An enterprising Chinese man pulls a bicycle cart packed high with bags of recyclable plastic containers in Shanghai July 25, 2002. The man sells each kilogram (2.2 pounds) of plastic for 0.08 yuan ($.01) to a nearby depot. (Photo by Claro Cortes IV/Reuters)

A woman uses a plastic bad to protect her head amid snowfall in Beijing, China on December 14, 2023. (Photo by Tingshu Wang/Reuters)

A boy reaches for a ball on a creek clogged with plastic waste on April 15, 2023 in Caloocan, Metro Manila, Philippines. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

A wild elephant eats garbage containing plastic waste at a dump in Sri Lanka's eastern district of Ampara on June 3, 2023. Sri Lanka is set to launch a nation-wide clean up of plastic waste ahead of new laws banning the sale of single use plastics, the Environmental ministry said, after a spate of deaths of elephants and deer in the island's northeast after foraging at open garbage tips filled with plastic waste, whilst shrinking habitat has led to jumbos raiding villages looking for food. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

Two scavengers collect plastics in the Citarum river in Bandung, West Java on March 28, 2023. (Photo by Timur Matahari/AFP Photo)

A ballet dancer poses in a giant plastic bubble as she entertains Christmas shoppers in Melbourne on December 13, 2020. (Photo by William West/AFP Photo)

A child plays with a plastic badminton racket in the old quarters of Delhi, India, March 3, 2016. (Photo by Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters)

Simon Monk’s 'Secret Identity' is an ongoing series of paintings, each representing a plastic figurine of a famous superhero contained in a clear plastic bag. Bagged and hung on a hook these superheroes become recently purchased objects robbed of the enormous power they wield.