Our lakes, rivers and oceans are increasingly clogged with plastic, plus trillions of microscopic fragments thereof, from all the useful and disturbingly durable products made possible by the petrochem industry. This deluge of waste has grown exponentially over 60 years. Some 10 million tonnes of bottles, nets, bags, buckets and food wrappings are dumped every year into waterways, where they entangle and kill marine life and damage the organs of the creatures, including, possibly, humans, that ingest them.