We all use plastics for a variety of purposes, and the amount of plastic produced and used is increasing worldwide, now reaching over 380 million metric tons (MMT) annually. Waste management in highly populated areas is currently insufficient to prevent large amounts of municipal waste from entering the environment; currently, the estimated annual mass of mismanaged waste is 80 MMT. With time, much of the plastic litter will degrade into microplastics, and once distributed, it is essentially impossible to remove. An estimated 4.8-12.7 MMT of plastics reach the ocean every year, while terrestrial systems are expected to accumulate 4-23 times more than the ocean. Waste generation,

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