Rebecca Altman, PhD
@rebecca-altman.bsky.social
Currently writing An Intimate History of Plastics (Scribner, Spring 2027)
Brown Institute for Environment and Society
Words in Orion | The Atlantic | Science 📚
Chatty re: env history of plastic & #creativenonfiction
https://rebecca-altman.com
Brown Institute for Environment and Society
Words in Orion | The Atlantic | Science 📚
Chatty re: env history of plastic & #creativenonfiction
https://rebecca-altman.com
Plastics have woven their way into the fabric of every ecosystem, into everything & everyone, into strata & time, but it has also woven a web of us, & introduced me to people who also work for change, whose presence in the world makes the work all the more meaningful. W/ thx #plasticstreaty #envhist
October 25, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Plastics have woven their way into the fabric of every ecosystem, into everything & everyone, into strata & time, but it has also woven a web of us, & introduced me to people who also work for change, whose presence in the world makes the work all the more meaningful. W/ thx #plasticstreaty #envhist
This book. My word, this book! Plastics folks— the archaeologists on plastics are 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯 I’m in do not disturb mode over here until I finish it.
October 23, 2025 at 1:13 PM
This book. My word, this book! Plastics folks— the archaeologists on plastics are 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯 I’m in do not disturb mode over here until I finish it.
"Walt Whitman was messy. I mean really, really messy."
Today's small delight is from Jillian Hess's Noted: jillianhess.substack.com/p/walt-whitm...
Today's small delight is from Jillian Hess's Noted: jillianhess.substack.com/p/walt-whitm...
September 30, 2025 at 6:35 PM
"Walt Whitman was messy. I mean really, really messy."
Today's small delight is from Jillian Hess's Noted: jillianhess.substack.com/p/walt-whitm...
Today's small delight is from Jillian Hess's Noted: jillianhess.substack.com/p/walt-whitm...
Very helpful visual of #PFAS family, thanks to @toxicsfree.bsky.social @gridarendal.bsky.social
Available here: ipen.org/sites/defaul...
Available here: ipen.org/sites/defaul...
September 19, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Very helpful visual of #PFAS family, thanks to @toxicsfree.bsky.social @gridarendal.bsky.social
Available here: ipen.org/sites/defaul...
Available here: ipen.org/sites/defaul...
September 18, 2025 at 11:56 AM
This is a fascinating way to sum
up trends in the literature!! 🤯🤯
up trends in the literature!! 🤯🤯
September 18, 2025 at 11:53 AM
This is a fascinating way to sum
up trends in the literature!! 🤯🤯
up trends in the literature!! 🤯🤯
I was referring to the magazine article referenced in the podcast — put out by Alaska Fish and Game
September 13, 2025 at 9:32 PM
I was referring to the magazine article referenced in the podcast — put out by Alaska Fish and Game
A 1993 plastics industry memo (Vinyl Institute), as it coordinated the response to a scientific, regulatory attack on chlorine. "Virtually all are derivatives," said VI. Chlorine defended as "foundational" to plastics production. #plasticstreaty Via ToxDocs www.toxicdocs.org/d/0LKVaRzZgY...
September 11, 2025 at 6:48 PM
A 1993 plastics industry memo (Vinyl Institute), as it coordinated the response to a scientific, regulatory attack on chlorine. "Virtually all are derivatives," said VI. Chlorine defended as "foundational" to plastics production. #plasticstreaty Via ToxDocs www.toxicdocs.org/d/0LKVaRzZgY...
It is plum cake season. So there’s that. cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/3783...
September 9, 2025 at 10:33 PM
It is plum cake season. So there’s that. cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/3783...
Bought this for myself — a birthday gift — the latest from @peterbrannen.bsky.social — @jaimealyse.bsky.social made me do it. 🌱
September 1, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Bought this for myself — a birthday gift — the latest from @peterbrannen.bsky.social — @jaimealyse.bsky.social made me do it. 🌱
Dear #INC5, These past weeks, I've written you from my mom's bedside. She has Alzheimer's (& a fractured vertebrae). How I wish I could be w/ you in these consequential moments. But instead, I feverishly post that history, too, is on the side of a comprehensive, courageous #plasticstreaty.
August 13, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Dear #INC5, These past weeks, I've written you from my mom's bedside. She has Alzheimer's (& a fractured vertebrae). How I wish I could be w/ you in these consequential moments. But instead, I feverishly post that history, too, is on the side of a comprehensive, courageous #plasticstreaty.
