And in the process, we started recreating how the plastics industry makes plastics.

They store the plastics on the roofs.

Now because the plastics are so plentiful and by the way, those other methods don't lead to the recovery of plastics, obviously but people do try to recover the plastics.

Plastics have overlapping densities over a very narrow range.

And this becomes the currency of the plastics industry.

Non degradable plastics in a garbage dump in Karachi.

At the end of this process, we have a mixed plastic composite many different types of plastics and many different grades of plastics.

They manufacture plastics. They use large quantities chloroprene and benzene.

But actually, plastics are several times more valuable than steel.

It's mostly many types of plastics and many types of metals.

The traditional way to make plastics is with oil or petrochemicals.

The waste is separated into recyclable materials (plastics, metals) and organic waste.

And TAP Plastics made me although I didn't photograph it a museum vitrine.

Plastics are a whole other story well less than 10 percent are recovered.

So the traditional ways of separating materials just simply don't work for plastics.

We said, there's got to be a more sustainable way to make plastics.

Now most people think that's because plastics are a throw away material, have very little value.

Mostly coal, Chuluunbaatar says, but some people tend to burn other things, tires, plastics, you know.

Or they burn the plastics to get to the metals in burn houses like you see here.

Some US industries, such as chemicals and plastics, will gain a significant comparative advantage in production costs.

And there's more plastics produced and consumed around the world on a volume basis every year than steel.

We use a very highly automated process to sort those plastics, not only by type, but by grade.

Horticulture and vegetables use an astonishing amount, says Nate Leonard, field coordinator for Cornell University s Recycling Agricultural Plastics Program.

This picture doesn't exactly show the plastics that I would like it to show, because I haven't been out there myself.

And the plastics, we get from oil, which we go to more remote locations and drill ever deeper wells to extract.

Marine species at risk from overfishing must also contend with pervasive pollution from plastics, sewage, industrial chemicals, agricultural runoff and other contaminants.

They recover the metals and leave behind what's called shredder residue it's their waste a very complex mixture of materials, but predominantly plastics.

We take out the things that aren't plastics, such as the metals they missed, carpeting, foam, rubber, wood, glass, paper, you name it.

So what are we to do about this space age material, at least what we used to call a space aged material, these plastics?

You breakdown the molecules, you recombine them in very specific ways, to make all the wonderful plastics that we enjoy each and every day.

We promote reduction in waste generation in particular plastic bottles and plastics bag We provide environmental education programs through public, private and educational institutions

While collection for recycling is one challenge, preparing and processing agricultural plastics so they can be recycled and finding a market for the many different kinds of agricultural plastics add even more complexity. Cubes of brightly colored plastic twine dwarf a worker at an Agri Plas recycling facility in Brooks, Ore. Photo by Elizabeth Grossman.

The primary demand for oil is as a transport fuel, with lesser amounts used for heating, energy, and as inputs for petrochemical industries like plastics.

Chemicals in flame retardants, plastics, and personal care and other household products are among those Lanphear lists as targets of concern for their neurodevelopment effects.

They extract what they can, which is mostly the metals circuit boards and so forth and they leave behind mostly what they can't recover, which is, again, mostly the plastics.

They bring them below those roofs into small workshops like these, and people try very hard to separate the plastics, by color, by shape, by feel, by any technique they can.

Increasing that number will depend on making drop off more convenient and expanding options for giving plastic a second life. In New York, where a statewide ban on backyard or farm burning of plastics was passed in 2009, the Cornell program worked with the state s Department of Environmental Conservation to pioneer agricultural plastics recycling and do educational outreach about recycling options through extension programs and local soil and water conservation districts.

On a visit to the four acre farm on lush Sauvie Island at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers near Portland, Ore., Gilbert gives me a tour de farm plastics.

But before I do that, I need to talk to you about synthetic materials like plastics, which require huge amounts of energy to create and, because of their disposal issues, are slowly poisoning our planet.

Corporate Structure Plastics EngineeringTop priority is given to stretch blow moulding machines for the production of PET bottles of up to a volume of 3 liters, with an output of 12,800 to 80,000 bottles hour.

Phthalates, which are used as plasticizers including in polyvinyl chloride plastics and in synthetic fragrances and numerous personal care products, comprise one category of widely used chemicals that appear to have adverse impacts on brain development.

' American Film Institute recognition 1998 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies 7 2000 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs 9 2002 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions 52 2004 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs Mrs. Robinson 6 2005 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes Plastics.

There lots of interest in reducing the impacts, says Scott Coleman, vice president of strategic development for Delta Plastics, an Arkansas based company that specializes in agricultural irrigation tubing. Historically, discarded agricultural waste has been taken to landfills or been burned or buried, often on farm property.

Delta Plastics uses much of this material itself, but it also sells it in pellet form to other manufacturers who mainly use it to make new plastic sheets and film. Another solution some companies have been experimenting with is turning waste agricultural plastic into fuel oil.

It was an exciting breakthrough when we found someone who would take this, he says. One of the first companies Cornell s recycling program found that could use this plastic was a manufacturer of plastic sidewalk and paving materials. Another big issue in recycling agricultural plastics is dirt and debris.