In a rare joint appearance, the chief executives of the world's largest beverage companies discuss their efforts to reduce plastic use. PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta and Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey are joined by the CEO of plastic-maker Dow Chemical, Jim Fitterling, at the World Economic Forum panel about transforming the plastics economy.

In September, a 2,000-foot-long floating barrier, shaped like a U, was dispatched to the Great Pacific garbage patch between Hawaii and California, where roughly 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic have formed a floating field of debris roughly twice the size of Texas. Made of connected plastic pipes, the barrier was meant to catch and clean-up the plastic.

While this famous phrase may conjure up thoughts of witches concocting a potion, it surely doesn't represent all the Halloween fun we have carving pumpkins, trick or treating, and dressing up for costume parties. This year Americans will spend $1.8 billion dollars on candy, $1.6 billion dollars on decorations, $2.0 billion dollars on costumes, and almost $350 million on greeting cards.

Globally, the annual production of plastics is estimated to be 800 billion lbs.  With a world population of 7.2 billion, that’s 111 lbs. of plastic produced annually for every person in the world! 

Since the 1960s, plastics have gradually become the materials of choice for industrial applications that once demanded the use of glass, metal, or wood. Salad dressing bottles, car bumpers, and even toothpicks are now made of plastic. Left to their own demise, these chemically, synthesized materials never totally go away but breakdown into smaller and smaller polluting bits called microplastics.

Industry has made more than 9.1 billion tons of plastic since 1950 and there's enough left over to bury Manhattan under more than two miles of trash, according to a new cradle-to-grave global study. Plastics don't break down like other man-made materials, so three-quarters of the stuff ends up as waste in landfills, littered on land and floating in oceans, lakes and rivers, according to the research reported in Wednesday's journal Science Advances.

If you manage a recycling program, these 5 tips will help you to make money on your recyclables. Single stream recycling may be convenient, but it is not very profitable. These tips can help you to earn more money directly for your recyclables or allow you to negotiate a lower hauling fee from your recycling contractor.