Plastic products everywhere

Look around you right now and you will likely see plastic products everywhere, including the clothing you are wearing.

Clever chemistry has resulted in an unbelievable variety of products. But like any product, we have to think beyond its usefulness and convenience.

We have to think about where it goes when it is no longer useful. That means the industry must use more clever chemistry to make the products in a way that they won't end up lasting for hundreds or even thousands of years, buried in dumps.

The amount of garbage our cities produce is astounding, as Beirut discovered recently when its landfill site was closed down with no replacement for months, producing an actual river of garbage.

In Canada, we do a pretty good job of hiding our trash underground, but we could do a better job of reducing the amount that goes in there in the first place. It's time for industry and governments to step up.