Plastic: A Toxic Love Story

by Susan Freinkel

“This eloquent, elegant book thoughtfully plumbs the . . . consequences of our dependence on plastics” (The Boston Globe, A Best Nonfiction Book of 2011).   From pacemakers to disposable bags, plastic built the modern world. But a century into our love affair, we’re starting to realize it’s not such a healthy relationship. As journalist Susan Freinkel points out in this eye-opening book, we’re at a crisis point. Plastics draw on dwindling fossil fuels, leach harmful chemicals, litter landscapes, and destroy marine life. We’re drowning in the stuff, and we need to start making some hard choices.   Freinkel tells her story through eight familiar plastic a comb, a chair, a Frisbee, an IV bag, a disposable lighter, a grocery bag, a soda bottle, and a credit card. With a blend of lively anecdotes and analysis, she sifts through scientific studies and economic data, reporting from China and across the United States to assess the real impact of plastic on our lives.   Her conclusion is severe, but not without hope. Plastic points the way toward a new creative partnership with the material we love, hate, and can’t seem to live without.   “When you write about something so ubiquitous as plastic, you must be prepared to write in several modes, and Freinkel rises to this task. . . . She manages to render the most dull chemical reaction into vigorous, breathless sentences.” —SF Gate   “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   “A compulsively interesting story. Buy it (with cash).” —Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature   “What a great read—rigorous, smart, inspiring, and as seductive as plastic itself.” —Karim Rashid, designer  

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Environment, History, Sustainability, Health, Audiobook

341 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Susan Freinkel is the author of American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree. She is a San Francisco based writer who most often writes about science and medicine. Her articles have appeared in a variety of publications including: Discover, Smithsonian, Reader's Digest, the new York Times, Health and Real Simple. American Chestnut is her first book."

Reviews

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I became interested in this book when I saw a show on television, showcasing the detrimental effect plastic is having on our environment and in our oceans. They showed Midway Island. Where an environmentalist had divided plastic garbage into definitive piles. The amounts were staggering, but even worse is that is killing birds and ocean dwellers in horrific numbers.

This book could have been dry, reading about plastic for hundreds of pages, but it wasn't. The author does s great job using common things like Combs, frisbees and children's toys, plastic bags, bottles, credit cards, to tell the story of plastic. As you read one cannot help realizing how totally dependent our society is on plastic. It is virtually everywhere, even my asthma inhaler is plastic. The amount of plastic in our lives is staggering, but so is the damage they do. Those with the know how are working on biodegradable plastic now, plastics with less toxicity, and after reading this I can't help but feel, the sooner the better.

[Beth Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the beginning of 2009, I sat in an Oakland Cafe with San Francisco journalist Susan Freinkel, explaining my plastic-free life. She was working on a book about the story of plastic and wanted to hear my point of view, which of course I shared enthusiastically, even dragging her off the butcher shop with me and my stainless steel pot to buy plastic-free meat for my cats.

Now that her book Plastic: A Toxic Love Story has been released, I’m happy to give it a hearty recommendation. This is neither a dry environmental text nor alarmist rant. Telling the story of plastic through eight everyday plastic items — a comb, plastic chair, Frisbee, hospital IV bag, disposable lighter, grocery bag, soda bottle, and credit card — the book describes both the hopes and hazards of plastic in a conversational style that’s hard to put down.

The title of the book is appropriate. In the first chapters, Freinkel’s enthusiasm for her subject matches the excitement the inventors of plastics and plastic products must have felt in their quest to devise replacements for natural substances — often from endangered species — that were running out: ivory, tortoise shell, shellac, etc. The problem solvers who created our early synthetic polymers had no idea of the consequences their products would create for the future. They wanted to make life easier and better, and their stories are fascinating.

But of course, love affairs don’t last forever, and one by one, Freinkel lists and elaborates on the problems with plastic. Believe me, she gets them all: made from fossil fuels, full of toxic chemicals (not just the polymers but the mystery additives, about which I am incessantly ranting), poisoning the oceans and harmful to wildlife, seldom actually recycled (mostly downcycled), and on and on. She takes us to China where most plastic products are produced and where most of our plastic recycling is done, noting the working conditions of the employees who labor for a fraction of what an American worker would be paid.

And we visit the Neonatal Unit of a hospital where premature babies are kept alive in plastic boxes with plastic tubing running through their bodies, plastic that saves their lives in the short-term only to have damaging effects from endocrine disrupting chemicals as their systems develop later on. What I loved? She not only tells us phthalates like DEHP in PVC are harmful, she explains exactly how they operate in the body in a way that any lay person like me can easily understand. The book is full of gems like that.

Freinkel goes on to explain the history of plastic bags and bottles, how they came to replace paper and glass, the grassroots efforts now being waged to either eliminate them, in the case of bags, or get manufacturers to take responsibility for their recycling, in the case of bottles, and the strategies used by the American Chemistry Council to defeat these efforts, strategies she compares to those employed by the tobacco industry.

But lest you think Susan Freinkel is an activist, keep in mind that she is a journalist reporting a story. In each section of the book she is careful to report various sides to the issues at hand. And she’s not wholly anti-plastic. As she concluded in her New York Times op-ed last month, “In other words, plastics aren’t necessarily bad for the environment; it’s the way we tend to make and use them that’s the problem.” And while she decries toxic chemicals and the disposable mindset that leads to wasteful single-use disposable packaging and products, she also recognizes the benefits of plastics when used in a responsible manner.

