Marketplace Money Host Tess Vigeland Issues "Trash Challenge;" Invites Listeners to Join Her Pursuit of "Zero Waste to Landfill"
Contact: Brad Robideau
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Marketplace Money Host Tess Vigeland Issues "Trash Challenge;" Invites Listeners to Join Her Pursuit of "Zero Waste to Landfill"
(Los Angeles, Calif.) September 15, 2007—Tess Vigeland, host of Marketplace Money,® the weekend personal finance program produced and distributed by American Public Media,™ today issued a "trash challenge" that calls on listeners to join her pursuit of "zero waste to landfill." For two weeks beginning September 15, Vigeland will carry her trash everywhere as she seeks to reduce her waste production significantly.
Vigeland will also write regular "diary entries" on the Marketplace Web site and post photographs about her "zero waste" efforts. Vigeland's diary will be found by clicking "Sustainability" on the Marketplace Money Web site at www.marketplace.org. Listeners accepting the "trash challenge" can also post their stories and photographs, plus receive and offer tips on reducing household waste. The "trash challenge" will end September 29. The most compelling listener stories will be broadcast on November 17 as part of Marketplace Money's edition of "Consumed," an American Public Media special series on the consumer economy.
Vigeland's "trash challenge" is a lighthearted effort to highlight a serious issue. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Americans are throwing away garbage at an accelerating pace. Americans generated 245.7 million tons of municipal solid waste in 2005—a 20 percent increase over 1990 and 102 percent increase over 1970. Americans currently toss out 4.5 pounds of trash per day per person. While modern landfills bear scant resemblance to the old city dump, few people want them as neighbors. Consider California: Edgar & Associates, a waste industry consulting firm, finds the number of active landfills in California has dropped from 224 to 158 since 1993. In the next 15 years, six landfills in Los Angeles County are slated to close and garbage will be shipped ever further distances—at greater cost and producing more pollution.
The "trash challenge" is part of American Public Media's fall series, "Consumed," which explores whether our consumer culture is sustainable. "Consumed" is part of American Public Media's ongoing, in-depth news coverage and programming on global sustainability and the economy across several American Public Media programs, including Marketplace,® Marketplace Morning Report,® Marketplace Money, Being,® Weekend America,® The Story,™ and American RadioWorks.® Funding for American Public Media's sustainability coverage is made possible by the Kendeda Sustainability Fund of the Tides Foundation.
About Marketplace Money
Marketplace Money extends the sound of Marketplace to the weekends as the "money show for the rest of us." The weekly, hour-long program reflects the smart, witty sound of Marketplace with a look at the myriad ways money affects us, from the cultural connotations of currency to the cost of college. Marketplace Money is found on the Web at www.marketplace.org.
About Tess Vigeland
Tess Vigeland became host of Marketplace Money in March 2007. She's a longtime public radio veteran, both as a reporter and host. For more than three years, she hosted the Marketplace Morning Report. Vigeland has served as host, reporter, editor and producer for all Marketplace programs. Prior to joining the team at Marketplace, Vigeland reported and anchored for WBUR radio in Boston and Oregon Public Broadcasting radio and television in Portland. She's covered numerous national and international stories, including the Northern Ireland peace talks in Belfast, the New England mob trials and the separate-but-tandem scandals around former U.S. Senator Bob Packwood and figure skater Tonya Harding. She served as Bill Littlefield's backup host on NPR's weekly sports program Only A Game. Vigeland has earned numerous awards in her reporting career, including five Associated Press awards and three from the Society of Professional Journalists. For her coverage of the Packwood scandal, she received a Corporation for Public Broadcasting Silver Award.