In 2008, China -- which had been using and discarding about 3 billion ultrathin plastic shopping bags a day -- bans the bags; shoppers turn to reusable plastic, cloth and bamboo bags.

This NBC Learn video, part of a series on "Chance Discoveries" in chemistry, tells how three different chemists in two countries over more than 30 years happened to make a white, waxy substance during lab experiments that, once recognized as potentially useful and developed, became polyethylene -- the most common plastic in the world.

This chart from the American Chemistry Council gives codes, descriptions, properties, and product applications for six common plastics used in packaging, including polyethylenes, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene and polystyrene. Source: American Chemistry Council

Health-conscious Americans are drinking more bottled water than ever -- and the tonnage of discarded plastic water bottles is a growing pollution concern. Environmentalists are urging people to drink tap water from refillable containers.

This 2011 Scientific American "Earthtalk" article analyzes the dollar, oil, and environmental costs of drinking bottled water instead of tap water. Americans use some 50 billion, mostly plastic water bottles every year -- more than 80 percent of which are not recycled. Source: Scientific American, March 4, 2011

Are paper or plastic bags better for the environment? Plastic bags don't degrade for hundreds of years; making paper bags destroys trees and causes air pollution. Best option: reusable cloth bags.

In 2007, the Pacific Ocean contains so many discarded (and nondegradable) plastic bags, packaging and pieces that plastic outweighs plankton on the water surface, a hazard to marine life that mistakes it for food.

This 10-minute 1945 filmstrip, sponsored by General Electric, shows children confused by a new material that is not from the animal, vegetable or mineral kingdom. One child's father explains that it's from the "fourth kingdom," of plastics, then describes how plastic compounds and resins are made, and speculates on plastic's place in "the dream of the future."

The May 29, 2011 issue of Scientific American includes this excerpt from "Plastic: A Toxic Love Story" by Susan Freinkel, charting changes in the economy, society and the environment as inexpensive synthetic plastics replaced ivory, tortoise shell and other limited natural materials, and led to manufacture of a new generation of consumer goods.

This 2009 Scientific American article reports on studies indicating that bisphenol A, or BPA -- a chemical used in plastic bottles, and linked to heart disease, diabetes and liver failure -- may linger in the body for longer and at higher levels than previously thought. Source: Scientific American, January 28, 2009