Looking for solutions, Freinkel explains technologies like bio-plastics and oxo-degradable plastics — you know, the ones with the mystery additives that cause them to break down. While she’s more hopeful than I about the promises of bio-plastics like PHA made by bacteria inside plants, she’s also very skeptical of most environmental claims and very aware of the fact that any kind of plastic is only as safe as the chemicals added to it. At the end of the section on “green” plastics she (thankfully) concludes:

"But the greening of Plasticville will require more than technological fixes. It also requires us to address the careless, and sometimes ravenous, habits of consumption that were enabled by the arrival of plastic and plastic money — a symbol for which there is surely no better symbol than the maxed-out credit card. It means grappling with what historian Jeffrey Meikle called our “inflationary culture,” one in which we invest more of our psychological well-being in acquiring things while also considering them of such low value “as to encourage their displacement, their disposal, their quick and total consumption."

And then she asks:

"What would it be like to turn your back on that culture — or at least the part of it involving plastic?"

And that’s where I come in… showing that it is possible to live with a lot less plastic. Sure, Freinkel portrays me as extreme. But then, I describe myself that way. I have never said I expect everyone else to live as radically as I do, but that I simply want to show what’s possible. And Freinkel writes that taking the challenge to collect and examine her own plastic waste for a week helped her become more conscious of her shopping choices.

"Looking at the pile of trash I accumulated in a week — 123 items, which was probably more than Terry generated in a year [it wasn't!] — a few things became clear. One was how often my purchases were made on the basis of convenience. Do I really need to buy zucchini from Trader Joe’s, where it comes nestled on a plastic tray, covered in plastic wrap, with little plastic stickers adorning every individual squash?"

Plastic: A Toxic Love Story is a fantastic read, well-researched, interesting, and informative. But it is not prescriptive. While it ends with a general call to action, it provides no recipe for action, either on the personal or collective level. And that’s fine. Freinkel is a journalist, not an activist. That’s where my book Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too comes in…in June 2012 (and available on Kindle now.)

Source: My Plastic-free Life (http://s.tt/12tbK)

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Manufacturers have long chosen plastic for their products on the basis of price and functionality. But creating a more sustainable relationship with plastics will require a new dexterity on our part. It will require us to think about the entire life cycle of the products we create and use.”

Susan Freinkel looks at the history of plastic, and how it has become so pervasive in our everyday lives over a relatively short period of time (starting in the mid-twentieth century). She also informs the reader about its chemistry, manufacturing, uses, and the many challenges faced in disposing of a substance that is not biodegradable. It is structured through examining eight plastic items: the comb, molded chairs, the Frisbee, IV bags, lighters, grocery bags, bottles, and credit cards. Freinkel makes her points using anecdotes as well as statistics: “In 1960, the average American consumed about thirty pounds of plastic products. Today, we’re each consuming more than three hundred pounds of plastics a year.” She provides a balanced picture of the plastics that make our lives more convenient even as they complicate the choices and tradeoffs we must face as payment for those conveniences.

There is a vast amount of information in this book. It explains the various types of plastics and provides a helpful glossary at the end. It examines the feasibility of “bioplastics,” recycling methods that have succeeded (and failed), and ideas for raising awareness. It provides the details of how plastics break down. In sunlight, it takes an extremely long time, but in the ocean, denied access to light, it sinks to the bottom and stays there. It ends up in the bellies of fish, birds, and other animals, doing irreparable harm to wildlife. “I'm not out there suggesting that we should ban every plastic product. But there are some whose environmental costs exceed their utility, and the [plastic] bag is one of them.” It is detailed, well-researched, and thought-provoking.

[Adhityani · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute eye opener. As someone who calls herself eco-conscious, I am already aware of the dangers bit and pieces of plastic pose to our health and environment. But I must say I have been oblivious to the history and the science of plastic, and I also refused to think about plastic as a material upon which so much of mankind's modern convenience and, to some extent, survival depends. And to me, plastic is plastic, it is an evil embodiment that we need to strive to banish, starting with the plastic bag.

But I was wrong and, boy, I could not have been so wrong! Freinkel not only has opened my eye to the myriad of complex processes and the sprawling and highly networked world of the plastic industry, but she has also made me realise that not all plastic is plastic (read: evil). By tracing the story of mankind's infatuation with plastic and, eventually, its distaste to it, Freinkel made very good points: That humans have forged a permanent relationship with plastic and that saving the planet does not require purging plastic, instead it requires changing our relationship to it.

This is a brilliant book, one of the best non fiction that I have ever read. For one, it is very well written. Freinkel, a seasoned science journo, masterfully breaks down entire plastic processing processes into chewable chunks for the average reader. She showcases her excellent research by packing her storyline with information, facts and figures from both sides of any plastic-related debate without suffocating the reader.

This book also showcases great storytelling which makes this a rare breed of popular non fiction. Freinkel took ordinary items such as the comb, the chair, the IV bag, the plastic bag and the credit card as an entry point to different aspects to the plastic story/debate, by revealing little known facts behind those items. I swear, I will never look at a plastic garden chair the same way again.

