Plastic pollution has become a critical environmental issue due to the world inability to deal with its increasing single-use items production. In fact, its production increased from 15 million tons in 1964 to 311 million tons in 2014, and is expected to double again over the next 20 years. Plastic pollution is most visible where garbage collection systems are inefficient, like in developing countries, or where recycling rates are low. The UN Environment Programme estimates that around 13 million tons of plastic flow yearly into our oceans, polluting the overall food chain and damaging the marine ecosystems.

Plastic also had a good side: made from fossil fuels, is just over a century old and helped shape the modern age, allowing the development of medicine devices, of space travel, of lightened cars and much more. Nevertheless, the convenience offered by plastics led to a single-use culture, accounting today for 40% of the yearly plastic production. Plastic bags, for example, have on average a lifespan of few hours but then persist in the environment for hundreds of years when not properly managed. The World Economic Forum and The Ellen MacArthur Foundation stated in The New Plastics Economy report that about 95% of plastic packaging material value, accounting around $80- 120 billion each year, is lost to the economy after a short first use.