Oil-producing countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait and Russia, refused to sign up to a clause calling for the world to reduce its production of plastics. [I]. As clean energy technologies like electric vehicles gain traction worldwide, these economies are counting on continued and even increased plastic production to buffer them from the economic blow of reduced demand for oil. [II] The Conversation Weekly podcast sat down with Mark Miodowonik, professor of materials and society at UCL in the UK, to understand the history of plastic, how it's shaped our lives, and what can be done to make sure more plastic is recycled and less ends up polluting the planet. [III] [IV] In 1907 a chemist called Leo Bakerland invented a new type of rigid, synthetic plastic. He called it bakelite, and it was quickly seized upon by the modernism movement. "You can start mass producing items in a particular shape and they're all the same," explains Miodowonik, who leads the Plastic Waste Innovation Hub at UCL. First telephones, and then radios are manufactured using bakelite. "It's a huge revolution in the way people think about themselves, how they communicate with the world, who they are. Plastic becomes the material of this new era and everyone goes to town with it." Because plastic is a big business, the price comes down and it goes from a somewhat luxurious item to an everyday one. Suddenly everything is made of different types of plastic, including disposable packaging for fast food that people are encouraged to throw away. As a result of environmental activists raising the alarm in the 1980s and 1990s, governments and companies slowly started to at least pay lip service to plastic recycling. And these days, there has been a shift in our attitudes toward plastics as people are starting to realise the scale of plastic pollution. Few plastic manufacturers have faced consequences for their inaction, though these days, there seems to be more of a collective will to take action against them. In September 2024, the US federal government successfully sued Keurig, the company that makes those little plastic pods that produce one cup of coffee or tea, for claiming that those pods are recyclable when they're not. Keurig paid US $1.5 million (£1.2m) in penalties.