The icing on the cake is the fact that Freinkel is not writing this book to push a particular environmental agenda. She is presenting the story as such; her ambition is to draw a more or less complete picture that depicts our love and hate relationship, and in her words, toxic, with plastic. Sure enough, she has some aspired goals, and that is to educate people about choices. But it is harmless when compared to some of the environmental books out there, where readers walk away from it feeling guilty and judged. On the other hand, this one leaves readers feeling informed

Finally, Freinkel excellently dissected various cases of individual plastic purges, some rather extreme ones, and policy changes that have miserably failed or gloriously succeeded in altering that relationship. The success stories are inspiring, and in the failures we find lessons to be learned. On top of that the optimism infused in Freinkel's writing will surely leave readers empowered. There is hope that change is possible; that we can "detox" and make the relationship a sustainable one.

[Bintou · Rating 4 out of 5]

extremely informative and really forced me to take stock of the role plastic plays in my life and in our world. I don't know how we reconcile this with the obvious issue of plastic waste that we haven't quite solved. I took a star off for the format of the book. I think it was interesting that she explored different plastic products in each chapter but I think I would have preferred a more straightforward outline.

[Elsie Hulsizer · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a sailor I’ve been horrified by plastic litter on remote and otherwise pristine beaches of the coasts of British Columbia and Alaska. “Plastic: A Toxic Love Story” explains how the plastic got there and why it’s so difficult to keep it away. This is a must read for anyone concerned about the environment.

Freinkel’s book is packed with information on plastic: its history, chemistry, manufacturing, uses and disposal. Most of all the book tells how plastic has changed our lives -- from the first toy a baby plays with to the IV bag providing succor to the dying elderly. Plastic has not only provided us with things, it has changed our relationship to those things. Freinkel reminds us that we had to learn to throw plastic cups away. Plastic has turned us into the disposable society. It has pervaded our lives.

Plastic has also pervaded our environment. Traces of it are found in our blood, possibly causing early puberty in young girls and making other subtle changes. Plastic lighters, bottles, caps and other detritus bob around in the ocean for years. Plastic bags and cups skitter across the landscape and clog our storm sewers.

I was struck by the irony that plastic was developed as a way to use the byproducts of petroleum refining. What was once a waste became a useful product and is now a waste again.

Freinkel excels in her discussion of possible solutions to the physical, cultural and political barriers to solving the problem. She points out that although manufacturers promote recycling to help assuage our consciences when we buy plastic, recycling isn’t easy. The plethora of different polymers, all requiring different recycling processes and the difficulty of separating the many products in the waste stream is a major problem. Then there’s the cost of transporting the stuff to the recycler. I’ve always been proud of the recycling ethic in Seattle, my home town, but after reading “Plastic”, I realize we can do that here because of location on the coast with inexpensive shipping to China. Farther inland, recycling is even more challenging.

The solution Freinkel pushes is Extended Producer Responsibility. We need to put the cost of disposal into the product.

“Plastic: A Toxic Love Story” is a fascinating book and a valuable resource for anyone interested in tackling this problem. Read it and act.

[Cynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I became interested in this topic several years ago when I heard of the sea of trash that contaminated the drinking water of the Intuits, then their breast milk and will contaminate all their future generations of people. What??? Indeed. We have so polluted the Earth that the Inuit who live in the Artic Circle, a place I long thought of as mostly pristine, is in fact contaminated!
Contamination by Plastic --can--> Death by Plastic.

So back to the book. Susan Freinkel does not write the best book she could have. She does not always complete the thought. Example. When Freinkel writes of plants that exude plastic matter onto their leaves, plants that could be grown as a cash crop, Freinkel says that critics disapprove of this crop in farm fields because it would be fewer farm fields for raising livestock. But she does not point out how to solve that stated problem. What I propose--not a new idea: People eat lower on the food chain by including in their diets Meatless Mondays and vegetarian packed lunches. (less effort to make, lower cost, less fighting for micro). Why so important. Livestock costs plant acreage, fresh water (that which went into the plants and then that which went into the livestock.) If we ate fewer meaty meals, we would have farm fields for plastic-exruding plants.

So why do I give Plastic 4 stars? Because Frienkel said what often needs to be said when it comes to climate change: Individual action and government agency--both--must take responsibility for our shared problem of global contamination by whatever destructive force, including plastic. Until this idea becomes a commonply expressed thought, I will be upticking such comments.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as an e-galley from NetGalley. After reading it I now know more about plastic than I ever thought possible. This is not necessarily a bad thing, I just had no idea how much there was to know about plastic. Freinkel looks at plastic through the lens of ordinary plastic things we encounter each day with each chapter devoted to a specific plastic object:comb, chair, Frisbee, IV bag, disposable lighter, grocery bag, soda bottle, and credit card. Each chapter delves into the specific type of plastic involved in making the item, the history of the item itself and it's production, and the larger implications. Although she definitely touches on the environmental impact of plastic the book is not a flat out plastic is entirely evil stop using it now type screed. It is a very well researched book that is designed to make you think about plastic and its uses for good or ill. It definitely opened my eyes to just how much plastic exists in my life. With all the information about the types and manufacturing of plastic it is pretty science heavy, but is still very readable. It's just not a light read.

[Miina Lindberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very educational and eye-opening read. This book gives a great overview of the entire history of plastics, both the positive impact plastics have had on our daily lives as well as the more unpleasant sides. An excellent read, strongly recommend.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're given a choice between this and Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things or The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability--Designing for Abundance, you'll probably have a better, more up-to-date experience reading the Braungart/McDonough books.

