Plastic: A Toxic Love Story by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
List Price : $27.00
Price Save : $17.77 (as of 2012-11-10 - Details)
SalesRank :55610
Warranty:
LowestNewPrice: $9.87
LowestUsedPrice: $6.03
Buy from amazon.com
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on amazon.com at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Posted date: 2012-11-10
A: I was shocked to realize how fast our world became plasticized. In 1940, few plastics existed and scarcely anything was made of plastic. Today, there are thousands of different types of plastic and the average person is never more than three feet from something plastic. Even after years of research, I keep discovering plastic in unexpected places. For instance, the tiny beads in face scrubs are often made of plastic. Or here’s one for the yuck files: It’s also an ingredient of chewing gum.
A: I became both more appreciative and more worried about plastic than I’d been before. I gained a better understanding of how plastic transformed fields like medicine, or transportation, or construction, making it possible to replace, say, a failing heart valve or build Boeing’s new super-lightweight Dreamliner plane. Early in my research I attended a convention on eco-friendly construction and discovered that "green" builders love Styrofoam because it’s a great insulator and is long-lasting. But many of the pluses plastic provides come with minuses. For instance, the qualities that make Styrofoam a friend of the environment in construction make it a disaster for the environment when it’s used to make disposable cups. A: Unlike many troubled marriages, this is one relationship that can be bettered without a lot of pain:Q:Did working on the book change your feelings about plastic? Q: What are the five things people can do to improve their relationship with plastic? Q: Does plastic really last forever? Q: Why did you decide to write a book about plastic? A: In researching the history of plastic, I was struck by how our relationship with it resembled a love affair gone bad. People initially were infatuated with these new materials, eager to use them in every possible way. In the ‘40s, pollsters found that "cellophane" was considered one of the most beautiful words in the English language, after "mother" and "memory.
Read more Plastic: A Toxic Love Story
Plastic: A Toxic Love Story Feature
No comments:
Post a Comment