Plastic; A Toxic Love Story - Book 49

Plastic; A Toxic Love Story by Susan Freinkel is a highly readable, well researched book on modern America's love affair with plastic.  Freinkel manages to be pretty objective about plastic; she cites the many advantages and advances that plastic has helped us make, but she also tackles the complex issues surrounding all the plastic that literally surrounds us nowadays; how it is harmful to our health and harmful for our planet.

Freinkel cleverly approaches this very complicated topic by honing in on the history and problems surrounding seven common plastic items we use, probably without thinking, every day.  They are plastic chairs, combs, lighters, plastic grocery bags, IV bags, water bottles, and frisbees.  While discussing each particular item we learn about the history of its production, what type of plastic it is made from, how and where this item is manufactured, how it moves through our society and what impact it has on health and environment.  The stories are fascinating ones, but one that will truly alarm you!

I learned all sorts of interesting facts from this book.  For instance, did you know that Andrew Wyeth's brother, Nathaniel, invented the plastic soda bottle?  I didn't!  Did you know that the objection to the environmental impact of those ubiquitous plastic grocery bags depends on what environmental issue bothers you the most?  If it is the fact that plastic takes impossibly long to biodegrade and pollutes the oceans, harming and killing marine life, then plastic bags are the enemy.  If your environmental issue is global warming and air pollution then paper bags are the enemy!  Frienkel travels all over the world investigating the global production of plastic, from the East and West coasts of the U.S. to China and Europe.

The big impact this book had on me is realizing the utter wastefulness and disregard for both our children and the earth that lies in the convenience of single use plastic.  Most plastic doesn't get recycled right now.  It is a hugely complex and problematic issue.  So while the plastics industry has pushed plastic recycling as the answer, it has done little to control the problem of plastic pollution.  And very often that plastic you felt so virtuous about recycling doesn't really get recycled.  What has to change is our attitude towards convenience.  We, as consumers, have to be ready to refuse single use plastic.  Plastic that is used to make your car or your computer or your other long lived and useful machinery is one thing; the plastic is still a problem but the really frightening and immediate crisis is the mammoth level of garbage we turn out at a rate we can't keep up with.  We are burying the earth in plastic garbage like water bottles, shrink wrap, cigarette lighters, styrofoam take out boxes, and plastic bags.  The impact of this pollution is far reaching.

Freinkel gives many chilling examples, though she always tries to be objective.  She doesn't point fingers at the industry.  She explains their position and how these problems developed.  But. . . . she doesn't shrink from explaining moves the American Chemical Council has made to thwart environmental and health measures.  The whole thing is not only complicated on the business/economic level, but also politically.

Frienkel ends on a somewhat upbeat note, because at the end of the book she focuses on how the plastics industry is trying to cope with the problems they've created.  The green movement has helped bring these issues to the fore.  There is a growing movement by governments to hold the industry responsible for the whole life of their products.  They can't just produce something, sell it, and then never be held accountable for the frightening impact of its products.  The industry is trying to move to 'greener' solutions such as bio-based, instead of petro-based plastics.  This, again, is hugely complicated.  After much pressure, they are trying to get rid of poisonous chemical additives such as BHA (sprayed inside most canned foods as a sealant and proved to be a dangerous carcinogenic).  The whole issue of petro-based plastic leaching estrogen into our foods is a truly scary thing.  It affects, in a way scientists are finding to be far more profound than originally thought, the sexual development of our children.  I really and personally think, this exposure to plastic is one reason why sexuality is being called into question and there is this rising idea in the first world, that homosexuality, transsexuality, etc is normal.  I think it is very easy to be confused about one's gender and sexuality if one has been imbibing estrogen since in utero!  It literally disrupts the development of the brain!  It is very possible we, as a society, are changing the definition of marriage based on disorders caused by plastic estrogen poisoning.  I just find that surreal!

For me, I've vowed to:

1)  Try very hard to avoid single use plastic.  The first step is alway to bring your own grocery bags with you!  As much as possible avoid food that is packaged in plastic.  Yet this is almost impossible!  I figure it is better to take baby steps then do nothing at all.  So this shift is going to take a while, but slowly we are moving away from so much plastic.  You have to be very clever and resourceful.  I am starting to  make my own bread and I buy as many things as I can in glass jars instead of cans or that come in plastic packaging.  My New Year's resolution is to limit my garbage to one bag a week.  I hope to start composting and I have become much more vigilant about recycling, because even if only a little gets recycled, at least it is better than doing nothing.  See this list of ways you can change your habits to avoid plastic.  Some of these are little extreme, especially for families with children, but again, every little bit helps.

2)  Become an activist in fighting plastic pollution.  I've recently joined the Plastic Pollution Coalition.  Check it out!  It is a grassroots movement trying to influence public opinion and local and federal governments on plastics issues.  In order for the industry to turn around and really focus on making plastic that is both human health and environmentally friendly, we need to pressure them into it, because, otherwise as an industry, they are just going to focus on the bottom line of profit.  So it is up to us, the consumer, to get our heads out of the sand and be their conscience for them!

3)  Support companies that are trying to supply us with plastic free alternatives or encourage us to reuse plastic instead of throwing it away.

I highly, highly recommend this book!  For the love of our children and our planet (you know, the one God made us stewards over), I think everybody should read this book and become aware of just how damaging our self-absorbed consumption and convenience-oriented lifestyle is.  We need a clarion call to change for the better!