PT: Science books, architecture and sustainability, sustainable design, ecology, environmental sci, plastics

3.5 stars on Storygraph

WIL
1) chapter 3: chapter 3 is the content I wanted!! If I were to arrange this book and the topics of plastics coverage, I'd stick more with the content here. Manufacturing and effects. THAT'S what's most relevant.
2) fiNALLY. I'm just really glad I finally finished this. I started it back in, like, 2018. It took me 4 years but I DID IT.
3) a good start. I am really grateful that Freinkel opened the doors to more studies on plastics here. It's definitely a little behind the times now, but the existence of this book kicked off a lot of public awareness and, rightfully, outrage. I am glad that it exists in the public consciousness just enough to get the conversation started.
4) "Cast of Characters." At he very end of the book, there's a section titled "Cast of Charaters" that gives a brief description of all the discussed plastics, their uses, and common products made from each type. Absolutely LOVE that. Calling it "Cast of Characters" was a brilliant creative choice, and the descriptions themselves are IMMENSELY helpful in the reading process.


WIDL
1) What was chapter 7. I mean what even. Contradictions abound.
2) Closing, and I quote:
“Just as individual action is no substitute for the exercise of our collective political will, neither can we simply legislate our way to that sustainable, enriching future we know is possible. Remaking Plasticville into a place where our children and their children and their children can safely live will require us to confront assumptions about ourselves and what we need for fulfilling lives and satisfied minds. We don't need to reject material things but to rediscover that their value may reside less in the quantity of things we own and—as with Della's comb—more in the way our material possessions connect us to one another and to the planet that is the true source of all our wealth.”
C'mon, man. What was that? This book, this CONCEPT, doesn't warrant a soft ending. Plastic contamination is an incendiary topic, and Susan just took that fiery spirit and drove it into the ground a little bit. This is an immediate threat to the livelihood of EVERY single person on the planet, and she's closing it with "we gotta evaluate how plastic Connects Us All.<3" Like yes oBVIOUSLY, Susan, but that's not your closing remark. You gotta close with a call to action! Not something pensive and reflective. I get that she's trying to make people reflect on the situation, and in 2011 that was maybe the right move, but in 2022 it reads as kind of a diluted attempt to distance herself from the hard science of environmental toxicology/plastics.
3) biochemistry. I thought this was going to be more like the Silent Spring of the modern age, and instead, this was more of a historical analysis text. Which is fine! That has its place, but it was disappointing to see the narrative just spin off into accounts of company backstories and (honest to god) the thought process behind chair design. Where is the biochemical analysis of the plastic contaminants! It's Plastic: A Toxic Love Story, but the coverage of toxicity was entirely too brief and too unsupported. Give me the medical journals, the articles, the studies detailing each chemical's particular effect! 2011 was early in the game, but relevant studies were still out and gaining traction in 2008. Why wasn't there more about the particularities?

4) Epilogue: A Bridge. Again, I think this is an issue of time of publication. So, again, I disagree with Freinkel's approach here and her conclusion praising the ingenuity of humanity to make a bridge out of what would otherwise be waste. Seems great in theory, but let us recall that the materials are, in fact, literally toxic. I disagree with the approach that *builds* from plastic waste. The argument for this seems to largely be the idea that"the most sustainable building/creation is that which already exists," but that ASSUMES the foundation is chemically inert, which plastics are not. So yes, while it would be awesome to say we remade our world using the scraps of our wasteful past (full circle! literary greatness!), I think there's enough research out there now explaining why this is a bad idea. Personally, I think the focus should instead be on 1) stopping plastic production at the initial source (accountability factors) and 2) researching and enacting biodegradation strategies. This goes for terrestrial solutions and things like floating treatment wetlands. It's a losing game to try to build from the waste, as it only incentivizes more waste. That is neither a sustainable nor ecologically healthy strategy in the long run.

[Amy L. Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note: Free review copy provided by Netgalley.

Freinkel does an excellent job of compressing the problems and promises of plastics into a book far more readily digestible than plastic compounds will ever be. The voice of the book changes from chapter to chapter as we are first presented with the inception and introduction of plastic into our society. The chapter about combs reads remarkably like Bill Bryson's "At Home", without quite so much wandering from the original topic. The chapter on plastic chairs presents some of the ingenuity plastic allows while reminding us of the limitations of what is both functional and practical to use and produce. This is quickly followed by issues in the medical field which are both promising and dire as we are shown the advances plastics have made in life saving technology, while possibly contributing to later health problems, and what the medical profession is trying to do about it.

Perhaps the most hopeful or at least my favorite chapters in the book are regarding plastic bags and recycling. It includes a reminder of how unnecessary most plastic packaging is, information about how other countries are recycling (something US is not very successful at, and what steps we can take to improve our personal and national carbon footprint.

Freinkel stresses the importance of plastic in our lives, while still advocating for a reduction in the areas where it doesn't matter and better solutions where it does. While there are some dire portions of the book, she leaves us with a mostly positive message without coming off as too preachy or judgmental. Consumers ought to be aware of the world we live in, and this provides a balanced and even outlook.

[Thomas Edmund · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've become a bit wary of books that look like this - after several environmentally focussed books that have left me negative about the future I don't really want any more.

Luckily as a first point Freinkel is very balanced and optimistic in her writing. Yes she touches on the environmental horrors of plastic and the pseudo-island(s) corrupting the worlds oceans, but she also presents the topic with hope and while not many explicit solutions, good directions and philosophies to adopt (although she does end the book on a pondering how much plastic will we consume in 2050)

In regards to content Freinkel's writing is a little heavy and I felt the prose lacked the verve and spark that many pop-science novelists possess. Nonetheless the content was well managed and did not swing on wild tangents or delve too deeply into personal stories as many non-fiction writers do.

