Sam Gruet

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There's a lot of stuff going on here.

Like it is definitely like a facility here.

This isn't a gentrified office.

There's work being done here.

I'm in a giant warehouse in London, UK, surrounded by industrial machinery.

Standing next to me is Insia Jafaji, founder of The Shell Works, a biotech company creating compostable packaging.

Right, but they're not plastic.

Okay, I thought you were going to say, this is not plastic, this is fantastic.

From construction to healthcare and even the clothes you're wearing, plastic is everywhere.

It's cheap, durable and at the heart of the global economy.

But as pressure builds to cut its use, could we ever go plastic free?

I'm Sam Gruet and on Business Daily from the BBC World Service, I want to find out what it would take for the world to change and meet the people trying to make it happen.

Can the global economy go plastic free?

That's coming up on Business Daily.

First mass produced in the 1950s, plastic's cheap, lightweight and durable properties drove an explosion in its use.

Made from byproducts of oil and gas refining, it was soon being used to make just about anything.

It's an invaluable material, sending fresh food around the world and enabling medicines like vaccines to be delivered to billions of people.

But there's a lot of it.

The amount of plastic on Earth outweighs all of the land and sea creatures currently alive.