Since the 1950s, some 9bn tonnes of plastic have been produced globally. About half of that was made in the past 20 years. Around the world, one million plastic bottles are purchased every minute. Plastic clogs our oceans and our veins: scientists have detected it in the deepest part of the Pacific and, this year, in blood samples from the general public.

Much of this plastic is single-use: burger wrappers, coffee cups, drinks bottles — chucked away after a one-off indulgence. The majority of it is dumped in landfill or lost in the environment, where it may take centuries to decompose. According to the UN, only about 10 per cent has ever been recycled.

Yet companies and consumers continue to look to recycling as a way to ease the plastic problem. A string of consumer goods giants have publicly committed to making more of their products and packaging from recycled materials.

Coca-Cola has pledged to use recycled material for 25 per cent of its packaging by 2030. Unilever aims to cut its use of virgin plastic in half by 2025. McDonald’s plans to make all of its packaging from recycled or renewable sources by 2025. And so on. Polls consistently suggest the public also like recycling: it makes them feel that they are doing their bit.

However, this confidence masks a complex web of issues around plastic recycling. Recycling rates remain abysmally low and critics argue that we should look at alternative ways to tackle plastic pollution.

A number of factors contribute to low recycling rates: consumer confusion over what can be recycled; a lack of standardisation, with different waste companies processing different plastics; and a fluctuating market that makes much of the waste unprofitable to recycle.

In the US, there are almost 10,000 recycling companies, each with its own criteria for what plastic it can manage. Likewise, in the UK, a BBC analysis found 39 sets of local authority rules for recycling. Consumers are mostly unaware of this.