Plastic is everywhere. Inside Climate News reports that the production of plastic “has increased exponentially, from about 2 million tons a year in 1950 to 450 million tons a year today, with no limit in sight. And because plastics are made from fossil fuels and thousands of toxic chemicals derived from oil and gas, they cause harm throughout their life cycle, from extraction of the fossil fuels they’re made of to their production, use and disposal.” Research has demonstrated that we all “inhale and consume hundreds of thousands of microplastics per year” and scientists have found microplastics in placentas, breast milk, stool, blood, lungs and even in our brains.
But there is hope, according to Judith Enck, a lifelong environmental activist who has worked in leadership positions in the environment departments of both the state and federal levels of government. She is now, from her position as a professor at Bennington College and president of the Vermont-based nonprofit Beyond Plastics, on a mission to “end plastic pollution everywhere”.
To help reach that goal, she has written a new book with journalist Adam Mahoney called “The Problem With Plastic.”
Along with lots of information about how plastic came to be ubiquitous and the health implications of microplastics, the book contains a home audit. The audit suggests what to get rid of and what to replace them with and how you can help bring about systemic change to reduce the amount of plastics in our everyday lives.
Bill McKibben, cofounder of 350.org and author of the recently released ‘Here Comes the Sun’ says that this book is a “handbook for people looking to make a difference”.