that were exposed to it had a higher increase in autism spectrum disorder issues similar to that that would be present in humans.
Jessica (11:43)
Mm
Aidan Charron (11:53)
We sell the same thing in dementia with dementia and the link between plastic and dementia. Dr. Jamie Robinson released a report last year, in believe August of this year, August of last year, so almost a year ago today, talking about the different ways plastic exposure can lead to dementia -like symptoms in lab rats. It wasn't her intention to do that. She told me, I spoke with her a few times, and she was like, our intention was not to study
Jessica (11:53)
Hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Aidan Charron (12:23)
you know, the effects of plastic on rats. But we found that lab rats that were exposed to more plastic tended to show the traits for dementia and antisocial disorder as compared to ones that were not. And it didn't take long. was three weeks of exposure, saw a sharp increase, especially in older rats. And that's just starting down the list. And all of these are because of the endocrine disrupting chemicals.
Jessica (12:45)
Mm -hmm.
Wow. So, you're saying that these endocrine disrupting chemicals are in the baby bottles and what other types of items can we be aware of?
Aidan Charron (13:04)
Yeah, baby bottles, plastic toys, playgrounds now have what was recycled tires. You'll see it on the ground. It's like looks like recycled rubber, a lot of our rubber is actually plastic now. So that's another route of exposure. There are unfortunately a lot of pacifiers also have plastic on them. They're putting that directly in their mouths and then baby bottles. You should really
Jessica (13:08)
Mm
Mm -hmm.
Mm
Mm -hmm.
Aidan Charron (13:34)
move to an actually inert material like glass. Glass is at least as far as we know as of right now, is an inert material and not carrying that same amount of chemicals. It's more easily recyclable. All those other things that make it a better material than plastic. just to go down the list of other issues that are brought from this endocrine disruption, it's linked to infertility as well. We're seeing an increase in male infertility.
Jessica (13:38)
Mm -hmm.
Right?
Mm
Aidan Charron (14:02)
infertility especially and we're linking that to specifically polystyrene microplastics. They tend to decrease sperm motility so the weight moves and it's concentration so there's less of it. Without the ample ability to move sperm effectiveness is going to go way down. And then you know we saw the same thing with sea urchins actually it discovered how detrimental plastics can be to their larval cycle as well. Pete Meyer spoke at
Jessica (14:15)
Mm
Mm
Aidan Charron (14:31)
the INC4 conference in Ottawa, Canada, and I had the opportunity to talk with him afterwards as well. just flat out said, more plastic equals less sperm. Less sperm equals less people over time. So that's another thing to look forward to in our future if we don't move away from plastic.
Jessica (14:41)
Hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Interesting. this topic is one of my favorite things to talk about. And I've done a lot of personal research about it because when my son was, I'd say, at the sippy cup stage, I became aware of what plastic was made of. Prior to that, I just put it in my recycling bin and didn't know what it was made of and didn't know much else about it.
Aidan Charron (15:03)
Mm
Jessica (15:16)
And then I learned what it was made of and how those chemicals might be not so great for humans. And so that's when I made the switch. And it was super hard to find something that was made entirely without plastic for children at that time. Things were starting to pop up with silicone and maybe like a bamboo baby bowl. And it was not super easy, but you find ways around it when you start learning about
just the possibility of it having an effect on health or any type of other I mean I guess just health and wellness in general right like I guess health is a blanket of all of it not just brain function or you know development but it's all of it and at the time I think it was more of a cancer scare right and now it's just kind of like
all of these different terms that you threw out. It's literally everything that we're being bombarded by in our society right now where children are coming up. And it just seems like out of the woodwork, these things have become much more prevalent, especially like ADD, ADHD. There's a lot of that going on. And just to now know that it might be linked to exposure to plastic makes it just that one more thing.
Aidan Charron (16:06)
Yeah.
Jessica (16:32)
to be vigilant about with your children because I know as parents, we are just here to love and protect our children. And this kind of became my mission once I learned about how plastic was affecting our environment. I I took it out of anything that was touching my son's food and drink, but or,
you know, in my kitchen that was touching our food. But then it became this whole other situation when you start looking at it from an environmental perspective. And, you know, there are a lot of things in our environment that you can focus on, such as, you know, just the air quality and all sorts of things that are environmentally at the forefront of.
Aidan Charron (17:03)
Yeah.
