Former EPA Official Judith Enck on How to Save Our Planet from Plastic

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KQED

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2026

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Plastic is everywhere” writes former EPA official Judith Enck, “wrapped around our food, stitched into our clothes, even coursing through our veins.” Enck says we need to drastically reduce our dependency on plastic to save our oceans, our air and ourselves. We talk to her about why it’s so hard to regulate plastic – and the individual ways we can free ourselves from its “synthetic embrace.” Each American uses about five hundred pounds of plastic a year. Enck’s new book is “The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It’s Too Late.” Have you tried to cut plastic out of your life? Guests: Judith Enck, president, Beyond Plastics; served as a regional administrator with the EPA during the Obama Administration Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:52.3	From KQED. This is Forum. I'm Leslie McClurg. I am in today for Mina Kim. In this last year,
1:01.2	my family and I visited a place in Mexico called Sayalita. And as we were driving from the airport,
1:07.8	you're supposed to pass through this incredibly beautiful green, thick jungle.
1:12.5	And instead, it felt like we were driving through literally a landfill.
1:18.2	There were just plastic bottles everywhere.
1:20.7	They were spilling down the hillsides.
1:22.5	They were tangled up in the trees.
1:25.0	They were lining the road for the entire part of this drive, and it was
1:29.5	really, really heartbreaking, and I felt, you know, completely hopeless after the experience.
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