The world now produces nearly 400 million tons of plastic pollution every year, and each piece takes some 400 years to break down. Less than 10% is recycled. Clearly, we have a serious problem. But what do we do about it? Plastic protects nearly everything we buy, it’s the building material for home goods, and is essential to industries like health care, in which non-plastic alternatives to vital items such as surgical gloves are hard to imagine. Plastic pollution is killing wildlife, clogging our waterways and even contaminating our blood.
Meet some of the USC Dornsife students and alumni finding innovative ways to stem the plastic tsunami.