Island Press is “the nation’s leading publisher on environmental issues.” In its latest release,
Plastic’s greatest strength is also its greatest flaw: it takes eons to break down. It breaks studying plastics at the University of Toronto, this is because the carbon-carbon bonds that form the backbone of most plastic polymers require an immense amount of energy to break apart. And because these bonds are in synthetic arrangements, there are no microorganisms that can break most of them down (yet).