Editorial: Plastic Pollution

摘要

Oursocioeconomicdevelopmentmodelshaveledtoanincreasedproductionofconsumergoodsof every type, facilitated by the petrochemical industry’s ability to provide a range of cheap materials that are continuously becoming more varied.Introduced in the 1950s, plastics have continued to evolve for many purposes, and are currently used in all industrial sectors.A noteworthy application is packaging, which currently uses around 30–40% of the exponentially growing annual plastic production.