Plastic: Reputable Publications I would just like some reputable textbooks and or publication companies that have extensive research on plastics, as, for example, dealing with life cycles of plastics, degradation factors, effect on life, polymer types, etc.
A quick search in my university's library for Life cycle polymer brings me two reputable looking books:


Green composites: Polymer composites and the environment 
Fundamentals of Materials for Energy and Environmental Sustainability


A Google Scholar search for life cycle analysis of plastic yields several good looking hits. A similar result for life cycle analysis of polymers.

This kind of information is out there, and there is a lot of it. My examples hopefully will inspire you to spend the effort (and it's not that much effort) to look for it.