I would have liked to hear more early plastic disaster stories and more balance in the examples. I felt like Freinkel cherry picked the organisations and places she would visit rather than trying to describe the world of plastic manufacturing as a whole. Although as mentioned earlier this is a balanced piece, that covers many viewpoints without vilifying anyone (although one of the plastic lovers is portrayed as a bit of a lunatic perhaps accurately.)

The strongest message of the book with Freinkel is to be commended for is trying to change the perception from plastic as a readily created, consumed and condemned product and a valuable resource that if used correctly could benefit the environment and us rather than being an uncomfortable product of convenience.

[Norma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book follows the “life” story of several different common plastic items. Through these various stories, you get to see how plastic was invented, how they came up with ideas for some of the plastic items, the impact plastic is having on the planet, and the impact plastic is having on our bodies.

One of the things that I really liked about this book was that it wasn’t the type of book where they shove their beliefs down your throat. Instead, Susan Freinkel treats the reader as an intelligent person who can make their own choices. She is merely imparting the research that she has found on plastics and our lives.

There were a few things that disturbed me though. I did not realize how many toxic chemicals are now residing in our bodies. I do wonder if it is all due to plastic or if our other harmful habits could be contributing to this.

This book will help you to become a more informed consumer.

In conjunction with the Wakela's World Disclosure Statement, I received a product in order to enable my review. No other compensation has been received. My statements are an honest account of my experience with the brand. The opinions stated here are mine alone

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was afraid to read this because I thought I would walk away depressed and miserable about the toxic imprint plastic has made on my life. Fortunately, the author takes a much more balanced view of the subject. She discusses how plastic has become completely integrated into modern life- in good ways and bad. She does discuss some of the toxic effects of plastic, particularly BPA and PVC, but does not paint as much of a doomsday picture as many. It was rather a balanced discussion of whether we can amke peace with the fact of plastic in our lives by capturing the benefits of this amazing substance while also mitigating the negative affects. One thing in particular I appreciated is the continual theme that plastic has enabled a one-use only, throw-away culture. Any discussion of better use of resources (including plastic) needs to cultivate more of a culture of reuse and products that are created for long-term use.

[starduest · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was incredibly useful in highlighting just how pervasive plastic is in our lives, and it was interesting to learn the history of something we've just accepted as being part of everyday existence. The book was written some time ago, so perhaps we're more aware now of how plastic is bad for the environment, but I was hoping for more insight to the toxic nature of plastics or how our love affair with it is toxic - as the title had teased. I think the most useful section is on how plastic is building up in our bodies and affecting the endocrine system of our children (thereby affecting things like fertility), the chapter towards the end that noted how "biodegradable" can be a misleading term and how green solutions aren't necessarily solving actual problems. This sounds like a rather positive review but I suppose I'm only giving it 3 stars because I became rather bored towards the last third or quarter of the book.

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive look at the history, the qualitues, the faults, themaking of and life after the use of the most pervasive material of our modern world.

While the crux of the message was not news, it surely shocked my system into being more and more aware of how unnecessary most of the single-use plastic in our daily life really is. These throwaway conveniences are a symptom of a mentality that is only interested in the comfort of here-and-now, a pattern of behaviour that sadly easily finds a way to sneak in when our guard is let down.

While the book surely alarmed me it also never took a completely pessimistic stance on plastic. It gave just enough insight in small and big changes possible as individuals, as communities and as human that it also shone a spark of hope.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great introduction to our world of buy, use, dump with an emphasis on plastic. Certainly influential in making a few life changes myself.

[Yaaresse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, that was horrifying. It was also interesting, informative, and comprehensive, but it also was just plain horrifying. Freinkel covers history of plastics, much of which I did not know, and there was much about the manufacturing and use of man-made materials that I knew only the basics about, so I feel I learned a lot from reading this book. The horrifying part is when you read about the sheer volume of plastics made (and thrown out) and see the breakdown of how much of that is single-use crap. To think how much of what we come in contact with/use/buy on an average day is plastics is staggering, even if you think you are aware. To realize more plastic was created between 2000-2010 than all previous years combine is sobering.

Two specifics that stood out for me:
1. Not one of the plastics researchers the author interviewed will microwave their food in plastic containers. Not one. It was the one thing they all agreed on.
2. It is possible for a premature infant to spend months in NICU and never once be touched by anything NOT a form of plastic. The breathing tubes, incubator, disposable gloves, warming blankets, IV lines...everything that comes in contact with them. I was going to say that is amazing, but what it is, is sobering and sad.

The one part that didn't surprise me was about recycling, or the lack of, plastics and how damn hard it is to get people to do it at all, much less correctly. Our local paper delved into this in a series of articles that summed it all up as "it's not happening." That doesn't mean it can't happen, but we lazy bums need to change some habits and put in some effort. And, oh, how we convenience-driven oh-so-busy people hate that. We'll waste an hour refreshing social media and watching viral videos of cats riding Rumbas, but we won't take two minutes to sort the trash we create. We'll rearrange our entire lives to follow some fad diet, but we don't want the "inconvenience" of reusable shopping bags.

