Plastic

A Toxic Love Story

De: Susan Freinkel

Narrado por: Pam Ward

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 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'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. Plastic points the way toward a new creative partnership with the material we love to hate but can't seem to live without.

©2011 Susan Freinkel (P)2011 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Interesting and relevant

Thought provoking and helping me understand how toxic plastic is! The touching plastic test was interesting and I challenged myself too.

nice

Nice gateway book for those wondering what the heck is all this plastic fuzz about.

Immensely entertaining and informative

Never before have I so thoroughly enjoyed reading about materials science, manufacturing, and ecological issues!

This book is packed with information about the development and impact of plastics within the past few decades, drawing from research articles, interviews, and site visits. The facts and views presented are sufficiently technical to ensure one's trust in the objectivity of the topics, as well as maintain the interest of an engineer or enthusiastic hobbyist; still, in no way did I find the writing to be difficult for any layperson to understand. As a mechanical engineer myself, I found I still learned a great deal about different kinds of plastics and their post-consumer roles.

But perhaps more importantly, I found the author's writing to be delightful. Susan playfully weaves a quirky narrative about her journey to dissect the plastics world, enlivening the technical topics. The narrator also speaks so comfortably and easily that I would have thought that she wrote the text herself, truly capturing the author's fun spirit.

If you are an engineer, designer, or some other professional in the consumer goods industry, read this. If you are interested in environmental debates, read this. If you are simply interested to learn how, in only a few decades, we came to live in a plastics-filled world, read this.

Very thorough content, a huge primer

Extremely thorough content. I was really surprised how non judgmental and unbiased it was. I have been on a hippy/green bender of reading and lifestyle choices. I expected this book to point the finger of guilt at the big, bad plastic institution but instead everything was well written with facts and very objective. Narrator wasn't bad, just speed it up to 1.20 or you will get bored at the slow page. I highly recommend to everyone to give a listen.

great book about plastics!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Only certain friends that would be concerned with plastic in their life.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

The medical aspect of plasic.
And the plastic bag.
The book is great at explaining why plastic came about and how each item the writter hones in on made way for more and more plasic to invade our lives with out us barely noticeing.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, the chapter about the chair was a little over the top boring. But I appreciate how thourgh she was from the begining of the chair to how we came to a plasic chair. Almost as if you need to master the concept of the chair before understanding the simplicity of a chair being one (plastic) piece.