Jessica (17:19)
our awareness, but plastic doesn't seem to be one of them at this time. It seems to be sort of like this slow going, like, you you hear it, but you're like, what, really? And how do I even avoid that? So I just really thank you so much for bringing this to the forefront and talking about it because I think that even
still there's sort of just like a disconnect between what plastic is and how prevalent it is in our lives and how this can be coming out to be the cause of all of these different things that you spoke about. Now would, and I guess maybe this might be a question that you might be able to answer and you might not be, but when you go to the doctor and you get a diagnosis, are they talking about plastic as being one of the causes?
for these childhood diseases that are becoming more more prevalent? Is this like part of their awareness at this time or?
Aidan Charron (18:20)
It's very new research, which doesn't mean it's necessarily bad research. It doesn't mean it's necessarily unfounded research. It's just we haven't really looked into it. And I say we as in the medical community, NGOs, the people in my position, we haven't realized how bad it was until more doctors and research facilities started truly looking into them. And I doubt it's going be a common part of the diagnosis process for another couple of years.
Jessica (18:22)
Mm -hmm.
Mm
Mm
Yeah.
Aidan Charron (18:50)
the reality of regulations and the reality of how slow things can move. It doesn't mean that it won't become an issue eventually, but I don't think it's currently something that's thought about just because doctors rightly so want concrete proof that this is the issue and everybody's plastic exposure is different. I, for example, peed in a cup back in February of 2024 to look at my bisephanol and phthalate levels and
Jessica (18:55)
Mm
Mm -hmm.
Mm
Aidan Charron (19:20)
I was found to have higher than 89 % of the population that did a test back from the CDC of bisepinol levels and I was the director of End Plastic Initiatives at EarthDay .org where I've moved away from plastic as much as I can in my life. Like, yes, it's all over my floor and it's all over places I can't avoid it frankly, but I was like, woah!
My work for the past two years has been nothing but plastic and moving away from plastic. I still have these super high levels. So I think it eventually is going to be part of the diagnosis process. But as of right now, it's not.
Jessica (19:49)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah, so like eventually they might start testing, doing tests like that on a regular basis just to see what people's exposure levels are.
Aidan Charron (20:03)
Yeah, and that just gives a snapshot of like what my exposure was at the time that I did the test. So it could be lower now. I don't know. It's been a few months since I've done it.
Jessica (20:07)
Mm
Yeah, did they recommend any type of detox?
Aidan Charron (20:16)
It's just moving away from plastic is basically the detox is just try to avoid it when it comes to your food packaging especially and then try to avoid it in your clothing as well. It's just recommendations that we are constantly pushing out of Earth Day.org, just be like, look, plastic is everywhere. It ties into what's known as a triple planetary crisis at all three different spots.
Jessica (20:28)
Mm -hmm.
Aidan Charron (20:41)
And so it's just the same recommendations you're gonna hear over and over again, and I'm sure I've said it over and over again when speaking with you, Jessica, I'm just like, cut the plastic out of your life as much as you can. Just try to avoid it where you can. Make the small changes first. Do a plastic audit inside of your house, inside of your apartment. Just be like, where am I using the most amount of plastic and where can I make an easy transition away from it? If you're using Saran wrap or plastic wrap for your food, cut it out.
Jessica (21:09)
Mm -hmm.
Aidan Charron (21:09)
Please, please move away from it. Use a cotton thing wrapped in beeswax that can be reused over and over again, or even tin foil, aluminum foil is gonna be a better option for your health in the long term. Try to avoid using plastic Tupperware as much as you can, or plastic foodware. We've made the transition to mostly glass containers in our food just because aesthetically it looked better, and mostly because I've become kind of a
Jessica (21:28)
Mm -hmm.
Aidan Charron (21:39)
Somewhat of a hypochondriac when it comes to my exposure to plastic in the past couple of years all to my wife looked at me like Can we please stop replacing these things like no no no no no So there's just little little things like that and then you know That's back into the fashion industry as well Fast fashion industry you should try to avoid there's plenty of companies that are really good at putting things out But they're really good at quick and putting them out because it's really cheap
Jessica (21:41)
huh.
Mm
Aidan Charron (22:06)
It's made of the crappiest materials you can find on the face of the planet and it's just the vast majority of it's getting wasted. Fast fashion is a huge issue. I'm wearing clothes that I've been wearing for 10 years now. Not because I took it upon myself to be environmentally conscious but because I'm not fashionable so I don't get it as much but there's better materials out
Jessica (22:09)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Yeah, I think also those materials wear out much more quickly. They lose their shape much more quickly. So it's just not a great route to go. And with babies, they're constantly moving through clothes as they change into the next size. And so I would recommend personally, you know, find someone in your community or a Facebook group or a next door group that is swapping out clothing or
Aidan Charron (22:36)
Yep.
