Name: Judith Enck: The Problem with Plastic
Start: 2026-04-20T19:30:00-04:00
Location: 135 Western Avenue Albany NY 12203

Conversation with Judith Enck, former EPA official and 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.”
Judith Enck
7:30 p.m. Monday, April 20
Page Hall, UAlbany Downtown Campus
135 Western Avenue
Albany NY 12203
Free and open to the public.
Books will be available for sale.
A signing will follow the conversation.
https://www.nyswritersinstitute.org/judithenck
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.
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
Cosponsored by the Office of Sustainability at UAlbany.