Plastic has become a vital part of our lives of convenience. Yet the coffee cup lids, water bottles and bags we use once and throw away do end up somewhere -- in landfills, but also in the ocean.

Its plastic is traceable and certified as "ocean-bound" -- a process that involves ... Mimi, 65, has brought out several old rice sacks of bottles that join a growing heap of torn fishing nets ...

Over the past decade, the plastic straw came to symbolize a global pollution crisis. Here's more about the larger fight over ...