Emily Kwong

Beth Gardner 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.

Plastics come from petrochemicals, which are made by the fossil fuel industry.

And reading the news that the industry planned to make even more plastic stopped Beth Huffman.

in her tracks.

Planted the seed for her new book, Plastic Ink.

Today on the show, the proliferation of plastic, its history, its connection to climate change, and what kind of action could truly reverse the plastic tide.

I'm Emily Kwong, and you're listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.

Plastics appeal was obvious from the start.

It could be molded into different shapes, given texture, made in different colors.

Celluloid, a plastic patented in 1869, was used to make billiard balls, combs, and eventually film for movies.

Then along came newer plastics like plexiglass, nylon, polyethylene, all derived from the byproducts of fossil fuels and

each with distinctive characteristics.

Now, polyethylene-coated cables, as I learned in Beth Gardner's new book, Plastic Ink, improved radar so much during World War II that it helped turn the naval side of the conflict in favor of the Allies.

But as the war wound down, manufacturers had a decision to make.

What would they do with all the plastic now?

Here's Beth.

Yeah, you write about how suddenly after the war, there's all this marketing for plastic toys like Silly Putty and Hulu Hoops.

I was so taken also with the history of bottle bills.

Basically, they're local and state bills that encourage recycling by adding…