Even with all the sobering information, it's not an anti-plastics book. The author points out many things plastics does for us that other materials simply cannot do or has made possible. But always in the background is the reminder that our move to a "it's disposable" mindset is wrecking not only the planet, but the way we live and think about objects. The irony of the "it's disposable" attitude is that the things we use once and toss or simply replace rather than fix are definitely not disposable in the long term. We may use them very briefly -- often only once -- but they continue to exist long afterward, primarily as permanent garbage.

The book does need to be updated. Written in 2011, it talks about the Chinese trash trade in which they accepted some 70% of the world's plastics trash and had built an industry around breaking it down and reselling the results. That is no longer the case. China doesn't want and won't take our trash anymore. We suck so hard at basic stage one recycling that our trash is too dirty and contaminated for them to bother with.

I fully recommend reading the book, but just know you're going to be giving everything you touch the side-eye while and after reading it.

[Emily Samuels · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was interested in this book because of my interest in the zero waste movement. I've known of the devistating effects that plastic has on our oceans and environment and wanted to learn about how it came to be. This book illustrates the history of plastic very well, from the first comb to the dozens of polymer combinations used in manufacturing. The first part of the book was the least interesting to me because I can't say I care how the first combs were made. I did find it useful, though, to know where plastic comes from and why it's become so commonplace, from celluloid to PVC and many others. There is really nothing that plastic doesn't do. I really liked how she depicts the evolution of plastic as a material and it's pros and cons. As a biochemistry student, I found the chemical information pretty interesting, especially the last chapter which covered green chemistry and bioplastics. Susan Frenkiel takes an mostly nonbiased analytical approach to her writing which I can appreciate. She writes in a way that respects the use of plastic in todays society while also showing the many potential side effects. I learned that there are many different approches to the plastic problem itself, including proposed bottle bills, recycling, and ocean clean up crews. It made me realize how many people are part of the picture. I didn't know that the plastic industry is slowly moving towards more sustainable practices. She illustrated very well the challenges environmentalists and scientists have when dealing with the regulations of the ACC and FDA, in that there is no comprehensive body of law for managing the chemicals of daily life. She also had good information regarding the negative effects of plastic PVC used in plastic tubing and why there are concerns with DEHP, phthaltes, and endocrine disruptors. It seems there needs to be more studies on that issue to really show a clear answer. I thought it was intersting how our view of poison and toxins has changed from Paracelsus' view: "The dose makes the poison" and how Theo Colborn, a zoologist challenged his theory in her work, stating that "the poison wasn't soley the dose, but also the timing of exposure." It's also somewhat alarming to note in her chapter "Humans are just a little plastic now" how plastic has affected the lives of the ordinary person.



Polyethylene: most popular, more than 1/3 of plastics. Tough, flexible, moisture proof.
-LDPE (low density polyethylene): used to make bags for newspaper, dry cleaning, frozen foods, shrink wrap, squeezable bottles, milk carton, hot and cold beverage cups.
-LLDPE (linear low density)
-HDPE: (high density) used for grocery bags, home insulation, detergent, household cleaners, cereal bags, milk and juice bottles

Polypropylene: High melting point. In bottle caps, cars, food containers, diapers, thermal vests, space suits.

Polyvinyl chloride (vinyl): PVC. House siding, floors, ceiling, electrical wires, pleather, pipes, medical devices.

Polystyrene: Styrofoam, razors, cassettes, coat hangers, smoke-detector, liscense-frame, pill bottles, test tubes, petri dishes, model assembly kits.

Polyurethane: Tough, rigid. In spandex, lycra, condoms,

Polyethlyene terphthalate (PET): wrinkle-proof fiber, x-ray films, audio-videotapes, packaging,

Acrylonitrile butadiene (ABS): rubber, legos, recorders, phone casings, kitchen appliances.

Phenolics: descendent from Bakelite. Strong, hard, can insulate electricity. In game pieces, dominoes, etc.

Nylon: DuPont. stocking, artificial silk, fabrics, bridal veils, musical strings, carpet, velcro, rope, machine screws, gears, boat propellers, combs, skateboard wheels, fuel lines, tanks, toothbrush bristles, hairbrushes.

Polycarbonate: In gears, compact discs, eyeglass lenses, lab equipment, power tools, baby bottles, sports water bottles. BPA concern

Acrylic: tougher than glass, can stop bullets. In airplane windows, car tailights, outdoor signs, replacement lenses.

