The life cycle of plastics

Plastics are ubiquitous modern materials that have an exceedingly wide variety of incarnations and uses. Broadly defined, plastic refers to a substance or material that is easily shaped or molded. For the purposes of this report, however, plastic(s) refers to "a synthetic material made from a wide range of organic polymers such as polyethylene, PVC, nylon, etc., that can be molded into shape while soft, and then set into a rigid or slightly elastic form."
In 2019, plastic production amounted to 368 million metric tons worldwide. Plastics have many indispensable uses in modern society, such as in medical devices that save lives, but they are also used in ways that cause massive amounts of unnecessary waste.