A review by jencunn2024
Plastic: A Toxic Love Story by Susan Freinkel

4.0

This book popped up as a featured audiobook for me and I’m so glad it did. It’s not something I would normally seek out. However, I really enjoyed the broad spectrum of history, background, and knowledge of plastics this book covers. I especially enjoyed the author covering both the appeal / addiction to plastic as well as the negatives of it being so prevalent. She does a thorough job with easy to understand context and examples. The only pit for my was the sometimes lengthier and/or dry bits diving into the polymers and the molecular structures, but I do think some of that information is helpful to get more understanding. It just got a bit weedy sometimes. Overall, an excellent and worthy read. This was released in 2010 Or thereabouts and could possibly use an update or a sequel but most info is still relevant and educational. I also really appreciated that while this book covers environmental effects and issues, it also doesn’t get overly preachy, and even presents thoughts and ideas that elude to plastic being a part of our lives for the forseeable future with alternatives beyond the three R’s.

I would probably recommend audiobook over print in this case. I feel that the reader really keeps the subject matter alive and almost conversational.