Who's to blame for all this plastic?
4/10/202613 min
How did plastic become so ubiquitous? The answer lies deep beneath the surface of the earth. In her new book Plastic Inc., environmental journalist Beth Gardiner lays bare the key connection between plastics and the fossil fuel companies behind them. Today, we dive into the history of the multi-billion dollar industry that brought us plastic, their plans to create even more and what could be done to turn the plastic tide.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:01
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Emily Kwong· Host0:21
[gentle music] You're listening to Short Wave from NPR. Beth Gardiner is an environmental journalist, and for years she carried around a reusable water bottle or brought a canvas bag to the grocery store, you know, daily actions to reduce the plastic in her life.
Beth Gardiner· Guest0:38
And then one day I read an article and it just was like a total gut punch because the article said that huge fossil fuel and petrochemical companies like ExxonMobil and their peers in the industry were ramping up to actually increase [upbeat music] plastic production- Plastics come from petrochemicals, which are made by the fossil fuel industry.
Emily Kwong· Host1:02
And reading the news that the industry planned to make even more plastic stopped Beth in her tracks.
Beth Gardiner· Guest1:11
To then learn that, you know, this gigantic, wealthy, super politically powerful industry was actually pushing really hard in the other direction and pouring billions of dollars into new manufacturing facilities