The 1967 movie "The Graduate" starred Dustin Hoffman as a young college graduate wondering what to do next. One of his would-be advisers recommended that he go into plastics, the wave of the future. The movie script writer was prescient. Fifty-one years later, plastics did indeed become the wave of the future in every field from auto manufacturing to consumer packaging.

Plastics also became a major scourge of the global environment. Scientists now estimate that some nine million tons of it winds up in the earth's oceans every year, mostly swept into them by rivers and streams. Slow-moving currents cause its concentration in great slowly circulating oceanic garbage patches called gyres. Two of the major gyres are located off the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of America. Other notable gyres are found in the Indian Ocean, and the north Atlantic and south Atlantic waters.

Volvo Cars announced in May 2018 that it would remove single-use plastics from all offices, canteens and events across the globe by the end of 2019. The decision reflects the company's active support of the UN Environment Clean Seas campaign, and underlines its ambition to minimize its global environmental footprint. The car maker will replace over 20 million single-use plastic items such as cups, food containers and cutlery with more sustainable alternatives, including biodegradable products made of paper, pulp and wood. This equates to the removal of over 500 plastic items per employee per year.

The switch will be implemented incrementally. By the end of 2018, single-use plastics will be removed from global events such as car launches, as well as from all offices and restaurants in Volvo Cars facilities in China, Belgium, the United States, Sweden and Malaysia. During 2019, all Volvo national sales companies will eradicate single-use plastics from their operations, including local events.

"Action from the private sector is key to making progress in the fight against plastic pollution and raising awareness. We cannot wait for a binding legislative agreement," said Lisa Emelia Svensson, Director of Ocean at UN Environment. "In the next 10 to 15 years global plastic production is projected to nearly double, parts of which will end up in oceans if we do not change today. We welcome Volvo Cars saying no to single-use plastics and it's great to see it leading by example."

Volvo Cars estimates that the 2018 roll-out alone will result in the replacement of more than 140 tonnes of single-use plastic items with plastic-free alternatives. "Plastics pollution is one of the great environmental challenges of our time," said Stuart Templar, Director for Sustainability at Volvo Cars. "We take our responsibility seriously. We must play our part in helping tackle this global problem."

Chuck Swann is Senior Editor of Paperitalo Publications.