PLASTIC'S MESSY END-GAME

outlook A circular plastic economy will require a coordinated effort of increased recycling, better product design, a shift towards renewable resources and an end to the production of single-use plastics. [...]a biotechnology company called Mango Materials in Redwood City, California, uses P3HB as a raw material, harvesting granules of it from the bacteria and manufacturing them into lentil-sized pellets called nurdles. [...]a food-grade plastic beverage bottle becomes a fleece garment, or components for a park bench. Because manufacturers can't make many products with recycled plastic, the market for it is limited, says Magdalena Klotz, a graduate student of ecological systems design at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland. [...]these products are found everywhere in the world, even in the remotest places, says Costas Velis, a sustainability scientist at the University of Leeds.