If you're an environmentalist, plastic is a word you tend to say with a sneer or a snarl. It has become a (1) _______ of our wasteful, throw-away society. But there seems little doubt it is here to stay, and the truth is, of course, that plastic has brought enormous (2) ______, even environmental ones. It’s not really the plastics themselves that are the evil ─ it's the way society chooses to use and (3) _______them.

Almost all the 50 or so different kinds of modern plastic are made from oil, gas or coal ─ non-renewable natural (4) _______. We (5) _______well over three million tones of the stuff in Britain each year and, sooner or later, most of it is thrown away. A high (6) _______of our annual consumption is in the form of packaging, and this (7) _______about seven percent by weight of our domestic refuse. Almost all of it could be recycled, but every little of it is though the plastic recycling (8) _______is growing fast.