Turning the Tide on Plastic – Lucy Siegle – Trapeze (UK) 2018 ISBN 978 1 409 19298 6 – This would be my favourite book on plastic waste currently! This book does cover issues from the UK perspective. The book is in two parts (halves almost), the first part discusses the authors experience with plastic, how plastic came to be everywhere as is today and the wakeup call for the UK that the author took part in. She also discusses the impact of plastic on the environment and the sorts of single use plastic that cause problems and talks about the ‘Everyday Plastic Project. Part two talks about how to address the plastic problem from a personal perspective using a series of ‘R’s – Record, Reduce, Replace, Refuse, Reuse, Refill, Rethink and Recycle. I found the ‘Record’ Section to be very enlightening and used her process (slightly modified) to assess our plastic waste problem. A book worth getting. There are no illustrations.
Living Without Plastic – Brigette Allen & Christine Wong – Artisan (UK) 2020 ISBN 978 1 57965 940 0 – The intro discusses the history, and hazards of plastic, particularly single use plastic, answers to the plastic problems that are greenwash, some solutions and the types of plastic out there. The rest of the book is mainly composed of a series of ‘swaps’ that can be made to reduce plastic in our lives. Each swap is given a couple of paragraphs on a single page, along with a photo on the facing page. The swaps are divided up into five categories: At Home; Food and Drink; Health and Beauty; On the Go and Special Occasions. At the end of the book is a process for a ’30 day Plastic Detox Plan’ (sort of like ‘plastic Free July’ but whenever you want) with each day given a paragraph on what you can concentrate on that day. Starting off with an assessment, then a day each to commit to an ‘R’ (rethink, reuse etc.) and then each day after gives ideas for reducing your plastic waste (bulk buy, buy naked produce). Not a bad book, lots of ideas and lots of colour photos.
Plastic Free – Rebecca Prince-Ruiz & Joanna Atherfold Finn – New South run by UNSW (AUS) 2020 ISBN 978 1 74223 655 1 – This is the story of Plastic Free July, which is pretty cool! The book is divided into ten chapters, chapter one discusses how the author came up with the idea, chapter two talks about how the first and second plastic free July went and chapter three goes back to how we became a throwaway society. Chapter four discusses the top four single use plastics and how to combat them, some are now covered by legislation here in Aus. Chapter five discusses the issues with plastic and the sea, chapter six talks about how to use PFJ to as a catalyst to keep reducing plastic in your life. Chapter seven talks about ‘sharing the challenge’ chapter eight talks about how the movement to reduce plastic waste is growing and chapter nine talks about working collaboratively to reduce plastic waste. Chapter ten talks about life beyond plastic, benefits, future generations and imagining a cleaner future. This is an amazing book, well worth getting if you are concerned about plastic waste. The book has no illustrations.
Life without Plastic – Chantal Plamondon & Jay Sinha – Page Street Publishing (US) 2017 ISBN 978 1 62414 425 7 – The authors founded ‘Life Without Plastic’ a corporation who have been selling plastic free products since 2006. The book has seven chapters, chapter one talks about the authors journey into becoming activists and chapter two is a three page ‘quick start’ guide to plastic free living. Chapter three is a discussion of the hazards of plastics in general and specifically, according to the plastic type as well as some alternatives to plastics. Chapter four provides a framework and actions that can be used to reduce the impact of plastic in your life, chapter five talks about going plastic free while outside the home. Chapter six talks about methods of sharing your plastic free life with friends, relatives and co-workers, and chapter seven discusses embracing a life without plastic and the circular economy. The book has lots of colour photos and colour drawings.
Quitting Plastic – Clara Williams Roldan & Louise Williams – Allen & Unwin (AUS) 2019 ISBN 978 1 76052 871 3 – This book has eleven chapters and is very ‘how to’ on how to reduce your plastic footprint. Chapter one talks about how people have reduced plastic in their lives and includes a list of ten things you can do today. Chapter two discusses the types of plastics, good and bad plastics, microplastics and chemicals in plastics. Chapter three talks about how to start quitting plastic, chapter four discusses getting started and the following six chapters talk about ideas for replacing plastics in: the kitchen, laundry and cleaning, bathroom, clothing, around kids and eating out, respectively. Chapter eleven discusses the possibility of the end of single use plastics and where things are headed, which is followed up by a piece entitled ‘what more can I do’ and provides suggestions for personal and cooperative action. There are no illustrations in this book.
Ending Plastic Waste – Britta Denise Hardesty, Kathryn Willis, Justine Barrett and Chris Wilcox (Eds.) CSIRO (AUS) 2023 ISBN 978 1 48631 229 0 – This is not so much a personal ‘how to’ as a series of articles on community projects around the world that have come into being to reduce plastic waste. Chapter one is an introduction by two of the editors, chapter two is about plastic waste, the scale and some solutions and Chapter three is about waste pickers in third world countries, their contribution and risks. Chapter four is a review of nineteen community programs from all over the world that are designed to reduce plastic waste. Each review covers the name, location and contact details, how the program works, the resources they have, the environmental and social benefits, what barriers to their success exist and their scalability and future outlook. Chapter five gives a process for community based waste production identification. Chapter six talks about identifying seed funding for waste projects and chapter seven discusses how to design a scalable project. Chapter seven gives closing thoughts, written by the other two editors. The book has lots of colour photos.
Plastic Free – Beth Terry – Skyhorse Publishing (US) 2012 ISBN 978 63220 665 7 – What I love about this book is that it is relentlessly practical! It does cover the why and what of dealing with and preventing plastic waste, but the overall focus is on what we all can do, to the point where at the end of most chapters (there are eleven) there is a single page checklist that summarises the action laid out in each chapter. The book is not large (150mm x 180mm} but has over 350 pages. Chapter one covers the problems with plastic and the different types, chapter two is about plastic bags, chapter three is about plastic beverage bottles, chapter four discusses the issues with recycling being the answer and chapter five talks about plastic packaging and food. Chapter six covers grocery shopping using less plastic, Chapter seven covers plastic and personal care and cleaning products, chapter eight covers fighting hopelessness and maintaining motivation and chapter nine talks about durable goods and plastic. Chapter ten talks about how people around the world have approached plastic free living including Aus & NZ, Cambodia, Taiwan, China, the Netherlands, Portugal, the UK and Canada. Chapter eleven provides nine reasons why our personal choices matter. The book has lots of colour photos.
