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An Introduction to Plastics
An Introduction to Plastics
Only a hundred and fifty years ago, plastic didn't exist -- now it's everywhere, from contact lenses to airplane bodies. And most plastics degrade so slowly that many plastic objects may last a thousand years.Related Resources
• Plastics & Microwaves
• Production
• Recycling Process
• Recycling Rates
• Renewable Plastics
• Types
• Recycling CenterThe word plastic is from the greek verb "to form," and plastics can take almost any form. There are hundreds if not thousands of different plastics -- it's the substance of computer discs and teflon cooking pans, polyester clothing and cellophane wrap, car engine components and surgical implants.
Plastics were first conceived in the middle 1800s. That's when British and American scientists began trying to create a flexible, inexpensive substitute for materials like wood, rubber and glass. An American, John Wesley Hyatt, came up with the first widely successful compound, mixing camphor with a solvent to create the strong but flexible material celluloid. Celluloid made the movie industry possible.
In 1938, Wallace Carothers, a scientist for the Dupont company invented another plastic, the silky, elastic material nylon. The military used nylon to make parachutes. But women were nylon's biggest fans, because the material replaced costly silk stockings, although unlike other plastics, nylon stockings last only days, not millenia.
