Plastic

July 25, 2011
Freinkel's tour of the history of plastic, as told through the stories of common, everyday items, benefits from Pam Ward's cheery and conversational narration. Exploring a material that dominates millions of lives, the author selects a handful of particularly familiar plastic objectsâcombs and credit cards, for exampleâand describes their development, design, and prevalence. Ward captures the spirit of Freinkel's prose, reading casually, even as she relates the environmental side effects of our collective addiction to plastic. A Houghton Mifflin Harcourt hardcover.

January 17, 2011
"What is plastic, really? Where does it come from? How did my life become so permeated by synthetics without my even trying?" Surrounded by plastic and depressed by the political, environmental, and medical consequences of our dependence on it, Freinkel (The American Chestnut) chronicles our history with plastic, "from enraptured embrace to deep disenchantment," through eight household items including the comb, credit card, and soda bottle (celluloid, one of the first synthetics, transformed the comb from a luxury item to an affordable commodity and was once heralded for relieving the pressure on elephants and tortoises for their ivory and shells). She takes readers to factories in China, where women toil 60-hour weeks for $175 a month to make Frisbees; to preemie wards, where the lifesaving vinyl tubes that deliver food and oxygen to premature babies may cause altered thyroid function, allergies, and liver problems later in life. Freinkel's smart, well-written analysis of this love-hate relationship is likely to make plastic lovers take pause, plastic haters reluctantly realize its value, and all of us understand the importance of individual action, political will, and technological innovation in weaning us off our addiction to synthetics.