Jessica (22:59)
you know, a lot of people will just give it away and say, you know, come and grab it. I have the size of boys clothes or girls clothing on my porch. So that's one way you can get new clothing without having to constantly be repurchasing. But because now so many of the baby clothing companies are probably switching to this new material, more synthetics in even baby clothes. I know it's prevalent in children's clothes, but
Like when my son was a baby, it was mostly still cotton. And now I'm guessing that there are probably more and more clothing for babies is even, and blankets and things like that that are super soft and fuzzy and, you know, sheets and those types of things are also, and the robes and everything, they're also have flame retardants, right? That we have to be aware of.
Aidan Charron (23:42)
Yeah.
Yeah, I say it's some of those additive chemicals when it comes to plastic are flame retardants and people tend to be like, why would we need that? Why would we need a flame retardant when it comes to a blanket? It's because plastic is petroleum. Plastic is oil. It's the same oil that's going into your car. It's the same oil that's being used to fuel your vehicle. Like it's the same thing. And to make it so it has a certain, you
Jessica (24:00)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Aidan Charron (24:25)
characteristics, they have to add all of these chemicals to it. And some of those chemicals are cancer -causing flame retardants. We saw the huge issue in East Palestine, Ohio, where there's a huge spill of vinyl chloride. Vinyl chloride we're all freaked out because there's a mushroom cloud of chemicals. And we're like, that's terrible. I can't believe we've let this happen.
Jessica (24:44)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Aidan Charron (24:54)
That same material is lining a lot of things. Vinyl chloride is the base material for PVC piping. PVC piping is commonly used to transport water. We moved away from lead piping and somewhere down the middle we replaced it with another cancer causing chemical.
Jessica (24:57)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Yeah, so water filters are ideal for and pretty much a necessity at this point because even if your city water tests are coming up pretty good, it's still traveling through these pipes. Could be, you know, depends on where you live. And also, yeah, flame retardants are not just in their cuddly little robes and blankets and
Aidan Charron (25:19)
Yeah.
Jessica (25:44)
crib bedding, but also I want to point out too that our furniture might be coated with this flame retardant and also strollers and car seats. That was something that I learned along the way. And so when we went from the baby car seat to the toddler , I think it's called a booster at that point, we found one without any flame retardants. So it is a process of learning and
Just making new choices and finding other options and sometimes it takes a while to find these other options But it's certainly well worth it and even toys. I want to say preface that Wood is great But you have to be careful even which wood toys you are choosing, some of the more popular wood toy products are actually still coated with something that makes it more durable. I guess and so those
Aidan Charron (26:33)
Woof!
Jessica (26:43)
toys I would probably avoid even though they're wood and they seem better than a plastic toy. It's still probably not maybe the best choice unless you're sure that the wood toy that you're buying has been coated with nothing toxic. I actually have a baby section in my guide that
can help offer some different options, but I'm going to upgrade that guide and I'm going to add some more things to it because there's just so many items for children and babies that I think now after having this conversation with you could be avoided for sure.
Aidan Charron (27:18)
Yeah, and something I'd like to reiterate, I'm sure I've said it to you, Jessica, is like, it's not the vast majority of people's fault. It's not your fault that this plastic is everywhere. Like, we were fed that plastic is this great universal material, almost as good enough to eat. So we've allowed it just to cover everything without doing the due diligence and, you know, really thinking about a precautionary principle of like, if we don't know about it, we shouldn't use it. Plastic just didn't go through that.
Jessica (27:29)
No.
Mm.
Aidan Charron (27:48)
why happen before my time after for your time for most of our time so it's not something that is your fault we were fed a lot we were told it plastic is recyclable sixteen thousand chemicals go into plastic makes it almost impossible to truly recycle it
Jessica (27:54)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -mm.
Aidan Charron (28:06)
We boast about a 9 % recycling rate globally. If I did a 9 % on anything, I would be fired. I would be failing my class. would not. Like, 9 % sucks, frankly.
Jessica (28:19)
You would be failing life, Aiden.
Aidan Charron (28:22)
Yes, yeah, so like we have more recyclable materials that are super common. Wood is more recyclable than plastic. Glass is much more recyclable than plastic. Aluminum, metals, like we have all these materials that could replace plastic, but we just have to go almost back to an older way of thinking of like we need more longevity in these products. We don't need to buy, buy, buy. We need to fix, repair, reuse.
