(Newswire.net — January 13, 2014) Anaheim, CA — Plastic materials have been around for over a century. Once at the top of their game, plastics have started to earn a bad reputation. How did these great materials, that have an almost unlimited range of uses, earn such a bad title over the years? To understand where we are now with plastics, you need to understand where we have been.
Plastics were first introduced by Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland in 1907. He called his new invention Bakelite, and it was the beginning of a whole new industry. Bakelite was created to insulate wires in motors, but was soon carried over into many other uses like buttons, guitars, and pistol grips. People were able to see the wide variety of uses that plastics had, and it helped create a new way of thinking.
In 1955 Life Magazine released, “throwaway living,” an article in their popular magazine. The basis of this article was that housewives could be liberated from the monotony of dishes and cleaning because single use, plastic items were now on the market. Many people believe this to be the start of the “throwaway society.”
The throwaway society is a society who focuses on overconsumption and a dependence on single use items. All of a sudden, we had these wonderful materials that can do almost anything, and the focus was to use it once and throw it away.
This was the first problem.
Plastic products that are structurally meant to withstand multiple uses are being thrown away after one use. The second problem was there was no focus on recycling these new plastic items, and no recycling facilities had yet to even be considered. It was not until the 1960’s and 1970’s that plastic recycling was first conceived and not until the 1980’s until plastic recycling really began to catch on. This 30 year gap plays an important role in why plastics are looked at negatively.
In this day and age, recycling is more than placing your recycle tub out for the trash collector. People are coming up with new ways to recycle and reuse more plastic material each and every day. In an earlier article, we talked about people making clothes by recycling plastic bags. We also touched on how plastic milk jugs and laundry detergent bottles are being used to make composite wood. Recycling can be so much more than throwing it in that blue bin. Recycling is also reusing, or recreating for a new purpose. The idea to keep in mind is that a single use item can and should have multiple uses.
Another stage of the bad reputation of plastic is that it is “cheap” and breaks easily. Plastic may cost less than other materials, but it is not cheap. Frankly, some of the High Performance Plastics like PEEK and Ultem are rather expensive, but can out perform all other materials for many applications. The reason some cheap plastic items break easily is because the wrong type of plastic is being used for the job. You may already know, but there are many different plastics on the market today, much more than just Bakelite, and each one is different from the next.
Plastic Materials Are Not All Created Equal
Different plastics have different roles that they can fill. The reason some plastics appear cheap and break is because the manufacture of the item went with the cheapest plastic they could get their hands on, and not the proper material for the job. When selecting a plastic, you need to look at more than just cost. If you focus on just cost, the plastic you select will most likely be the wrong plastic for the job.
Plastics have been around for over a century now, and they are not about to go anywhere. They are in almost everything you can think of, from space and aviation to toys and medical uses. Plastics make our food safer and protect us against bacteria, enable products to be lighter and yet stronger at the same time.
Plastics save lives and can do jobs that other materials simply can’t. Without plastics, artificial transplants would not be available, computers would still be giant and bulky, and we would still be wondering if we would ever enter space.
Before you go trash talking plastic, think about what it has done for you lately.
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