It is hard to imagine a day without plastic - from household cleaners to credit cards, computers, and even clothing. Plastics are more useful and versatile than almost anything else in our daily lives. Read more about the creation of plastic and the history of poly.
To prove just how versatile, the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University has posted the results of a recent study on their website concerning the growth in use of plastic and rubber products:
- The U.S. GDP for plastics and rubber products in 1977 was $16,900,000,000.
- In 2006 that number soared to an astounding $71,400,000,000 (an almost inconceivable 420% jump).
The Creation of Plastic and the History of Poly
But how did we become so dependent on one material? The answer, as with so many things in life, is that we kind of just fell into it.
It all started when an innovative Brit, Alexander Parkes, introduced "a material to rival rubber" in 1862, at the Great International Exhibition in London. This material - dubbed Parkesine - was organically derived from cellulos, and, though it never really took off it, it sparked the search for a versatile, strong, cheap, and flexible modern multi-tasker.
Interestingly, it would be the game of billiards that would provide the first opportunity for plastics to shine on a national stage. This was because during the latter part of the 19th century, the game billiards (often featuring game balls made of pure ivory) had become so popular that any animal with tusks was severely at risk of soon becoming extinct.
Perhaps an animal-lover himself, the American John Wesley Hyatt, in a rush to find a replacement, invented celluloid. And in 1869, entirely by accident, the first thermoplastic (a substance molded under heat and pressure into a shape it retains even after the heat and pressure have been removed) was born.
The Invention of Synthetic Plastics
Eventually, the first completely synthetic version of plastic was discovered in 1907. And Rayon, Nylon, acrylic, neoprene, SBR, polyethylene, and other polymers - like PVC, SaranTM, and Teflon® - were all part of the "plastics craze" of the early an mid-1900s.
According to the American Chemistry Council on-line, most plastics are based on the carbon atom - silicones being the general exception to this rule - although other elements, too, can be involved, such as oxygen, chlorine, fluorine, and nitrogen. For instance, Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) contains chlorine, while Nylon contains nitrogen; Teflon contains fluorine, and Polyester and polycarbonates contain oxygen.
The ulitmate goal for many of the products we use today is to get the connections between atoms to result in long chains of molecular bonds, like a string of pearls. The resulting polymer is called a "thermoplastic." According to the ACC, the vast majority of plastics (about 92%) fall into the category of thermoplastics.
And in 1933, "Poly's" would revolutionize the world, as two chemists would stumble into its creation. Indeed, most of what we think of when we think of plastics now is based on Polyethylene - soda bottles, milk jugs, grocery and dry-cleaning bags, and plastic food storage containers.
Plastic Recycling Information, Facts, and Stats
While it is true that "Poly" revolutionized almost all aspects of modern life in an instant, it is also notoriously hard to get rid of from a environmental standpoint. This creates a bit of a problem with world-wide plastic consumption at an all-time high. The problem is that the molecular bonds created in the formation of plastic are amazingly stable and difficult to break down. Earth911 on-line offers some sobering statistics to consider in terms of how much plastic we are actually collecting:
- Number of plastic bags used worldwide each year: 4,000,000,000,000 to 5,000,000,000,000.
- Amount of oil used annually to produce plastic bags: 17,200,000,000 to 21,500,000,000 gallons.
- Number of plastic bags used by Americans each year: 110,000,000,000.
- Amount of plastic bags recycled in the United States in 2006: 2%.
- Amount of plastic used worldwide every year just to bottle water: 1,500,000 to 2,700,000 tons.
- Number of plastic water bottles sold in the United States in 1997: 4,000,000,000
- Nearly eight out of every 10 bottles will end up in a landfill.
And that is just the tip of the plastic problem. Most plastics that are made in the U.S. are now made primarily (70 percent) from domestic natural gas and oil, which carries another round of separate but equally disturbing environmental concerns, as oil is an exhaustible resource.
The key, really, is to recycle the plastic, which works surprisingly well. Plastics, as it happens, really don't mind being recycled at all, and, in fact, recycling helps break most plastics down so that they can eventually properly be disposed of. Encouragingly, though, people seem to be realizing that we cannot keep piling up a product that can't so easily be easily broken down once created. The same site, then, offers these hopeful facts:
- HDPE and PET bottles showed the highest recycling rates of any plastic bottles types, at 27.1 and 23.1 percent, respectively.
- In recent years, many grocers and retailers have introduced plastic bag collection program.
- More than 80% of U.S. households have access to a plastics recycling program through curbside or community drop-off centers.
For more information about recycling efforts in your area, please use the link to the following handy facilities locater from the Recycling Center on-line.
It is hard to imagine a day without plastic. From household cleaners to credit cards, computers, and even clothing, plastics are more useful and versatile than almost anything else in our daily lives. Respect for their use and proper disposal is the only responsible approach.
Jeremy Perkins - The author has a B.A in Journalism and Writing, an M.A. in Information Technology, and enjoys watercolor painting, sports, coding, hiking, ...
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