H/t @andresdelcas.bsky.social via @greenpeaceuk.bsky.social @greenpeaceuk.bsky.social @greenpeace.org
See: www.greenpeace.org.uk/wp-content/u...
See: www.greenpeace.org.uk/wp-content/u...
August 13, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Dear #inc5 Plastics contribute a larger share of greenhouse gas emissions than AVIATION. Think of all the ✈️s in the air at any given time. Plastics are more consequential than EVEN that! But: YOU can intervene. Right now. During the overhot summer of 2025. @scientistscoa.bsky.social #plasticstreaty
August 13, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Dear #inc5 Plastics contribute a larger share of greenhouse gas emissions than AVIATION. Think of all the ✈️s in the air at any given time. Plastics are more consequential than EVEN that! But: YOU can intervene. Right now. During the overhot summer of 2025. @scientistscoa.bsky.social #plasticstreaty
Dear #Inc5 — plastics has been creating unjust fenceline dynamics since, well, the beginning — here, Silvertown in E London— an inundated community of overworked, highly exposed workers at Silver’s, a rubber and gutta percha works. See Tully’s excellent book for more. #plasticstreaty
August 12, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Dear #Inc5 — plastics has been creating unjust fenceline dynamics since, well, the beginning — here, Silvertown in E London— an inundated community of overworked, highly exposed workers at Silver’s, a rubber and gutta percha works. See Tully’s excellent book for more. #plasticstreaty
Hi #INC5 👋 from the 1980s when residents of the lower Mississippi — “Cancer Alley” — walked from Baton Rouge to NOLA to protest the cumulative effects of all the pollution coming off all the plastic-petrochemical plants. It’s way past time — #PlasticsTreaty
via @librarycongress
via @librarycongress
August 12, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Hi #INC5 👋 from the 1980s when residents of the lower Mississippi — “Cancer Alley” — walked from Baton Rouge to NOLA to protest the cumulative effects of all the pollution coming off all the plastic-petrochemical plants. It’s way past time — #PlasticsTreaty
via @librarycongress
via @librarycongress
Hi #INC5 👋 from 1948 when Modern Plastics ran these ads — “New Orleans invites the plastics industries” — “friendly taxation”— the industry came to the lower Mississippi River in droves, repurposing the lower Miss. River plantations for petrochemical
production. #PlasticsTreaty
production. #PlasticsTreaty
August 12, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Hi #INC5 👋 from 1948 when Modern Plastics ran these ads — “New Orleans invites the plastics industries” — “friendly taxation”— the industry came to the lower Mississippi River in droves, repurposing the lower Miss. River plantations for petrochemical
production. #PlasticsTreaty
production. #PlasticsTreaty
CAN MINAMATA EVER TRULY BE OVER?” asks George. “So many ‘final and complete’ solutions have all turned out to be so incomplete.”
August 11, 2025 at 2:37 PM
CAN MINAMATA EVER TRULY BE OVER?” asks George. “So many ‘final and complete’ solutions have all turned out to be so incomplete.”
The witnessing, the writing, wore on her: all “these highly significant historical moments stuck in my throat.”
It wasn’t until 1968 that the Japanese gov’t admitted “that the cause for the disease was the methylmercury from the Chisso factory,” said URI’s Timothy George (book 👇).
It wasn’t until 1968 that the Japanese gov’t admitted “that the cause for the disease was the methylmercury from the Chisso factory,” said URI’s Timothy George (book 👇).
August 11, 2025 at 2:37 PM
The witnessing, the writing, wore on her: all “these highly significant historical moments stuck in my throat.”
It wasn’t until 1968 that the Japanese gov’t admitted “that the cause for the disease was the methylmercury from the Chisso factory,” said URI’s Timothy George (book 👇).
It wasn’t until 1968 that the Japanese gov’t admitted “that the cause for the disease was the methylmercury from the Chisso factory,” said URI’s Timothy George (book 👇).
“I had a vision of myself trying to swallow Japanese capitalism,” wrote Michiko Ishimure, a writer from Minamata compared to Rachel Carson. Since the ‘60s, she wrote about Minamata, tho’ “yr after yr withered and fell off neatly…like dead leaves or the brain cells of the victims of Hg poisoning.”
August 11, 2025 at 2:37 PM
“I had a vision of myself trying to swallow Japanese capitalism,” wrote Michiko Ishimure, a writer from Minamata compared to Rachel Carson. Since the ‘60s, she wrote about Minamata, tho’ “yr after yr withered and fell off neatly…like dead leaves or the brain cells of the victims of Hg poisoning.”
