Plastic

Plastic: A Toxic Love Story (2011) by Susan Freinkel. The title pretty much says it all in this well-researched, fascinating book. Freinkel covers every type of plastic, from acrylic to polyethylene, and traces them back to the sources. What are plastics made from? How are they manufactured, processed and distributed? What happens to them after they are discarded? These and many other questions are addressed in this book, which is thorough without ever being boring. Freinkel takes a balanced approach, neither overly praising nor totally condemning the ubiquity of plastics in modern life. Plastics are just a fact of life, which it would behoove us to pay attention to before it's too late. She describes the many beneficial uses of plastic, as well as plastics' awful effects on the environment and wildlife. As Freinkel puts it, will we eventually end up buried and destroyed by plastic waste, or will we learn to use plastic wisely as the useful material it can be? The book gives the thoughtful reader a lot to think about. Grade: A