10:42am.

History of Plastic:

The word plastic originally meant easily shaped and pliable. It has recently become a name for a group of materials called polymers. Polymers are made up of long chains of molecules (8). Just in the last few decades scientist have figured out how to make polymers synthetically. We have found ways to make polymers using cellulose which is a plant material located in the cell wall. The length of the chains of molecules and the order the chains are formatted in is what gives the polymers their characteristics of strength and flexibility (8).

The first synthetic polymer was created in 1869 by John Wesley Hyatt (8). It was created for its purpose to be used as a substitute for ivory. This is because of the growing worry of the hunting and killing of many species some to extinct for their horns. The first fully synthetic plastic made, meaning none of the molecules that make it up are found in nature was in 1907 and it was called Bakelite.

It wasn't until the 1960s that people started to become aware and worry about the danger of plastics and the pollution problems they can cause (8). This is mainly because plastics can persist in the environment for so long because they take a lot of time to degrade. In the 70s and 80s companies started to collect and recycle plastic materials because of the rising danger of pollution from them. The future of plastics is unknown, they have been a very important role in our society but as we learn more about them we made need to change our practices.

Gavin G.