Excerpts from Chapter 2, Untangling Plastics
The first written use of the term plastic seems to have been in the 1630s. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, plastic is an adjective meaning “capable of shaping or molding a mass of matter,” from Latin plasticus, from Greek plastikos, “fit for molding, capable of being molded into various forms; pertaining to molding.”
By the current scientific definition, plastics are a group of synthetic or natural materials capable of being formed or shaped. Most plastics are polymers made of many repeating units at the molecule level. The feature that makes plastics so interesting for scientists to explore is their ability to be pliable and easy to shape when the material is warmed to a peaceful state and then hardened to a shape that it retains (thermoplastics). Some plastics may even maintain flexibility at room temperature (thermosets).
Today, 99 percent of plastics are synthetic (artificial) and not found in nature. Yet the earlier versions of plastics that were utilized were naturally occurring plastics. This included tar, shellac, tortoiseshell, animal horn, cellulose, amber, and latex from tree sap. Synthetic polymers are made from hydrocarbons and are not naturally occurring but are human-made and fabricated from fossil fuels. Simple synthetic hydrocarbons can contain only carbon and hydrogen. However, more complex hydrocarbon polymers may contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, fluorine, nitrogen, and chlorine.
That may be the scientific definition of plastics, but you and I, as consumers, see plastics from a different perspective. We see plastics replacing everyday household items, sometimes due to cost savings and sometimes due to the ease of manufacturing the parts from plastic resins instead of the original replaced materials.
Plastic has replaced other materials in consumer products and packaging. Plastic parts have replaced metal parts in standard household water plumbing fixtures. Acrylic plastic often replaces everyday household glassware.
Rubber products have been replaced with thermoplastics. You will find plastic resin replacements in carpets, microwavable containers, vehicle bumpers, wallpapers, credit cards, and vehicle instrument panels. Most of these items would have originally been constructed of linens, paper, glass, and metals readily found in local manufacturing markets.
Plastic flexible packaging has replaced paper, wax, and foil wraps used in the past. Ceramics and glassware have been replaced with plastic cups, many in disposable single-use format. Silverware is commonly replaced with plasticware. I typically find dessert displays at restaurants replaced with displays of plastic food that look tasty and last indefinitely. For those who like fishing, plastic fishing baits that look real to the fish have replaced fresh bait, and polyester filament has replaced the fishing strings of the past.
These many and varied substitutions illustrate two points: the replacement of ordinary natural materials like cotton with plastic, and the many plastic resins replacing commonly available materials today.
Ask yourself, “What was used before this item was made of plastic? Is plastic an improvement or not?” The answer depends on the situation and is not universally in favor or disfavor of plastics.
However, there is one universal truth: The production of synthetic plastics requires extraction, refinement, production, and transportation of fossil fuels (coal, oil, or gas) to the production facility where plastics are manufactured.
Think about that. Plastics are fossil fuel products. Plastic production requires fossil fuel production. The two are intrinsically linked. This is an essential point to focus on. We will revisit this topic in the following few chapters, but for the moment, the question is: when did we get hooked on plastics?
Untangling Plastics: The Missing Link to Mitigating Climate Change