We explain the history of plastic, its invention and when it began to be an environmental problem. Also, plastic today.
What is the history of plastic?
Plastic is a synthetic material made up of high molecular weight organic polymers usually chemically derived from petroleum, although in some cases from cotton cellulose and corn starch. His name (from the Greek plastikos“moldable”) comes from its high plasticity, that is, its ability to deform without breaking, which makes plastic an extremely important industrial material, capable of adapting to different human needs.
Despite its importance in the contemporary world, plastic is a relatively recent material. In fact, In just 200 years of existence it has flooded the entire planet to the point of representing today the main factor of water and soil pollution.
However, The most remote antecedent of plastic dates back to the 16th century BC. C., when the Mesoamerican peoples learned to use rubber latex to make balls, human figures and elastic bands to hold the parts of their lithic tools. In this procedure, they were almost 3,500 years ahead of the modern vulcanization process, developed in the 19th century by the American company Goodyear.
See also: Microplastics
The first plastic in history
The first plastic material developed by humanity emerged as a more cost-effective substitute for ivory at the request of a New York company that offered $10,000 to anyone who developed a similar material for the manufacture of billiard balls. In 1869, the American inventor John Wesley Hyatt (1837-1920) invented celluloid a cheap, malleable product obtained from cotton fibers and their treatment with camphor.
This discovery was revolutionary, since with this first plastic, materials obtained from hunting animal species, such as turtle shell or elephant tusks, could be replaced. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that human inventiveness could find materials that did not exist in nature, and thus dispense with certain exploitable natural resources.
In this same spirit, The Belgian chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland (1863-1944) invented a non-flammable, insulating and economical plastic material in 1907 which was known in his honor as “bakelite ”. This first totally synthetic plastic material marked the beginning of the so-called “age of plastic”, since its mass mechanical production was totally feasible and its uses practically unlimited. Bakelite was once referred to as the “material with thousands of uses,” since it could be molded into any shape.
The plastic era
Plastics became increasingly popular at the beginning of the 20th century especially after the appearance in the 1920s and 1930s of alkyd plastics and amine resins, organosilicon polymers and unsaturated polyester resins, among other compounds derived from the petrochemical industry. In 1937, polyurethanes were produced for the first time in history thanks to the development of the compression plastic molding system, and in 1939 the first epoxy resins.
The advent of The Second World War brought with it a great demand for these synthetic materials. Of special interest were plastic fibers, which replaced traditional fabrics for making parachutes, ropes and helmets, as was the case of nylon, invented in 1935 by the American chemist Wallace H. Carothers (1896-1937).
Other important plastics of the time were plexiglass, used as a substitute for glass in the windows of combat vehicles and the PCV, patented in 1933 by Waldo Lonsbury Semon (1898-1999). Overall, plastics production in the United States increased by 300% during World War II.
This phenomenon did not stop in the years after the conflict, in which It was thought that plastic would bring about an era of abundance and technological prosperity as the industry left traditional materials behind. New plastics began to be mass-produced and incorporated into everyday life during the 1950s and 1960s, such as polyethylene (invented by the German Karl Ziegler in 1953) and polypropylene (invented by the Italian Giulio Natta in 1954), both plastics most used today.
The paradigm shift on plastic
The first signs of change in considerations about plastic emerged in the mid-1960s, when it became clear that mass production of plastic was an environmental problem. At that time, plastic garbage began to be observed in the seas and catastrophic oil spills occurred that warned public opinion of the ecological danger of oil and its derivatives.
On the other hand, the term “plastic” began to acquire different connotations in culture, associated with that which is cheap, false and disposable, and with the conformity and superficiality of the consumer industry. Hand in hand with growing ecological alarms in the 1970s and 1980s, The reputation of plastic continued to decline, although its production and mass consumption did not.
In the mid-80s, the first plastic recycling plants and campaigns began a measure that has been very insufficient to deal with the environmental problem, represented at the end of the century by the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a floating pile of mainly plastic waste, the size of the American province of Texas.
Plastic today
Plastics, despite their ecological risks, are crucial to modern life and industry, and their production is unstoppable despite the efforts of environmental activists. Bans on single-use plastic have been imposed in many cities such as wrappers and plastic bags. For its part, The plastics industry is rushing to find a biodegradable plastic material or even with some type of bacteria capable of consuming the plastic and returning it to its original organic components.
Continue with: Hydrocarbons
References
- “History of plastics” in the Government of the Canary Islands (Spain).
- “The history of plastic” (video) in National Geographic Spanish.
- “Plastics” at the University of Burgos (Spain).
- “History and Future of Plastics” at Science History Institute (USA).
- “Plastic (chemical compound)” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
