Welcome to the briefing room with me, David Oronovich. Come inside and join me in getting briefed on the issues that matter by people who know what they're talking about.

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If this briefing room helps you understand what's going on in the world,

you might like other editions of the podcast,

which range from North Korean missiles to money for the NHS.

This week, I'm getting briefed on the menace of plastic waste.

Just how serious is the problem and what can be done to tackle it. So take your seat in the briefing room. Plastic has become an integral part of our daily lives. But every year,

some 8 million tonnes of it ends up in the ocean.

And there it could be lethal.

From Sir David's lips to God's ear.

More than 40 companies have promised to make all of their plastic fit

for reuse, recycling or composting by 2025.

Since the Blue Planet was aired, Cabinet Ministers have, they say, been haunted.

In the UK alone, the amount of single-use plastic wasted every year would fill 1,000 Royal Albert Halls.

If we don't act, would lead it to being more plastic than fish in our oceans.

But who is that we in all this talk about doing something about plastic pollution and what's

the action that's needed to stop the plastication of the world's oceans? I'm in the

briefing room to find out. Join me. First off, how did the plastic problem arise?

Susan Frankel is the author of Plastic, a toxic love story, and she knows the history of plastic

from first extrusion to the second space age.

The love affair began in the mid-19th century with the development of the first plastics.

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