It’s probably one of the most famous grains of advice for the future: “Plastics.” But in the 1967 film The Graduate, Benjamin looks puzzled when he hears it. "Exactly how do you mean?” he asks. “There’s a great future in plastics,” the older man says.
As it turns out, we’re now facing a dark one. Five decades later, these once-promising materials have increasingly threatened the health of our bodies and our environment. It’s now evident that plastic containers shed chemicals that make their way into our food and drinks, possibly risking breast and prostate cancer. Meanwhile, researchers have found microplastics in seafood and drinking water, which may damage our organs.
Plastic also provokes significant financial losses: Waterborne plastic pollution, for example, costs the global economy between $1.5 and 2.2 trillion annually, including losses in fisheries and tourism, according to Pew Charitable Trust’s July 2020 study.
