6 Minute English from BBC Learning English.

Hello this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil and I'm Beth. Plastic is fantastic. This phrase

was used a lot in the 1950s when mass-produced plastic items started to become part of our everyday lives.

The following decades saw a revolution as plastic became the most commonly used material

in modern life, found in everything from cars to furniture to packaging.

Take a quick look around and you'll soon see how many everyday items contain

plastic. But now our love of plastic is being questioned, mostly thanks to climate change and pollution caused by single-use plastics,

plastic products which are designed to be used just once before being thrown away.

11 million tons of plastic waste are dumped into our oceans every year.

It's believed that single-use plastics make up 40% of all plastic pollution

globally.

What's more, it's not just land and water being polluted, tiny plastic pieces known as microbeeds have even been found inside the human body and can be passed from mother to child through breast milk.

And because plastic comes from fossil fuels, the

process of making it creates problems at every stage, from burning coal to

transportation to recycling. In this program we'll be asking is it time to live

without plastic and as usual we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.

But first I have a question for you Beth. some useful new vocabulary as well.

But first I have a question for you Beth.

One reason why plastic became so popular is that it's a very flexible material.

It can be formed into different shapes, making it useful for keeping food fresh or holding liquid.

Originally, plastic was invented to replace the decreasing supply of natural materials like metal, wood and glass. So which items

did plastic first replace? Was it A snooker balls? B shopping bags or C

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