Emily Kwong

through the production of ethane.

And you go to Washington County, Pennsylvania, to visit a family that shares the land with hundreds of fracking wells.

What are their lives like?

Yeah.

For a lot of people, the plastics problem can seem distinct from the climate change problem, but you argue that they are inextricably linked.

Can you explain why?

Yeah, you mentioned the International Energy Agency is predicting...

that petrochemicals will be the largest single driver of oil demand growth.

Towards the end of the book, you provide a plastics success story where a local kid takes action in his city of Honolulu, his name is Dyson Chee, to restrict single-use plastics in Honolulu County.

And this inspired a similar law in Maui County.

And this, you write, is a really encouraging sign for local efforts to make change.

Why do you think passing a local law and the copycat effect, how that can inspire other local laws, is more effective than trying to pass a state law?

I definitely started noticing all the plastic in my life after finishing this book, Plastic Ink.

And it made me wonder what a world with less plastic would look like.

What would that world look like to you?

Beth Gardner, author of Plastic Ink.

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