In the 1967 hit movie ‘The Graduate,’ the main character, a young man gets cornered at his graduation party by a well-intentioned friend of his parents who delivers some advice as the young degree-holder thinks about the future. The older fellow says: “I want to say one word to you, just one word: plastics. There’s a great future in plastics.” Since the 1960s, over nearly 8.5 billion tons plastic have been produced with almost 40 percent of it being used for one-time-use packaging....