Ralph welcomes Judith Enck (founder and president of Beyond Plastics, whose goal is to eliminate plastic pollution everywhere) to discuss her new book “The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It’s Too Late.” Then, Ralph reflects on the 60th anniversary of “Unsafe at Any Speed.”
58 years ago in the movie " The Graduate " an aimless college student Dustin Hoffman ( Ben ) got the word " the future is in "plastics' . I often wondered if Mike Nicole's the director got the word from the big oil companies to promote their new road to riches and prosperity in 67.
Much like smoking in the movies in the 40's and 50's if you got them you light them either in the military or on those TV shows,,Today there is clear medical evidence that because of synthetic plastics as you read this,,, your arteries are harding and building up plack that will on average cut your life spand by 2 and 1/2 years. ( I welcome all lawsuits )
So the next time you buy that one piece of pie in plastic or fruit raped in plastic or load up on all those sports drinks and bottled water in plastic,the clock is ticking and big oil don't care if you live or die,, because you are just one profitable big ring up on their corporate cash registers, good luck America have a great day my friends.
I despise the movie as it portrays and in some sense advertises a warped and amoral ideology, but nothing new with Hollywood. "Plastic" has become a metaphor for spinelessness, fakeness as well as flexibility.
A good overview and I'd hope that Ms. Enck has a substack where she is constantly writing and making recommendations to encourage us toward dealing with the noxious plastics and microplastics in our environment.
Tire dust is the #1 source of microplastics, so maybe this is not remediable? And why can't we develop incinerators with enough advanced technology and power to reduce the mountains and mountains of pollutants to tiny %s of their current volumes? Since recycling is apparently a bust, I'd think that reopening the incinerators could possibly be the way to go since shipping barges and barges of waste to other countries or dumping them in the sea have got to be far worse than volume reduction strategies or developing plastic and rubber eating microbes.
We're told that if you want to clean out your blood periodically of the microplastics with the other health benefits, blood donation is effective but then someone else gets what your body has been freed of.
Yoghurt and other dairy products used to be in wax paper cartons like some of the milk we get, why is that not still done?
I hate all this plastic, it's everywhere. it's seems like such a hopeless endeavor to tackle this problem. It won't happen in my lifetime. This is such a wealth of knowledge, everyone would benefit hearing.
Just want to say right off the bat how much I anticipate and enjoy your show; Ralph, you're TRULY an inspiration to us all and I thank God for people like you still in the world; My main comment is: after listening to the "Problem with Plastic" episode, a thought came to mind about a CT company that I've heard advertised on NPR, namely "Novamont"; Not sure if that's the right spelling as I'm spelling it phonetically; However, they're supposed to be known for developing "bio-plastics" and I assume from the name that they MAY have to answer to our plastics problem; Funny how that radio blurb is the ONLY time I ever hear about them; Perhaps other manufacturers will follow suit when the market makes the drastic turn from conventional to biodegradable plastic; That's all I have at the moment other than keep up the tremendous work that you all do to keep us informed in a digestible and satisfactory way! Thank you~Tom Adams from SW CT
What a terrific, informative episode! Of course, I've been saying this every week for the past seven years. Judith Enck mentioned the Philadelphia Eagles, but listening to this episode I actually thought of the reports about former Philadelphia Phillies players who died young of glioblastoma, which they claim came from playing on the Monsanto-made AstroTurf at Veterans Stadium (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/mar/10/phillies-ball-players-cancer-artifical-turf).
Just by chance, I was listening to this episode while sorting my recycling. I recently moved from New Zealand to Germany and still learning the sorting process. Judith mentioned how difficult it is to recycle plastics, but it seems Germany is getting better and better at this. According to the following reports "The proportion of plastic packaging recycled from 2018 to 2023 rose from 42.1 to 68.9 per cent." (https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/en/press/pressinformation/packaging-recycling-only-works-correct-waste) Also pleased to report, I see glass bottles everywhere. I was shocked at how difficult it was to recycle soft plastics in New Zealand, especially in the South Island. As Judith said, it's got to be done through legislation and enforcement. I hope she is invited back as one of your regulars.
What can you do with this statement by the author: "I support recycling…But the sad reality is that plastic recycling has been an abysmal failure."
The fact is that recycling has become a cult. Recycling is a bogus non-solution to a social problem which solves a bottom-line problem for industry. In other words, how do I convince the world to take on the shift of responsibility for doing something onto THEIR shoulders instead of ours. Recycling does that! It shifts responsibility from the origin of the problem onto the final user of the problem. The customer! But the customer has virtually no tools available to solve the problem, which is fine from the viewpoint of industry. The customer is welcome to thrash around, accomplishing nothing of value i.e. try to recycle while the manufacturer walks away to the bank. How is it that recycling is widely acknowledged to solve nothing, to be useless, but citizens still are addicted to this useless effort. I have advocated for a contempt for recycling for forty years but the obsession rides on, independent of science, knowledge or failure.