Jessica (28:42)
Mm
Mm -hmm. Yeah, and definitely choosing materials that can be reused. You said reuse, but I think, you know, going back to the basics is it was done before, can be done again, right? People reuse so much more, and it wasn't as convenient. And so I think that's where reuse kind of started losing its luster and plastic started becoming very like chic and
you know, I guess sexy, right? Is because it's super convenient and you know, you can just throw it away after one use. You don't have to think about it anymore. And now we're thinking about it a lot. So it's kind of coming back.
Aidan Charron (29:28)
Yeah, and there's so many extra costs that come to Plastic that a lot of people don't think about. I've mentioned it before, but just the cleanup cost is huge of Plastic. We can't even quantify how much it's going to cost really, because it's going be different for every community. You have different sets of standards. even the health care costs of Plastic, so there's $250 billion a year are spent on potentially Plastic -related issues.
Jessica (29:35)
Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Aidan Charron (29:55)
in the healthcare industry alone. And that's just the United States. So expand that to the rest of the world. You're at a multiple trillions of dollars that we're spending each year to combat these issues that are arising from this material that frankly we have different options for. It's gonna be a hard transition. It's gonna take a while, but like we do need to start curbing our production and start looking towards more reusable materials or just improve the material we have. Like if we wanna keep using plastic,
Jessica (29:55)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, totally.
Aidan Charron (30:25)
fine. Cut down the amount of chemicals that are used in it. Cut out the chemicals that are causing increased cancer rates in children, per se. I know it sounds wild, but start there and just start being more transparent about what's going into it. Having 16 ,000 different chemicals and everybody can come up with their own formula on how to make plastic isn't sustainable. Like that's just not, we're not going to be able to buy our way out of that problem.
Jessica (30:32)
Right?
Aidan Charron (30:51)
we need to start cutting down on these chemicals to start cutting down on these plastics.
Jessica (30:55)
Yeah, absolutely. now that you put it that way, it's like not convenient. It's super the opposite of convenient, you know?
Aidan Charron (31:03)
yeah yeah we we had this convenient lifestyle for a while but now it's starting to bite us in the butt so let's start i know i know people don't want to like hear about having a change of their life but it's it's really it's convenient only for so long
Jessica (31:10)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah, and I think that once you start becoming aware of it and you start looking at the alternative products. I think that they're actually much more attractive in your home. A nice wood scrub brush for your dishes is much more attractive than a plastic brush, right? I think that green is going to
put black out of business, right? Green is gonna be the new black. Hopefully, right? That people will start looking at it that way and thinking that it's a little bit more popular and stylish to be green.
Aidan Charron (31:55)
it's more popular, it's gonna become more popular, looks better, know, flannels are gonna make a huge comeback hopefully, because I have a bunch of flannels made of natural fibers. And even if it doesn't, I will look like the brawny man and it'll be okay. But yeah, it's something, I know it's inconvenient and it sucks to hear that we've gotten so used to it, but we lived without it for so long, we can do it again.
Jessica (32:04)
And even if it doesn't, you can just be the cool guy and flannel.
I agree, definitely. And there's just a couple of other little things that I wanted to go back and talk about with babies because I think that this is one thing, well, I think it's just one that I want to focus on is diapering because that's literally happening from the moment the baby is out into the world. The first thing that's slapped onto the baby is a diaper and then the blanket and hopefully the blanket is not.
Aidan Charron (32:28)
Mm
Jessica (32:47)
plastic, but or synthetic materials. But diapers are, you know, something that are on the child's skin 24 seven for however many years until they're potty trained. And most of them are made with a lot of different plastics. Is this right?
Aidan Charron (33:05)
Yes, so lot of these materials that you may not think of as plastic because it's not rigid or it's not obviously a plastic, but it truly is. A lot of those diapers are made of plastic. There are some things you can transition to, like we use cotton diapers for however many years or natural fibers, which once again, not as convenient, I understand, but they are better for the longevity or the health of your child.
you know there's different and better for the landfill if you go to the landfill you're gonna find tons and tons of diapers just babies and children poop a lot
Jessica (33:35)
And better for the landfill. Yeah.
Yes, and I think that the number is like, you know, 500 years, but who even knows like how long it actually takes those to break down? Could be longer. And like you say, microplastics forever and the chemicals that they contain are forever in the environment once they are put out into the landfill or wherever they make their way.
Aidan Charron (34:02)
Yeah, I mean, they're...
