To many, plastic is a modern-day miracle: versatile, cheap to produce and durable. To others it is a scourge: a ubiquitous, nondegradable pollutant that threatens to choke the global environment. The world uses more than 100 million tons of plastic annually but recycles less than 5 percent of it. The rest -- plastic bags, water bottles, disposable lighters, take-out food packages and the like -- can end up in the world's oceans and along shorelines. Plastic litter also clogs sewer systems causing deadly floods, chokes animals and contaminates fish with toxic chemicals, potentially endangering humans who eat the fish. Plastics take a toll on a wide range of animals, including cows in India, which die from starvation after clogging their stomachs with plastic bags they mistake for food. Whales, seals, sea birds and other marine animals die after eating floating plastic or becoming entangled in abandoned plastic fishing gear or six-pack holders. As plastic litter piles up around the globe, activists have begun to raise the alarm, and the world is finally taking notice. Cities, local jurisdictions and entire countries are banning, taxing and regulating plastic bags and other products. But some environmentalists worry the activism may be too late.

Robert Kiener is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in the London Sunday Times, The Cristian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, Reader's Digest, Time Life Books, Asia Inc. and other publications. For more than two decades he lived and worked as an editor and correspondent in Guam, Hong Kong, England and Canada and is now based in the United States. He frequently travels to Asia to report on international issues. He holds a M.A. in Asian Studies from Hong Kong University and an M.Phil. in international relations from Cambridge University.