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Everywhere we look, we are surrounded by plastics: perhaps you have a book in one hand and your phone—made of various metals, plastics, and glass—in the other, or you are reading this on your polyurethane mattress after having flipped on a plastic light switch. In this Essential Knowledge series volume, Imari Walker-Franklin and Jenna Jambeck provide a deep exploration of the entire life of plastic things—plastics production and use, plastic waste generation and management, the environmental and societal impacts of plastics in our environment, and, finally, the policies that can help reduce pollution caused by our heavy use of plastics.
One of the most current and comprehensive summaries on the subject, Plastics covers not only ocean and terrestrial plastic pollution but also the potential harms of microplastics on the human body. The authors also explain why we use plastic for so many products, how trash ends up in even the most remote corners of our world, and the alternatives and interventions that can help address our overreliance on this virtually imperishable material. As easily digestible to read as it is important, this book empowers its readers with the crucial knowledge and information they need to make thoughtful consumer choices, influence change, and spark inspiration.
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Release date
August 22, 2023 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780262377065
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780262377065
- File size: 5326 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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June 26, 2023
Walker-Franklin, a researcher at Research Triangle Institute International, and University of Georgia environmental engineer Jambeck debut with a solid overview of the history, production, and dangers of plastics. In the 1860s, German chemist Christian Friedrich Schönbein created the first plastics by mixing cellulose from cotton with sulfur and nitric acid. Chemists tinkered with different formulas over the ensuing decades, but it wasn’t until the American military adopted plastics for use in parachutes and aircraft components during WWII that they became ubiquitous. Walker-Franklin and Jambeck note that while plastics are useful for packaging, construction, and automotive parts, the difficulty of disposing of them poses serious challenges to public health. They discuss studies showing that chemicals leached from plastics negatively impact sperm quality in animals and that humans consume more than 70,000 tiny pieces of degraded microplastics per year, contributing to tissue inflammation and irritable bowel syndrome. Solutions include banning the most harmful polymers, developing better waste management infrastructure, and creating sustainable alternatives for use in food and product delivery. Walker-Franklin and Jambeck prioritize breadth over depth, but they nonetheless offer a competent summary of the scientific literature on plastic’s harms, enriched by historical background. This gets the job done.
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