Yeah, they're called forever chemicals for a reason. We think of plastic when it breaks down, but it's only just getting smaller and smaller into the small microplastics and nanoplastic that are causing those endocrine disrupting issues. Just to tie a big bow on it all and bring it all back together. When those diapers break down, they're breaking down inside the landfill. They're not really breaking down. They're just getting smaller. You have rain come through. We have the water cycle, the lovely water cycle that's kind of throwing that into the air.
Jessica (34:07)
Mm
Right.
Mm
Aidan Charron (34:33)
it's raining down somewhere else, we're getting exposed to the chemicals that way. So it's not like you're chewing on a diaper, you're chewing on these plastics as an adult, but you are consuming it in one way or another.
Jessica (34:44)
Yeah, eventually down the road it all ends up in the environment which we all live in on the planet, right? So I think that that is definitely something that can be avoided. It's a little bit of a learning curve and there are so many diapers now that are made with synthetic materials that I just want to say, it's a better choice.
to not be using however many diapers and it is a savings actually. I did cloth diapering and upfront I think that at the time it was like $750 total for all of the diapers and all of the gear but.
I did the math and by the time he was potty trained, it would have been like $3 ,000 worth of diapers. So we totally saved money in the long run. And it does take, you throw a couple of extra loads of wash into your week. It's not that big of a deal really. And there's just a little bit of a learning curve. I'm sure that now by now you've got like hundreds of YouTube videos that you could watch to learn how to do it,
and to do it efficiently and, something that's going to work for your lifestyle. And so I think it's doable. It just takes a little extra time and research to figure out how you're gonna make that work for your family. And like you said, cotton, and I wanna go back to that, cotton or bamboo, something like that is a better option than the diapers that are now being made with the plastic synthetic materials.
because you still don't want that on your baby's body. And eventually those diapers will have an end to their life. They'll wear out, they'll get holes, they'll stop being as absorbent. So eventually they do end up in landfill
Ultimately, like you want the material at the end of its life to be something that's more earth friendly and biodegradable in some way, shape or form. So I'll just throw that in there because I've had some experience with that and a little bit of advice for parents who are trying to figure this all out. is there anything else that you'd like to share on this topic Aiden before we sign off?
Aidan Charron (36:46)
No, just go and check out our report, I really call it Babies vs. Plastic, which I know can sound a little intimidating, but it goes through all the facts and all the research we've come across in terms of the health effects of plastic and the newest research that's come out. We're planning on updating it soon, likely before the next negotiating meeting for Global Plastics Treaty in November slash December of this year.
So we're hoping to update it little bit, you know, it's not going to be updated to say that plastic is actually great for us. It's just going to be like, look, more and more articles are coming out, more and more materials coming out saying that plastic is bad.
Jessica (37:28)
So you use these reports to help persuade.
Aidan Charron (37:32)
Yeah, we use these, we go to meetings and it kind of gives me a jumping off point to talk with negotiators as well as government delegates and government representatives. like, look, I know you don't want to hear from us environmental people, but I'm sure you are concerned for the sake of your children and your country. So why don't you give it a read? And we found that the health topic is something that
We feel good about in terms of we found the word out pretty well in the past year or so and we're seeing that governments are actually paying attention more and we're hoping that leads to a strong legally binding plastics treaty that has some real teeth to it. So we'll see.
Jessica (38:14)
Yeah, well, thank you for doing the work that you do. I really appreciate your time and I appreciate the work that you and everybody at Earth Day Organization is out there doing, boots on the ground. And I will continue to have you as a guest as often and whenever you have new information to share for our listeners. And I also want to ask, how can we support the work that you and the Earth Day Organization are doing in our world?
Aidan Charron (38:39)
Yeah, just go straight to earthday .org and just click on whatever thing catches your eye. We have the Great Global Cleanup Program, which is our volunteer cleanup program, as well as we do national and international programs. And then we're also leaders in climate education. So that's talking about climate and introducing climate to children and through the school system, as well as through different treaty processes, including the Paris Climate Accords.
just there's something for everybody basically. also have the Pets vs Plastic report that we released last month, July of 2024. So plenty, plenty to read, but I appreciate you for having me on and I appreciate you for all the work that you do as well.
Jessica (39:21)
Well, thanks, Aidan. Thank you for that. And definitely go check out these reports if you want to know a little bit more.
So all right, Aiden, thank you so much. And I'm sure we'll be talking to you again at some point about something that will help us make better choices as consumers and just help us to be more aware about our environment and how plastic is.
having an impact on the environment and our health. So I appreciate it. All right. Take care.
Aidan Charron (39:49)
Thank you so much. I really appreciate you.