Center for the literary arts in New York State
THE PROBLEM WITH PLASTIC
Judith Enck
7:30 p.m. Monday, April 20, 2026
Page Hall - University at Albany Downtown Campus
135 Western Avenue
Albany NY 12203 See map.
Judith Enck is the author of The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It’s Too Late (2025), a powerful investigation into plastic’s impact on human health and the environment, and how concerned citizens can fight back.
New York Times columnist David Wallace Wells called it, “A vivid, enraging cri de coeur against contamination and the forces that have done the most prolific polluting.” Enck is the founder and president of Beyond Plastics, whose goal is eliminating plastic pollution everywhere. In 2009, she was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as regional administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She also served as Deputy Secretary for the Environment in the New York Governor’s Office.
Cosponsored by the Office of Sustainability at UAlbany.
Reviews
“Plastic pollution has reached crisis proportions, and false solutions abound. But as The Problem with Plastic shows, there are real solutions out there. And, fortunately, there are people like Judith Enck working to enact them.” — Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sixth Extinction
“An approachable, easy-to-read, and comprehensive overview of the problem, the people already fighting back, and the steps that the average person can take to become part of the solution... Importantly, Enck and Mahoney do not just leave their readers adrift on a floating waste island of existential dread. Instead, they emphasize ways that all people can get involved.”— Shelf Awareness
“An exposé of the plastics industry warns of the damages done to human beings and the planet.” — Kirkus Reviews
“The Problem with Plastic is a powerful wake-up call and a necessary reckoning. It exposes not only how plastic destroys our environment, but how it disproportionately affects vulnerable communities. Most importantly, it empowers readers with the tools to take action in their own lives.”
—Cynthia Nixon, actress and activist
“We can’t talk about climate or justice without talking about plastic. This urgent and powerful book challenges us to imagine a world where communities and ecosystems are no longer treated as disposable.”
— Catherine Coleman Flowers, author of Waste and one of TIME magazine’s Most Influential People of 2023
“I don’t think anyone on planet Earth knows more about the plastics problem than Judith Enck — including, most crucially, what to do about it. This is a handbook for people looking to make a difference!”— Bill McKibben, author of Here Comes the Sun
“The science behind the dangers that plastics pose to the health of our species (and planet) has been accumulating for nearly forty years and is frighteningly clear. But far too little has been written about the action that these threats call for. The Problem with Plastic fills that gap expertly. Judith Enck, with her impressive record of successful advocacy, is the person we need to sound the call to action that this crisis requires.”
— Dr. Shanna Swan, award-winning scientist and environmental epidemiologist
“The Problem with Plastic is an authoritative critique of the crisis at hand, a takedown of false solutions, and an urgent call to elevate what will actually work to stop this environmental and public health catastrophe.”
—Matt Simon, author of A Poison Like No Other: How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies
