The Problem with Plastics

Plastic is cheap, light, strong and lasts almost forever. That last quality is the problem. Very little of what has ever been made has gone away; it has only broken into smaller and smaller pieces. Those pieces are now in the soil, the rivers, the sea, the air, and in every one of us.

These three articles follow the plastic : how it gets into your body, how it gets into the environment in the first place, and what it does once it is there. A fourth looks at bamboo tableware, which is sold as the green alternative to plastic but is mostly plastic itself.