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Credit to Author: Daniel Oberhaus| Date: Thu, 09 Nov 2017 16:17:27 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n Asking someone to go a day without using an item partially or wholly made from plastic would be like asking them to go a day without breathing air. Since their invention roughly 100 years ago, plastics have come to dominate our world. It\u2019s relatively cheap and easy to make them in bulk quantities, but the material is also malleable and ultra-durable. While its ability to withstand wear and tear was initially considered a benefit, this bonus feature of the world\u2019s favorite synthetic material has quickly turned it into one of the largest environmental problems facing our species.<\/p>\n Each year, 225 million tons of plastic are produced, and the overwhelming majority of it is disposable<\/a> (things like grocery bags and packaging for consumer products). Although some plastic ends up being recycled, a substantial portion ends up in landfills, where it will take hundreds of years to degrade. More worrisome are the plastics that don\u2019t make it to the landfill at all, and end up getting washed into the ocean, where they create massive deposits of plastic junk<\/a> and contribute to the painful death of an untold numbers of sea creatures every year and the desecration of marine environments. <\/p>\n