While the age of plastic has brought convenience and cost-effectiveness.

While the plastics century brought convenience and cost-effectiveness, it also created staggering environmental problems. Many plastics are made of nonrenewable resources. And plastic packaging was designed to be single-use, but some plastics take centuries to decompose, creating a huge build up of waste. This century we’ll have to concentrate our innovations on addressing those problems— by reducing plastic use, developing biodegradable plastics, and finding new ways to recycle existing plastic.