Now scientific research is discovering that these rubbery sea creatures might provide an answer - a sticky solution to the problem of plastic pollution.
An alleged member of New York crime families have been found not guilty of involvement in the 1978 airport rubbery that helped inspired the Hollywood mafia film Goodfellas.
Take this foie gras back as well, it's rubbery and completely overcooked. And look at the portion size! How can you charge twenty-five dollars for a sliver of duck liver?
Of all the weird and wonderful creatures living under the sea, perhaps the strangest are jellyfish – those rubbery, cone-shaped creatures found floating in the water, their long tentacles trailing behind.
Mr Carey made his discovery when he was testing the properties of a material made of carbon nanotubes (cylinders of carbon atoms a few billionths of a metre across) and a rubbery polymer called polydimethylsiloxane.
He was chewing the gillyweed as hard and fast as he could; it felt unpleasantly slimy and rubbery, like octopus tentacles. Waist-deep in the freezing water he stopped, swallowed, and waited for something to happen.