Keith has written another great article over at the Earth Blog. This time he tackles the problems with plastics.
Look around you, and what do you see? If you are in or around a modern building, vehicle or other man-made structure then the chances are that you will be able to see some plastic. I can see a printer, a scanner, some speakers, a desk tidy, CD cases, a clothes airer, some video cases, a moulded plug, a keyboard, mouse and monitor case. Can you imagine these things without plastic existing?
If we were to remove plastic from our world then modern society would, literally, fall apart. The use of oil, synthetic chemicals, plastics and high technology form a cluster of things around which we have built modern society, and which most of us could probably not imagine living without.