The world population is living, working, vacationing, increasingly conglomerating along the coasts, and standing on the front row of the greatest, most unprecedented, plastic waste tide ever faced.

According to the Worldwatch Institute, an estimated 299 million tons of plastics were produced in 2013, representing a 4 percent increase over 2012, and confirming an upward trend over the past years.  By 2050, we’ll have produced 26 billion tons of plastic waste says a 2017 report on sciencemag.org.