-Polystyrene: Styrofoam and Nylon
-Thermoplastics make up 90% of plastics
-Adding chlorine to a polymer can create polyvinyl chloride (vinyl), which can be made into Teflon
-Plant cellulose is the base for "green plastics"
-Most plastics are made of packets of hydrogen and carbon
-John Wesley Hyatt
-Celluloid was used in film sheets
-Bakelite: a thermoplastic, needs to heat to form the first synthetic plastic, made from phenol and formaldehyde. (aka PolyOxyBenzylMethylGlycoganHydride), protein adaptability
made to replace shellac, a product of the female lac beetle
-Total Design Unity
-Phthalate: in plastic hospital tubing, blocks testosterone. We all carry phthalates in our body
-Carl Walter invented PVC (polyvinyl chloride) which needs additives
-Chlorine is derived from sodium chloride
-Plasticized PVC made with liquid di (2ethylhexyl) phthalate (aka DEHP) used in medical equipment. Is chemically stable and fire resistant
-Phthalates are in soft vinyl: food packaging, clothing, toys, cosmetics, paint, ink, varnish, medication coating
-There are about 25 phthalates, only 12 widely used
-DEHP is not chemically bonded to PVC, so it can leach out in the presence of blood or fatty tissue
-Toxicology textbook states that poison is a quantitative concept
-Theo Colborn, a zoologist, studied the effects of pesticides and synthetic chemicals in great lakes. -Studies showed a disruption in the endocrine system of wildlife offspring. ("hand me down poison")
-Theo challenged Paracelsus' theory, stating the poison wasn't solely in the dose, but also the timing of exposure
-Wingspread conference identified 30 endocrine disruptor. Today there are anywhere from 70 to 1000
-By mimicking natural hormones, they can insinuate into special receptors on cells that activate certain genes or block hormone
-Bisphenol A, the primary component in polycarbonate, a plastic in baby bottles, discs, eyeglass lens, water bottles, epoxy resins in can be foods and drinks
BPA acts as a weak estrogen, can bind or block estrogen, causes health effects becoming more common: heart disease, breast cancer, type 2 diabetes
-Sex hormones do opposite effects at high and low doses. At high doses they turn off the responses stimulated at low doses
-Styrene: a known neurotoxin
-Plastic additives are a 37 billion dollar market
-Triclosan
-Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) leaching estrogen mimickers (antimony suspected)
Phthalates in vinyl are odorless
-DEHP is an androgen, which interferes with testosterone
-DEHP is mostly exposed through fatty foods. Routes: inhalation, ingestion, skin absorption. Once in the bloodstream, broken down into metabolites
-Earl Gray-coined the term phthalate syndrome
-80% of Americans carry phthalates in their blood
-NICU newborns at highest risk to phthalate exposure and liver problems bc of it. A baby can be exposed to up to 20x the safe limit
-High DEHP exposure in fetal development linked to less "rough play" in boys, obesity, immune problems, early puberty, allergies, ADD; in girls: endometriosis, miscarriage, uterine fibroids, early breast development, and altered thyroid (all conditions related to hormone disruption)
-"Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the body of fact that exists in the mind o the general public"
-We have no comprehensive body of law for managing the chemicals of daily life
-In Europe, the burden of proof is on safety rather than danger. Regulators act on the principle of preventing harm before it happens, even in the face of scientific uncertainty. They limited DEHP and other phthalates.
-REACH-Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals. requires testing of new and current chemicals that manufacturers have to demonstrate can be safe
-"Paralysis by analysis"
-Hexamoll DINCH- an alternative softener to PVC
-Markets are an unreliable force for protecting the broad public interest, they respond to public pressure, but the public is not always equipped to provide it.

[Kaitlyn Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Freinkel does a really nice job of discussing plastic pollution, a topic that is often depicted in a one-dimensional way (negatively) in a multidimensional way that captures the nuance of our plastics problem. The ubiquitousness of plastics has developed because they have many useful, and in some instances indispensable uses ( e.g, maintaining the sterility and flexibility needed for medical devices, drastically reducing food waste by keeping food fresher, obviating the need to deplete natural resources (wood, animals) etc.). But as we are all aware, plastics are also persistent in the environment, are produced from petroleum, and harmful additives can cause health issues. Frienkel does a nice job capturing the nuance of these issues in a helpful and interesting way.

(Only giving four/five stars because it did take me awhile to get through the book)

[Elise Thanasouras · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this because I was interested in the fact that we are overrun with plastic. To quote the book “We’ve produced nearly as much plastic in the last ten years as we have in all previous decades put together.” Wow, makes you think about what do we really know about this magic substance is currently everywhere. This informative without being too alarming, very well presented.

[Madison]

I powered through this book because it is extremely informative. That being said, it’s also very boring. To me at least! The history of plastic is extensive and the research has definitely been done for this book. I learned a lot it just wasn’t very fun to read.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I started reading this, I figured that most of the info would be outdated or no longer apply, but this surprisingly holds up. That is, in part, because a portion of this is a history of plastics and some notable plastic achievements mixed in with a personal plastic journey.

[Connor Flattley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plastic: A Toxic Love Story is a detailed endeavor into the world of plastics and how they affect our daily lives. I enjoyed the level of detail the book was able to provide. I did think the book was a little bit slow at times. I really enjoyed quotes such as, " Today, of course, we all live in Plasticville," that illustrates the deep connection between humans and plastic. All in all, I think it is a pretty solid book that falls short in just a few areas which is why I gave it three stars.

[B.A. Malisch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative but feels almost a bit too lengthy and tedious. I think it could have been a little less dry and tied in an even greater human element to help balance the long list of facts and details

[Karen]

As seen on 60 minutes

[Thomas Tsunami · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to read it for school so that’s a knock against it. It was ok, it made me think about how lucky I am to not be working in a toy factory in a poor country rather than plastic being bad for the world. So I think it missed its mark a bit.

[Drew Schwartz · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a plastic distributor, I like to read books about the history of plastics. As a Colorado resident, and husband to a professional conservationist, I enjoy learning more about environmental issues. I got a chance to do both when I when I recently read the new book, Plastic; A Toxic Love Story by Susan Freinkel.

The author decided to spend a day without touching anything plastic. But she didn't make it too far. About 10 seconds, she estimates...since both the light switch and the toilet seat in the bathroom were made of plastic. So she changed the experiment into a list-making exercise and that day she wrote down 196 different plastic items that she touched. Of course, many of these items were non-durable items like plastic packaging. The next day she continued list-making with a similar tally of everything she touched that wasn't at least partially made of plastic. The non-plastic list only made it to 102 items.

