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Mary Catherine O'Connor on Muck Rack

Mary Catherine O'Connor

Verified
San Francisco
As seen in: KALW-FM (San Francisco, CA), Medium, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Yahoo Finance, Fortune, Scientific American, The Sunday Times, VICE, ZDNet and
Tweets about the waste stream, climate, plastic, and mining. Big fan of arugula. Climate Reporting Fellow @KALW and 2023 Audio Academy Fellow at same.
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Articles

The revolutionary act of repair

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By Mary Catherine O'Connor Verified
| Dispatches from Kolkata
This story aired in the August 26, 2026 episode of Crosscurrents. Fast fashion has made updating a wardrobe easier than it used to be… but cheap apparel tends to have a short shelf life. Hems fail, zippers break — even before the clothes fall out of fashion. And it’s not just clothes. Many household goods don’t hold up very long, either. Often, these things end up at the dump. That’s because people don’t know how to repair them… or doing so would cost more than the thing is worth.
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Don't miss tomorrow's waste industry news Original

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By Mary Catherine O'Connor Verified
| Waste Dive Verified
This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. As producers prepare to comply with California’s extended producer responsibility law, SB 54, the state is becoming a testing ground for reusable packaging collection and refill programs. CalRecycle issued a set of source reduction needs assessments earlier this year that gave an initial look at what this means for collection systems in the state.
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Low-cost solar power is here – but hurdles remain

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By Mary Catherine O'Connor Verified
| KALW-FM (San Francisco, CA) Verified
This conversation aired in the March 26, 2026 episode of Crosscurrents. Rising energy prices are a huge concern for many Bay Area residents right now. Using rooftop solar power is one way to cut energy bills way down, but that’s out of reach for renters and for many other Bay Area residents. Now, there’s a new type of small-scale technology called plug-in solar. It’s affordable, and available to renters. There’s just one little problem: It’s not exactly legal in California. At least not yet.
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