Perhaps you’ve heard: Plastic is everywhere and tends to stick around for a long time. One estimate suggests only 10% of consumer plastics are recycled. The rest are burned, are thrown in landfills, or collect in ocean garbage patches. One is bigger than Texas.

Now the world is trying to do something. Nations are meeting in Kenya this week to push toward the first-ever global treaty on plastics. In another promising development, alternatives to plastic packaging are also emerging. Our own reporting has found no easy answers, rather the need for a societal shift.