Great podcast. Plastics accumulate in the body, whereas other toxins can be cleansed organically. I had to stop drinking bottled water and any fluids in plastics because my prostate had been giving me trouble for about 2 years, and now I am much better.
Plastics will be the end of us, not nuclear weapons.
I want to share some positive observations from my part of the world, which is Northern NV. Many institutions in our area, including the Veterans Medical Center where I used to work, have water container refill stations. Many restaurants and bars have containers of water for people to do refills. More and more outdoor events in the area here are banning sales of water in plastic bottles and telling people to bring refillable containers. I also want to remind listeners that there are some water companies putting their products in aluminum cans, such as Liquid Death and Proud Source. I have become a regular customer at the local Waste Less shop, where I can refill containers with a variety of products.
I avoid using any plastics at all. I am a vegan firstly then I buy canned water for myself and my animals. We are killing our oceans. I would love to have people to look into the dangers of these plastics.
58 years ago in the movie " The Graduate " an aimless college student Dustin Hoffman ( Ben ) got the word " the future is in "plastics' . I often wondered if Mike Nicole's the director got the word from the big oil companies to promote their new road to riches and prosperity in 67.
Much like smoking in the movies in the 40's and 50's if you got them you light them either in the military or on those TV shows,,Today there is clear medical evidence that because of synthetic plastics as you read this,,, your arteries are harding and building up plack that will on average cut your life spand by 2 and 1/2 years. ( I welcome all lawsuits )
So the next time you buy that one piece of pie in plastic or fruit raped in plastic or load up on all those sports drinks and bottled water in plastic,the clock is ticking and big oil don't care if you live or die,, because you are just one profitable big ring up on their corporate cash registers, good luck America have a great day my friends.
They were saying that about plastic as early as the 40s and even earlier
I loved that movie. I can still see Dustin Hoffman shouting “Elaine!”
I despise the movie as it portrays and in some sense advertises a warped and amoral ideology, but nothing new with Hollywood. "Plastic" has become a metaphor for spinelessness, fakeness as well as flexibility.
Plastic surgery
A good overview and I'd hope that Ms. Enck has a substack where she is constantly writing and making recommendations to encourage us toward dealing with the noxious plastics and microplastics in our environment.
Tire dust is the #1 source of microplastics, so maybe this is not remediable? And why can't we develop incinerators with enough advanced technology and power to reduce the mountains and mountains of pollutants to tiny %s of their current volumes? Since recycling is apparently a bust, I'd think that reopening the incinerators could possibly be the way to go since shipping barges and barges of waste to other countries or dumping them in the sea have got to be far worse than volume reduction strategies or developing plastic and rubber eating microbes.
We're told that if you want to clean out your blood periodically of the microplastics with the other health benefits, blood donation is effective but then someone else gets what your body has been freed of.
Yoghurt and other dairy products used to be in wax paper cartons like some of the milk we get, why is that not still done?
I hate all this plastic, it's everywhere. it's seems like such a hopeless endeavor to tackle this problem. It won't happen in my lifetime. This is such a wealth of knowledge, everyone would benefit hearing.
Interesting thank you
Dear Ralph and company,
Just want to say right off the bat how much I anticipate and enjoy your show; Ralph, you're TRULY an inspiration to us all and I thank God for people like you still in the world; My main comment is: after listening to the "Problem with Plastic" episode, a thought came to mind about a CT company that I've heard advertised on NPR, namely "Novamont"; Not sure if that's the right spelling as I'm spelling it phonetically; However, they're supposed to be known for developing "bio-plastics" and I assume from the name that they MAY have to answer to our plastics problem; Funny how that radio blurb is the ONLY time I ever hear about them; Perhaps other manufacturers will follow suit when the market makes the drastic turn from conventional to biodegradable plastic; That's all I have at the moment other than keep up the tremendous work that you all do to keep us informed in a digestible and satisfactory way! Thank you~Tom Adams from SW CT
What a terrific, informative episode! Of course, I've been saying this every week for the past seven years. Judith Enck mentioned the Philadelphia Eagles, but listening to this episode I actually thought of the reports about former Philadelphia Phillies players who died young of glioblastoma, which they claim came from playing on the Monsanto-made AstroTurf at Veterans Stadium (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/mar/10/phillies-ball-players-cancer-artifical-turf).
