Part I: Listen to Many Worlds Traveller, Tiza Mafira Describe a Parallel World without Plastic Pollution.
Our many worlds meanderings start with a fascinating conversation with Tiza Mafira – a lawyer and public policy expert whose work sits at the intersection of climate change, land use and the circular economy. As Director of Climate Policy Initiative Indonesia, and co-founder of Plastic Diet Indonesia, Tiza has spent years working with governments and communities to reduce plastic pollution through policy reform.
In this episode, Tiza describes a parallel world that has largely eliminated single-use plastics and the pollution they create. The ‘how’ might surprise you…
Listen to the conversation using the audio player below. If you prefer to read along, you can also access the full episode transcript here.
You can also listen to this conversation and future episodes via Apple Podcasts - our preferred platform.
It’s relatively easy to diagnose what’s broken in the current world we inhabit. It is far more difficult to imagine coherent alternatives—to trace the sequence of decisions, incentives and values that could realistically produce a better reality. Tiza does this brilliantly. An experienced systems thinker and tireless campaigner, she articulates a world without plastic pollution that is in our reach.
Part II: Artist Majid Rabet Responds to a Parallel World without Plastic Pollution.
Responding to this alternate paradigm, is refugee artist and engineer, Majid Rabet, whose work – shaped by his experiences growing up under sanctions in Iran – is made almost exclusively with scrap and organic materials.
Majid has been commissioned to create an artwork in response to Tiza’s world.
The creative process and aspects of his practice are captured in this short companion documentary:
Majid believes there is a global shortage of imagination. For a circular economy to flourish, he envisions publicly supported and well-resourced spaces where people can learn new skills, rethink the objects they already own, and discover creative possibilities for giving them a new life:
We need to rethink education. Why don’t we prioritise the establishment of centres throughout the world where people can bring their old items – whatever they’ve got – it doesn’t matter what material it is, whether they’re discarded tools, broken electronic goods…Doesn’t matter. They should be encouraged to bring these items to these centres which are all about imagination, learning and innovation. They are established as places for skills development and transformation and they are supported by the government because they are valued. In these spaces, people are encouraged to think creatively, to work alongside engineers, artists and makers to understand what’s inside their objects – and develop new ideas for what it might become next.
Majid’s artwork pictured below reflects that philosophy. In response to Tiza’s world he has made a balletic motorised sculpture, constructed largely from organic materials—gathered from his backyard and local surroundings. The work offers an opportunity to reflect on the poetry and beauty that emerge when we understand and value materials for what they are, while remaining open to what they might also become through imagination, care and transformation.
Part III: The Economic, Political and Cultural Conditions that Enabled Plastic to Flourish.
Having imagined another world, we return to our own.
In this short documentary, The Parallel Effect Podcast host, Daz Chandler, explores how a material that barely existed a century ago became so deeply woven into modern life...
Thanks for spending time with us in this parallel world.
Before you leave, we’d love to hear from you.
What stayed with you most from Tiza’s imagined world? Was there an idea or a possibility you hadn’t considered before?
Share your thoughts in the comments. One of the ambitions of The Parallel Effect Podcast is to build a community willing to imagine different possibilities and pathways together.
If this episode resonated with you, please consider sharing it with someone else. We’re new here, and actively trying to build our community.
A new episode of The Parallel Effect Podcast is released every Friday. Until then, may you keep valuing what already exists, and find new ways to reuse, repair, and re-imagine the materials that shape our shared world.
Absolutely amazing, Daz. Well done to you and your collaborators. Will do my best to spread the word …