Plastic had a limited presence in the world from the 1930s until the first consumer products appeared in the early 1950s: Saran Wrap, Hula Hoops, Tupperware, flip-flops. Today plastic is a permanent, ubiquitous and unavoidable part of the global biome. It cannot be cleaned from the oceans. We have it in our bodies. Byproducts of its manufacture are highly toxic. By 2010 the cumulative total of plastic produced worldwide stood at more than six billion tons. Much of it is still with us. The phrase “making haste to be rich” dates from the 19th Century. Where are the brakes?