Judith Enck didn’t necessarily plan on becoming an environmental advocate — she thought she would study law or social work after she graduated from college. But a junior year internship with the New York Public Interest Research Group set her on a different course.
“I would wander the halls of the New York State Capitol trying to pass the New York State bottle bill, which is the law that requires the mandatory deposit on beverage containers, and I didn’t pass the bill during my internship,” she said. “But when I graduated, rather than pursuing other interests I had … I decided I really need to pass the bill, so I was hired by an organization now known as Environmental Advocates, and stayed on with them and passed … the bottle bill.”
Enck will be speaking at 12:15 p.m. today in Smith Wilkes Hall for the Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative. Her lecture will focus mainly on her work as president of Beyond Plastics, an organization dedicated to moving the world, well, beyond plastics — and the part Chautauquans can play in achieving that goal.
After her stint at Environmental Advocates, Enck began working in state government, first serving as environmental policy adviser in the office of the attorney general of New York, and then as deputy secretary for the environment in the New York governor’s office.
It was her time as deputy secretary for the environment, she says, that ultimately landed her a job at the Environmental Protection Agency, where she served as a regional administrator during the Obama administration. At the EPA, Enck oversaw operations in New York, New Jersey, eight Indian Nations, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
But when the Obama presidency came to an end, so too did Enck’s tenure with the EPA.
“Typically, the political appointees leave when the president leaves, so we have a lot of time to think about what to do next,” she said. “I literally had years to think about what to do next, and I decided I wanted to work on plastics because it is such a compelling issue, and it involves every issue I’ve worked on my whole career.”
So in 2019, Enck founded Beyond Plastics “to end plastic pollution through education, advocacy and institutional change.” The organization, based out of Bennington College in Vermont, engages in activist work, publishes research, offers classes, and encourages the formation of local chapters around the country.
Ending plastic pollution, Enck said, is not a particularly controversial goal — nor is it unattainable.
“Over the years, including when I worked at the EPA, I actually met climate (change) deniers — they still exist,” she said. “I’ve never met a plastic pollution denier, because in every community, you see a plastic bag in the tree, you see littered cigarette butts. … You see fast food packaging on your street, in your park, (and) at the beach. There’s bipartisan support to reduce plastics.”
The main opposition to reducing plastics, she said, is large corporations who have no profit incentive to use other, less environmentally impactful materials. But she is confident that through continued organizing and activism, concrete change is possible. She hopes that Chautauquans will leave her lecture with a desire to join the fight against plastic waste — and maybe even start their own local chapter of Beyond Plastics.
“We don’t have the option of being hopeless,” she said. “I mean, there is a lot at stake, certainly on the climate change issue. This is the hottest year on record — hurricanes, floods, wildfires — what are we going to do? Just stop working? This is really serious stuff, it is hard, and that’s why groups like Beyond Plastic are so important: We get people together, because you can’t really tackle it alone.”
