Who's to blame for all this plastic?

How did plastic become so ubiquitous? The answer lies deep beneath the surface of the earth. In her new book Plastic Inc. , environmental journalist Beth Gardiner lays bare the key connection between plastics and the fossil fuel companies behind them. Today, we dive into the history of the multi-billion dollar industry that brought us plastic, their plans to create even more and what could be done to turn the plastic tide. Interested in more stories about the materials that make up our world? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org . Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave . See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

You can listen to Who's to blame for all this plastic? online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Who's to blame for all this plastic? is an episode from Short Wave by NPR.

This episode is 13:26 long.

This episode was published on Apr 10, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Short Wave when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.