This led to some reflection and a list of questions, which she attempts to answer in the book. Those questions include:

What is plastic?
Where does plastic come from?
How did we get so many plastic items in our lives without really trying?
What happens to plastics after we put them into a recycling bin?
Does plastic actually get recycled after it's picked up curbside?
How much of the plastic that the typical American discards is ending up in the ocean?
Should we stop using plastic shopping bags?
Is there a future for plastic in a sustainable world?
To explore the answers to these questions, the book is organized into separate chapters about eight common, everyday, relatively non-durable objects that are commonly made from plastic, including the comb, the stackable cafe chair, the Frisbee, the intravenous solution bag, the disposable lighter, the grocery bag, the soda pop bottle and the credit card.

Two of my favorite factoids in the book were:

In the 19th century plastics were actively promoted as a way to replace ivory from elephant tusks for use in billard balls and to replace hair comb materials that were coming from hawksbill turtle shells.
The rapid growth of plastics after World War II had a lot to do with their utility as a way to use the ever-increasing stream of petroleum refining by-products.
Overall it thought that the Pro's of this book were:

It's a good historical overview of plastic
The author acknowledges the paradoxes of the plastic industry
There is a good chapter explaining what the recycling numbers on plastic products indicate and where they came from
And there's an excellent notes section at the back of the book
And I thought the Con's of this book were:
No durable plastic items were examined
No full-scale solutions for the paradoxes of our huge reliance on non-durable plastic products were identified or examined

[James Steele · Rating 4 out of 5]

We’ve had plastics since the late 1800‘s. Companies have been using it to create lower-cost products to give common people access to “luxury” goods they would never have been able to afford otherwise. Combs made of tortoise shells and adorned with jewels. Make them out of cellulite for a fraction of the cost, and now everyone can have one.

By reducing the consumption of scarce resources, and reducing the price at the same time, plastics seemed to hold the answer to all of man’s problems. Instead of being bound by the natural properties intrinsic of wood or concrete, polymers allowed man to create materials that have whatever property necessary.

Plastics boomed during WWII, when the US military commissioned companies to use plastics to replace materials that relied on wood and metal. After the war ended, the plastics industry shifted production to consumer goods to stay in business.

But there was a problem: the American people still had a conserve-reuse-repair attitude leftover from the Depression. They had to be taught how to think disposably, because after all, if people reused plastics, the companies wouldn’t make as much money. Besides, reusing and repairing plastics was not as easy as cloth and wood.

Thus was born our world of disposability. Little thought was given to what happened to these products after they were disposed of.

Now we’re starting to see the harm they do. Polymers themselves are not necessarily harmful, but the chemicals added to them are. We also know that plastics are not chemically inert, and that these chemicals leach out into our food, our water, our blood, and the soil.

Oceans are filling up with them, and they end up in fish and birds, who cannot digest or expel them, so they die. Their bodies decompose, but the plastics that killed them remain.

Recycling is not as simple as we’ve been led to believe. Different types of plastic cannot be mixed, and not all types have second lives.

A good overview of just how harmful plastic actually is, and how we got here. It covers much of the same ground Marie Monique-Robin covers in Our Daily Poison with respect to the chemical section, but goes into even more detail about other additives, and the chemical soup present in the environment that contributes to the rise in all sorts of health problems.

The author perhaps paints too good a picture of bioplastics and recycling in general. She gushes about the hopeful future of bioplastics, their biodegradability and lack of persistent chemicals, but doesn’t dwell on the possibility that these new plastics are still untested, and may have unforeseen consequences of their own. She acknowledges the real problem is our throwaway culture of excessive consumption. If that doesn’t change, the cycle will simply repeat.

[Kasey Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freinkel follows the model of dissecting a topic by assigning iconic representatives to its components. Michael Pollan did this to great effect in The Botany of Desire, and Plastic: A Toxic Love Story shows that this structure is popular because it works.

Each of her eight chapters is assigned to a common plastic item, from comb to credit card. Not only is the history of the item engagingly described -- who knew the politics of furniture design could be so fascinating? -- but each chapter also describes a deleterious effect linked with our increasingly plasticized world. Chapter Four: "Humans Are Just a Little Plastic Now" resonated the most with me: it described the miracle of the IV bag and PVC tubing, breakthroughs that have saved countless lives since World War II. But these godsent materials are now linked to long-term damage disruption in liver and endocrine function, begging the question "at what price victory?"

Overall, I found Freinkel's treatment of her subject even-handed. Mild-mannered "green" ideas were debunked as frequently as the American Chemistry Council's party line. I wish I could say that everything was wrapped up into some easy-to-learn lessons, but that wouldn't do justice to the complicated nature of plastic.


Quotes
The insistent focus on the flaws of each individual study ignores -- and obscures -- how each may be contributing to an increasingly disturbing body of evidence. The nitpicking zeroes in on and tries to amp up the uncertainty that is always inherent in science. It's a strategy taken straight from the tobacco industry, and one that, incredibly enough, was committed to paper in 1969 by an executive at the cigarette maker Brown and Williamson: "Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the 'body of fact' that exists in the mind of the general public."

We invest something of ourselves in our material world, which in turn reflects who we are. In the era of disposability that plastic has helped foster, we have increasingly invested ourselves in objects that have no real meaning in our lives.