In 1932, Japan’s Chisso Corp started using mercury to make acetaldehyde to make vinyl chloride later used to make PVC. As well as a plasticizing system for vinyls (DOP, or dioctyl phthalate.)
Plastics IS (always has been) a system held up by toxics. The #plasticstreaty can/must account for that.
Plastics IS (always has been) a system held up by toxics. The #plasticstreaty can/must account for that.
August 11, 2025 at 2:37 PM
In 1932, Japan’s Chisso Corp started using mercury to make acetaldehyde to make vinyl chloride later used to make PVC. As well as a plasticizing system for vinyls (DOP, or dioctyl phthalate.)
Plastics IS (always has been) a system held up by toxics. The #plasticstreaty can/must account for that.
Plastics IS (always has been) a system held up by toxics. The #plasticstreaty can/must account for that.
Dear #INC5 — did you know: the mercury (Hg) disaster that inspired the Minamata Convention was really about plastics? In 1932, Japan’s Chisso Corp started using Hg to make acetaldehyde to make vinyl chloride to make PVC. Plastics IS (always has been) a system held up by toxics. #plasticstreaty
August 11, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Dear #INC5 — did you know: the mercury (Hg) disaster that inspired the Minamata Convention was really about plastics? In 1932, Japan’s Chisso Corp started using Hg to make acetaldehyde to make vinyl chloride to make PVC. Plastics IS (always has been) a system held up by toxics. #plasticstreaty
There are ads and video clips that sell plastics using racist tropes from Jim Crow era cotton, such as this one from Monsanto, c 1939 featured in historian Ellen Griffith Spears book, Baptized by PCBs. Another example, the opening images in the 1937 MGM film "The Romance of Celluloid."
August 9, 2025 at 9:26 PM
There are ads and video clips that sell plastics using racist tropes from Jim Crow era cotton, such as this one from Monsanto, c 1939 featured in historian Ellen Griffith Spears book, Baptized by PCBs. Another example, the opening images in the 1937 MGM film "The Romance of Celluloid."
This is why it is DAMAGING (and false) to claim plastics “began” in 1950. A global count of plastics production began in 1950, i.e., data began in 1950. And 1950 WAS an inflection point— a LOT changed! But growth built on a CENTURY of harms to ecosystems, human rights, health. #inc5 #plasticstreaty
August 9, 2025 at 2:56 PM
This is why it is DAMAGING (and false) to claim plastics “began” in 1950. A global count of plastics production began in 1950, i.e., data began in 1950. And 1950 WAS an inflection point— a LOT changed! But growth built on a CENTURY of harms to ecosystems, human rights, health. #inc5 #plasticstreaty
🚨After celluloid came
viscose, also cellulose-based 🌱— as fiber=rayon, as film=cellophane — all good, right? Cause bio-based? Nope. Like cold-vulcan. rubber, req’d toxic ☠️carbon disulfide (AKA bisulfide)☠️— see Dr Paul Blanc, Fake Silk. On human rights: read Humbert. #inc5 #plasticstreaty
viscose, also cellulose-based 🌱— as fiber=rayon, as film=cellophane — all good, right? Cause bio-based? Nope. Like cold-vulcan. rubber, req’d toxic ☠️carbon disulfide (AKA bisulfide)☠️— see Dr Paul Blanc, Fake Silk. On human rights: read Humbert. #inc5 #plasticstreaty
August 9, 2025 at 1:40 PM
🚨After celluloid came
viscose, also cellulose-based 🌱— as fiber=rayon, as film=cellophane — all good, right? Cause bio-based? Nope. Like cold-vulcan. rubber, req’d toxic ☠️carbon disulfide (AKA bisulfide)☠️— see Dr Paul Blanc, Fake Silk. On human rights: read Humbert. #inc5 #plasticstreaty
viscose, also cellulose-based 🌱— as fiber=rayon, as film=cellophane — all good, right? Cause bio-based? Nope. Like cold-vulcan. rubber, req’d toxic ☠️carbon disulfide (AKA bisulfide)☠️— see Dr Paul Blanc, Fake Silk. On human rights: read Humbert. #inc5 #plasticstreaty
Dear #INC5 — even back in the 19th century, when chemically-altered (vulcanized) rubber was the plastics of its day, the industry’s human rights violations were legion, making headlines year after year after year. #plasticstreaty @breakfreefromplastic.org
August 9, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Dear #INC5 — even back in the 19th century, when chemically-altered (vulcanized) rubber was the plastics of its day, the industry’s human rights violations were legion, making headlines year after year after year. #plasticstreaty @breakfreefromplastic.org