Just by chance, I was listening to this episode while sorting my recycling. I recently moved from New Zealand to Germany and still learning the sorting process. Judith mentioned how difficult it is to recycle plastics, but it seems Germany is getting better and better at this. According to the following reports "The proportion of plastic packaging recycled from 2018 to 2023 rose from 42.1 to 68.9 per cent." (https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/en/press/pressinformation/packaging-recycling-only-works-correct-waste) Also pleased to report, I see glass bottles everywhere. I was shocked at how difficult it was to recycle soft plastics in New Zealand, especially in the South Island. As Judith said, it's got to be done through legislation and enforcement. I hope she is invited back as one of your regulars.
What can you do with this statement by the author: "I support recycling…But the sad reality is that plastic recycling has been an abysmal failure."
The fact is that recycling has become a cult. Recycling is a bogus non-solution to a social problem which solves a bottom-line problem for industry. In other words, how do I convince the world to take on the shift of responsibility for doing something onto THEIR shoulders instead of ours. Recycling does that! It shifts responsibility from the origin of the problem onto the final user of the problem. The customer! But the customer has virtually no tools available to solve the problem, which is fine from the viewpoint of industry. The customer is welcome to thrash around, accomplishing nothing of value i.e. try to recycle while the manufacturer walks away to the bank. How is it that recycling is widely acknowledged to solve nothing, to be useless, but citizens still are addicted to this useless effort. I have advocated for a contempt for recycling for forty years but the obsession rides on, independent of science, knowledge or failure.
Great podcast. Plastics accumulate in the body, whereas other toxins can be cleansed organically. I had to stop drinking bottled water and any fluids in plastics because my prostate had been giving me trouble for about 2 years, and now I am much better.
Plastics will be the end of us, not nuclear weapons.
I want to share some positive observations from my part of the world, which is Northern NV. Many institutions in our area, including the Veterans Medical Center where I used to work, have water container refill stations. Many restaurants and bars have containers of water for people to do refills. More and more outdoor events in the area here are banning sales of water in plastic bottles and telling people to bring refillable containers. I also want to remind listeners that there are some water companies putting their products in aluminum cans, such as Liquid Death and Proud Source. I have become a regular customer at the local Waste Less shop, where I can refill containers with a variety of products.
I avoid using any plastics at all. I am a vegan firstly then I buy canned water for myself and my animals. We are killing our oceans. I would love to have people to look into the dangers of these plastics.
THE COMMON GOOD MANIFESTO
A society built for people, not predators.
We are at our best when we invest in each other.
We are at our worst when we abandon the vulnerable.
This manifesto is how we return to the common good.
I. DIGNITY AND JUSTICE
1. Release the Epstein files — full transparency, no exceptions.
2. Impeach, convict, and imprison Donald Trump and every handler who enabled his corruption.
3. No federal office for any convicted felon.
4. End the weaponization of the justice system against the poor, immigrants, LGBTQ people, and marginalized communities.
II. DEMOCRACY THAT ACTUALLY WORKS
1. Abolish the Electoral College — one person, one vote.
2. Abolish ICE — replace it with humane immigration policy that honors human rights.
3. Ban gerrymandering with a standardized national apportionment method.
4. Two-term limits for every elected office.
5. Mandatory retirement at 70 for all elected officials.
6. Paper ballots only — end the era of hackable voting machines.
III. AN ECONOMY THAT SERVES PEOPLE
1. Restore 1950s-style progressive tax rates — when America was prosperous and fair.
2. Overturn Citizens United — corporations are not people.
3. Eliminate the Social Security payroll cap and tax capital gains for Social Security contributions.
4. $25 minimum wage indexed to inflation.
5. Medicare for All, one unified system — no A/B/C/D maze.
6. Congress receives Medicare, not boutique private insurance.
IV. WORKERS, CREATIVES, AND PUBLIC SERVANTS
1. Big pay raises for social workers, teachers, librarians, artists, and cultural workers — the people who actually hold society together.
2. Universal childcare — because families are the foundation of the nation.
3. Free public university education.
4. Full forgiveness of all student debt.
V. CLEAN GOVERNMENT
1. Root out corruption at every level, starting at the top.
2. Full financial transparency for every elected official, appointee, and senior bureaucrat.
3. Ban lobbying for former officeholders for life.
VI. THE FUTURE WE CHOOSE
We choose a country that values:
• Compassion over cruelty
• Community over greed
• Truth over propaganda
• Shared prosperity over billionaire hoarding
• Democracy over minority rule
• Human dignity over corporate profit
We choose a nation where the common good is not a slogan, but the organizing principle of public life.
And we refuse to apologize for demanding better.