Plastic Purge

March 1, 2014
A breezy yet highly informative trek through our plasticized world coupled with tips for reducing plastic from your life. Ecologist and journalist SanClements, the associate director of the Hydrolic Sciences graduate program at the University of Colorado, provides an accessible starting point for improving personal and planetary health. His journey into the realities of our plastic environment began with a simple plan, as he started documenting each plastic item he encountered during a typical day. Next, the author and his partner embarked on a larger experiment: to not purchase or create plastic waste for two weeks. SanClements blogged about his experience on an environmental website and was deluged with responses requesting information. "When you start to dig into the effects of our plastic consumption, they go far beyond the obvious and visible," he writes. "There are environmental and health-related effects that you've never considered, and there is plastic in places you never expected it to be." SanClements divides the narrative into four digestible sections. The first is a review of the history of plastics. Next, the author wades into the science of plastic usage, then moves on to his classification of plastics: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The author concludes with a remarkably helpful guide to "help you reduce plastic consumption, keep toxins out of your body, and spare Mother Nature the excess waste." Thankfully, SanClements is never self-righteous or heavy-handed. The author understands that not all plastics are bad, and its uses have ensured that contemporary life is safer, easier and more efficient. The author also examines modern medical and scientific equipment, energy-saving home building materials and food safety. Nevertheless, he writes, "at some point, we got lazy, lost our way, or were seduced by the convenience of plastic, and now we find ourselves as a society on that plastic dark side." This worthwhile little tome packs a wallop consisting of equal portions of healthy education and pertinent entertainment.

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February 15, 2014
Plastics. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. SanClements knows this to be true, based on a failed experiment to go two weeks without buying anything made of plastic or creating any plastic waste. From the alarm clock smacked upon awakening to the toothbrush used before going to bed, it is nearly impossible to go more than a minute without encountering plastic in some aspect of daily life. How did this invention, which has been around for little more than a century, become so ubiquitous? If the island of plastic garbage floating in the Pacific is any indication, will our planet eventually succumb to its tenacity? Examining the history, understanding the science, recognizing harmful as well as helpful plastic products, and incorporating ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle plastics, SanClements sets out on an educational quest to help readers truly see the commodity that is virtually everywhere they look. In hip, conversational tones and with an oh wow! sense of incredulity about plastic's stealthy omnipresence, SanClements pens an eye-opening expos' of this product's damaging properties.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)