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A Conversation with Susan Freinkel

On June 8, 2011, I met Susan Freinkel , author of Plastic: A Toxic Love Story , at a Park Slope cafe. The intent was to record a conversation for The Bat Segundo Show . Unfortunately (and I blame the heat for my negligence here; I also had this funny idea of walking three miles to the cafe and three miles back home in very humid weather), some setting on the recorder was accidentally flipped to the internal microphone early into the conversation, resulting in muddled audio that was entirely unsuitable for listeners. In an effort to salvage this very interesting conversation, which deals with the impact of plastic on our environment, I have transcribed the entire 8,000 word talk.

Correspondent: Okay, so I am here with Susan Frienkel, who is the author of the charming volume, Plastic: A Toxic Love Story . Susan, how are you doing?

Freinkel: I’m doing great. I’m happy to be here.

Correspondent: I’m happy to talk love and toxicity.

Freinkel: ( laughs )

Correspondent: This book started off with your own personal effort not to touch plastic. But even Beth Terry , one of the people foregoing plastic who you interview near the end of the book, says that she finds herself still using credit cards. Because she says that plastic lasts a long time. I’m wondering. Will reducing disposable plastic — of which we both have disposable plastic here, these cups [ motioning to plastic cups containing cold beverages in 90 degree heat ], it’s really terrible — will this alone do the trick? I mean, one can make the argument that the plastic which comes with the ATM and the credit cards that we replace every couple of years or the latest smartphone you have to upgrade and all this — this is just as much of a waste as a disposable lighter. So might this also contribute to the problem?

Freinkel: Well, I think half of all plastic goes to single use plastics. So that’s a lot of plastic. And that’s a lot of plastic that gets wasted. It’s a poor use of resources. But I also think it’s emblematic of this whole lifestyle in which we assume that we need a new cellphone every eighteen months. If we’re lucky. Or we assume that we need a new computer every two years. We have to wipe out our wardrobe and get whole new clothes. So I think there’s a whole lifestyle that plastic facilitates in this emblematic. Will it do the trick? I mean, that sort of depends upon what the trick is. If we want to live in more sustainable fashion, we’re going to have to learn how to get away from that throwaway mindset. Which is an incredibly modern thing.

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I actually talked my husband into following me around the grocery store. Every time I looked at him I couldn’t help laughing because he was wearing my ruffled, polka dot camera strap!

He really got into the role though, acting like what he imagined a pro would act like! We were getting lots of curious looks.

The best part was at the register. I asked the guy bagging up if I could do his job for a photo. Everyone seemed amused and nice enough. He was smiling. He even said I could wear his name badge and orange jacket (but that offer came as I was just finishing up or I would have jumped on that!)

I’m sure there were several people thinking, “Well, Bless her heart!” which I have learned is NOT a nice thing to think or say to a person at all! Oh well. We had fun with it. It doesn’t take much to amuse us! Date night activity- check!

Is there anything you can’t do? I don’t think so. I justify my NOT using reusable grocery bags by recycling/reusing the plastic ones many times over. But if my life slows down any time soon, I think I will be tempted to make 50 of these (because that’s how many I would need for the kind of grocery shopping I do) – they are so adorable. Also, I have a couple old white sheets that I use for EVERY thing. They are the best. I don’t know what I’ll do when I run out of scraps from them. Maybe I’ll have to start buying fabric?

Well as long as you’re using them over and over, I won’t hate on the plastic usage. Haha I do love using sheets for fabric! I’ll go to Ross and get a twin set for $8 and it’s like 20 yards that would be at least a couple bucks a yard – if you got it on sale! And maybe not 20 yards but a heck of a lot more fabric than $8 would buy me anywhere else. It’s not that sturdy, but it’s great for this purpose.

Love, love, love the ruffles!!! I have a suggestion for eliminating the pinning of the bottom and then sewing (I hate pinning). Eliminate the bottom piece. Use one long piece of fabric, bring the tops up to meet and sew the side seams. Decide how wide you want the sides to be and sew a seam that wide across the side seams on each side (that seam will make a plus sign with the side seam and you will have a triangle sticking out on each side). If you want more definition for a bottom, turn it right side out and topstitch around the bottom. Was that clear as mud? I can send a photo if that would help.

Ribbons!

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