The humble plastic bag is actually a marvel of engineering: it is cheap, light, strong, waterproof and it has conquered the world. In countries where plastic bags have been banned, they are still being smuggled in. The environmental pollution and other problems that discarded plastic can cause has made it a focus of passionate debate. But is plastic really the problem or is it our increasing use of disposable and single-use items?

The popularity of disposable products predates the invention of the plastic bag in the 1960s or even the advent of Western consumer society in the aftermath of the Second World War. And in the last three decades, so many new single-use items have been produced that we increasingly cannot imagine our lives without them, and not just in the festive season. So what is the way forward?

Iszi Lawrence talks about all manner of disposable and single-use objects with Jennifer Argo, Professor of Marketing at the School of Business, Alberta University; Mark Miodownik, Professor of Materials & Society at University College London; Katherine Grier, Professor Emerita of History at the University of Delaware and founder of the online Museum of Disposability; space archaeologist Dr. Alice Gorman from Flinders University in Australia and listeners from around the world.

(Photo: Digital image of plastic waste and a city skyline. Credit: Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images)