Readers' rating:
Published Apr 2011
336 pages
Genre: Science, Health and the Environment
Publication Information
Plastic built the modern world. Where would we be without bike helmets, baggies, toothbrushes, and pacemakers? But a century into our love affair with plastic, we’re starting to realize it’s not such a healthy relationship. Plastics draw on dwindling fossil fuels, leach harmful chemicals, litter landscapes, and destroy marine life. As journalist Susan Freinkel points out in this engaging and eye-opening book, we’re nearing a crisis point. We've produced as much plastic in the past decade as we did in the entire twentieth century. We're drowning in the stuff, and we need to start making some hard choices.
Freinkel gives us the tools we need with a blend of lively anecdotes and analysis. She combs through scientific studies and economic data, reporting from China and across the United States to assess the real impact of plastic on our lives. She tells her story through eight familiar plastic objects: comb, chair, Frisbee, IV bag, disposable lighter, grocery bag, soda bottle, and credit card. Her conclusion: we cannot stay on our plastic-paved path. And we don't have to.Plastic points the way toward a new creative partnership with the material we love to hate but can't seem to live without.
"Freinkel's smart, well-written analysis of this love-hate relationship is likely to make plastic lovers take pause, plastic haters reluctantly realize its value, and all of us understand the importance of individual action, political will, and technological innovation in weaning us off our addiction to synthetics." - Publishers Weekly
"In a world glutted and fouled with fake plastic crap we never missed during nearly our entire history, Susan Freinkel's timely book on the subject is the real thing. No animals or children were harmed by its writing, I'm sure—but?thanks to her diligence,?a whole lot of them just might be saved." - Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us
"Plastic is everywhere, and Susan Freinkel explains why.Plastic: A Toxic Love Storyis gracefully written and deeply informative." - Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe
"The first step to creating change is understanding, and the first step to understanding anything to do with plastic is reading Susan Freinkel’s compelling, much-needed, and truly brilliant book." - David de Rothschild, Leader of the Plastiki Expedition
This information about Plastic was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Susan Freinkel has written for the New York Times, Discover, Smithsonian, and Health, among other publications. She is the author of The American Chestnut, which Mary Roach called "a perfect book" and Richard Preston described as "a beautifully written account" filled with "top-notch" writing and reporting.
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