Read the article "The Problem with Plastic": When it was first invented, plastic was hailed as a wonderful invention. It is now used in hundreds of thousands of popular products. While plastic is a convenient material, it has become one of the largest environmental problems the Earth has ever faced. Plastic was first invented in the late 1800s. It wasn't until after WWII, however, that the material was manufactured for mass consumption. One reason for this was the sheer number of factories that had been built to support the war effort. When the war was over, the factories moved from manufacturing military-related products to products for consumers, like cars, washing machines, and radios—all of which required plastic parts. Plastic was inexpensive to make and use, and this led to a rapid increase in its use. Due to its versatility and durability, many good-quality products could be made from plastic. The plastic industry boomed, and more and more products were made. We use more than 20 times the amount of plastic we did 50 years ago. This is part of the reason plastic has become such a problem: there is a lot of it. Many plastic products are often single-use products, such as water bottles, plastic bags, straws, and food containers. These items are typically used once and then thrown away. This is the second part of the plastic problem: plastic is not biodegradable. No animal or organism can break down plastic. It will degrade over time, but this process takes over 400 years. While plastics can be recycled, less than 10 percent of all plastic products used in the United States are recycled. This is because we use many types of plastics that each have different chemical compositions. Mixing plastics can cause contamination, therefore making them unsafe to use again. Plastic waste can also be contaminated by other materials such as paper and ink. Separating plastics from other materials and different types of plastic from one another is no easy task. This means that very little of the plastic we use is recycled