The Problem with Plastic - by Judith Enck & Adam Mahoney & Beyond Plastics Hardcover

Book Synopsis

A powerful look at plastic's impact on human health and the environment, and how we can fight back by putting people and the planet over plastics

Plastic is everywhere--wrapped around our food, stitched into our clothes, even coursing through our veins. Once a marvel of modern science, plastic has become so inextricably woven into our lives that imagining a world without it can seem impossible. Over the last seventy-five years, plastic has cradled our planet in a synthetic embrace.

The Problem with Plastic critically examines the paradox of this material, first celebrated for its innovations and now recognized for its devastating environmental and public health impacts. With clarity and urgency, the book reveals how plastic pollution contributes to poisoned oceans, polluted air, a warming planet, and overwhelming waste, disproportionately impacting marginalized communities who bear the brunt of petrochemical pollution.

Revealing the alarming extent of microplastics infiltrating both the natural world and the human body, this compelling narrative challenges the illusion that recycling alone will save us. It unpacks the mechanisms of environmental racism and the deceptive greenwashing strategies used by the plastics industry to maintain the status quo.

More than a critique, The Problem with Plastic emphasizes the urgent need for action against plastic's toxic legacy. It highlights powerful stories of frontline resistance in places like Louisiana, Texas, and Appalachia, and equips readers with practical tools--including a "Household Waste Audit" to track and reduce plastic consumption, as well as model policy guides for driving legislative change.

Urgent, eye-opening, and ultimately empowering, The Problem with Plastic reminds us: plastic is a problem--but together, we can be the solution.

Review Quotes

"An approachable, easy-to-read, and comprehensive overview of the problem, the people already fighting back, and the steps that the average person can take to become part of the solution. . . . Importantly, Enck and Mahoney do not just leave their readers adrift on a floating waste island of existential dread. Instead, they emphasize ways that all people can get involved."
--Shelf Awareness

"An exposé of the plastics industry warns of the damages done to human beings and the planet."
--Kirkus Reviews

"A vivid, enraging cri de coeur against contamination and the forces that have done the most prolific polluting."
--David Wallace Wells, The New York Times

"The Problem with Plastic is a powerful wake-up call and a necessary reckoning. It exposes not only how plastic destroys our environment, but how it disproportionately affects vulnerable communities. Most importantly, it empowers readers with the tools to take action in their own lives."
--Cynthia Nixon, actress and activist

"We can't talk about climate or justice without talking about plastic. This urgent and powerful book challenges us to imagine a world where communities and ecosystems are no longer treated as disposable."
--Catherine Coleman Flowers, author of Waste and one of Time's Most Influential People of 2023

"I don't think anyone on planet Earth knows more about the plastics problem than Judith Enck--including, most crucially, what to do about it. This is a handbook for people looking to make a difference!"
--Bill McKibben, author of Here Comes the Sun

"The science behind the dangers that plastics pose to the health of our species (and planet) has been accumulating for nearly forty years and is frighteningly clear. But far too little has been written about the action that these threats call for. The Problem with Plastic fills that gap expertly. Judith Enck, with her impressive record of successful advocacy, is the person we need to sound the call to action that this crisis requires."
--Dr. Shanna Swan, award-winning scientist and environmental epidemiologist

"The Problem with Plastic is an authoritative critique of the crisis at hand, a takedown of false solutions, and an urgent call to elevate what will actually work to stop this environmental and public health catastrophe."
--Matt Simon, author of A Poison Like No Other: How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies

"Systemic problems from plastic pollution have been hidden and sugarcoated for decades by the fossil fuel industry, which knowingly encouraged generations of 'out of sight, out of mind' plastics consumption, resulting in the degradation of our health, our environment, and our natural resources. Only now, with books like this, are we beginning to understand the full breadth of the impact of plastics pollution and explore meaningful ways to join together to act with purpose and conviction. As this book confirms, there are no easy answers to big problems like plastic pollution, but there is much we can and must do to stem the tide, or we all pay the price.
"--Gina McCarthy, former EPA administrator

"Plastic is in our refrigerators, in our clothes, even in our lungs. As The Problem with Plastic shows, that's not an accident: We're here because of the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries. The road to fixing that problem will necessarily be long and winding, but as Judith Enck and Adam Mahoney remind us, it is possible to traverse it."
--Dharna Noor, fossil fuels and climate reporter at The Guardian

"A powerful wake-up call, paired with a blueprint for action."
--Rebecca Prince-Ruiz, founder and executive director of Plastic Free Foundation

About the Author

Judith Enck is the founder and president of Beyond Plastics, whose goal is eliminating plastic pollution everywhere. In 2009, she was appointed by President Obama to serve as regional administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and served as deputy secretary for the environment in the New York Governor's Office. She is currently a professor at Bennington College, where she teaches classes on plastic pollution. She lives in upstate New York.

Adam Mahoney is a climate and environmental reporter who has reported from more than a dozen U.S. states and Palestine, Mexico, Uganda, and Vietnam for newspapers and magazines including The New York Times and The Guardian. The co-author (with Judith Enck and Beyond Plastics) of The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It's Too Late (The New Press), he lives in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The co-author (with Judith Enck and Adam Mahoney) of The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It's Too Late (The New Press), Beyond Plastics is a nationwide project based at Bennington College that uses education, advocacy, and grassroots organizing to reduce the production and use of plastic. Visit www.beyondplastics.org