It's been less than a century since the advent of plastic. And nearly half of all plastic ever created has been manufactured only since 2007. That's according to a new book, The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It's Too Late. Written by Adam Mahoney and Judith Enck, the founder of the nonprofit Beyond Plastics, it looks at the serious impacts to the environment and human health caused by our reliance on plastics.
Enck, a former regional EPA administrator who served for eight years during the Obama administration in New York, is now a professor at Bennington College.
She talked about the new book with KNKX environment reporter. Bellamy Pailthorp.
Pailthorp and Enck will be discussing the book at Town Hall Seattle at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 22.
For the full conversation click "Listen" above.
Interview highlights
Dependent on plastic
What's happened is we have a glut of fracked gas on the market, and fossil fuel companies have decided that plastic production is their plan B, because they're losing market share because of a switch toward renewable energy and a switch toward electric vehicles. So little companies like Exxon and Shell have decided to go big on plastic production. They're taking the waste product from hydrofracking and turning it into little plastic pellets, which are then shipped all over the country.
Health concerns
There was an important study by the New England Journal of Medicine that documented the presence of microplastics in heart arteries, and in some instances, it attaches to plaque. When that happens, you have an increased risk of stroke, heart attack or premature death. There was another study in the past year trying to determine: does microplastic pass the blood-brain barrier, and in this study, unfortunately and sadly, they found that it did cross the blood-brain barrier, and when that happened, there is an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease and other neurological problems. So this is pretty serious.
Myth of recycling
There are too many different colors, too many different chemicals, too many different types of plastics called polymers. And the reason people are confused is because the plastic industry has spent millions of dollars saying, Don't worry about all the single use plastics you use. Just toss it in your recycling bin. They have known from the very beginning that most plastics are not recyclable. The situation is so serious that the California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Exxon Mobil in September of 2024 for deceptive claims about plastics recycling and chemical recycling.
Where author Judith Enck finds hope
What gives me hope is the women that we profile in the book who take on Big Plastic every day, and some of them eventually win. You know, a city does a plastic bag ban, a school gets rid of polystyrene single-use packaging in their cafeteria and switches to reusable stainless steel packaging. A new business opens up focused on refillable, returnable containers.
There's a lot happening all over the world, and I want to quote the wonderful Anne-Marie Bonneau, the "Zero-Waste Chef." She said something like, "We don't need a small number of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need large numbers of people doing it imperfectly," and that's my view on plastics. You don't need to totally eliminate it, but do the best you can, not only for the planet, but also for your own health.
