Kelly talks to former Obama White House EPA official Judith Enck, whose new book is called  “The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It’s Too Late.”  

After reading this book, I annoyed both family and coworkers with all the ways in which they have to rid plastic from their lives – starting with getting rid of the black plastic in my kitchen. 

“My work is done. That is really good to hear. And the reaction from your coworkers is that they’re practically a member of the Beyond Plastics family now because my friends and family often say to me, ‘enough with the plastic!’ What I remember is hiking with my family in beautiful, wooded areas and pointing out, ‘Look at that plastic on the ground. Look at that plastic bag in the tree. Look at this, look at this, look at this!’ And then it leads to enough. Just enjoy the hike, which is good advice. But plastics are everywhere. You look up, you look down, just in the natural environment. So this is a pretty daunting but fixable problem. And you started by getting rid of your black plastic. I mean, I became aware of the problem with black plastics, maybe just five, six, seven years ago. I went into my own kitchen, and I was surprised at how much black utensils we had. And the reason we want people not to use black plastic is because it’s often made from recycled electronic waste, your old computer, your old cell phone. And when plastic gets hot, that is when you run into real problems.” 

Tell us about the Keep America Beautiful efforts and who was behind that. 

“So, Keep America Beautiful was formed by the very companies that were opposing the Bottle Bill in the United States. And they introduced the concept that it’s our own personal responsibility to solve this gargantuan problem that is the result of littering. And yeah, people should not litter. That’s a given. But what they don’t like to see is new laws or new policies that affect systemic change. And that’s exactly what we need. You know, they spend a lot of money running TV ads. Older folks might recall the crying Indian. And that was actually an Italian actor, and the message is the problem with pollution is caused by you and I. No mention of all the corporations. They have the biggest role to play in solving the problem by making their products safer to use.” 

And these companies work with expert PR folks, lobbyists and psychologists to reinforce this messaging to curtail laws that will protect our health. 

“I was in Washington, D.C. earlier this week being interviewed about the book at the bookstore of Politics and Prose. And it was a packed crowd, which was so nice to see on a dark and stormy Wednesday night. And someone in the audience spoke up and he essentially did a confessional to the group at the book reading saying that he used to work for one of the largest PR firms in the world and worked with Fortune 500 companies to basically figure out how to block plastic bag bans. And I mentioned some of the policies that I work on around the country and he admitted, yeah, we know; we worked on this; we worked on that. So, you know, this is big money going up against common sense. And it’s not just like the obvious PR strategies, but, as you say, they work with people who are expert at consumer choices and psychology.”

Photo Credit: Diana Chipak