​Welcome to Binge Thinking. We invite professors and experts to give lectures in bars around Boston, NYC, and DC!

In a world of AI slop, doomscrolling and brainrot, Binge Thinking brings real experts into real places for nights of learning, conversation, and community.

Think Responsibly.

​TOPIC:
The Plastic Problem: The Material We Love To Hate

SPEAKER:
Dr. Diego Alzate-Sanchez, Northeastern University

​Plastic is basically everywhere: your phone case, your takeout container, the cup holding that iced latte. It’s cheap, light, and nearly indestructible, which made it a miracle material. Turns out “nearly indestructible” is also the problem. That plastic fork you used once? It could outlive your great-grandkids.

​And here’s the plot twist: tossing it in the blue bin doesn’t always save the day. That little triangle of arrows on the bottom of your container? It might not mean what you think. Recycling plastic is way messier than we’ve been told, and labels like “biodegradable” and “compostable” aren’t the same thing at all.

​In this talk, Dr. Diego Alzate-Sanchez breaks down the real story of plastic, from its rise as a wonder material to its afterlife in the waste stream, and shows how chemists are reinventing it so it can work just as hard but come apart cleanly when we’re done.

​Topics include:

​How plastics became so useful, and why their durability turned into an environmental headache

​Recyclable vs. recycled vs. biodegradable vs. compostable vs. degradable: what’s the actual difference?

​Why the chasing arrows symbol doesn’t guarantee a product is recyclable

​What really happens after your plastic hits the recycling bin, and why so much of it is hard to recycle

​How new polymers are being designed to perform like regular plastic but break down on demand

​Come for the drinks, leave knowing exactly which bin to stop lying to.

​About the Speaker

​Dr. Diego Alzate-Sanchez is an assistant professor in the Chemistry and Chemical Biology department at Northeastern University, where he started his independent career in 2022 as part of the INVEST program. He works in polymer sustainability, focusing on alternative ways to manufacture materials more sustainably at the interface of polymer chemistry and materials science.

​He earned his Bachelor’s in Chemistry and his Master’s in Science from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Northwestern University under Prof. William Dichtel. Before moving to the US, he worked as a volcanologist, and he later completed postdoctoral training at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with Prof. Jeffrey Moore. His honors include the C.S. Marvel Award from the University of Illinois, runner-up in the Dow Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge, and a patent on porous cyclodextrin polymer materials.

​Agenda

7:00 PM - Doors Open (Grab a seat and drinks!)
7:30 PM - Lecture Begins
8:10 PM - Audience Q&A
8:30 PM - Drinks & Conversation
9:00 PM - Event Ends

**this venue is 21+

​Join us and grab a drink as we unpack the plastic we love to hate. Think that recycling symbol means it gets recycled?