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What You Must Know About Plastic

Plastic is the general common term for a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials used in a huge, and growing, range of applications (PlasticsEurope, 2015). In chemistry, plastics are large molecules, called polymers, composed of repeated segments, called monomers, with carbon backbones (Lytle, 2015). Plastic is readily available and contained in almost everything we touch. Plastic is found in clothes, houses, cars, toys, televisions, computers, and even compact disks (CDs). Also, plastic refers to material’s plasticity/malleability, during manufacture; allowing for casting, pressing, or extrusion. The resultant is a variety of shapes like boxes, bottles, plates, and the like.
Types of Plastic
Plastic could be categorized into thermoplastics and thermosetting plastics. Thermoplastics refers to the category of plastic that can be heated up to form products, and can be reheated again (melted). New products could then be formed from the melted plastic. Thermoset plastics on the other hand cannot be remelted after a product has been created. In summary:
·        Thermoplastics soften on heating and re-harden on cooling.
·        Thermosets never soften once they have been molded.

Examples of Thermosets
Examples of Thermoplastics
Epoxide (EP)
Polycarbonate – PC
Polyurethane (PUR)
Polyethylene – PE
Phenol-formaldehyde (PF)
Polypropylene – PP
Polytetrafluoroethylene - PTFE
Polystyrene –PS
Unsaturated polyester resins (UP)
Expanded Polystyrene - EPS

Poly (vinyl chloride) – PVC

Poly (methyl methacrylate) -PMMA

Polyethylene Terephthalate - PET

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene - ABS

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene - ABS

References

History of Plastics. (2015). Retrieved May 21, 2015, from SPI - The Plastics Industry Trade Association: www.plasticsindustry.org
Knight, L. (2014, May 17). A Brief History of plastics, natural and synthetic. Retrieved May 16, 2015, from British Broadcasting Corporation - BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27442625
Lytle, C. L. (2015). When The Mermaids Cry: The Great Plastic Tide. Retrieved April 15, 2015, from Plastic Pollution: http://plastic-pollution.org/
North, E., & Rolf, H. (2014). Plastics and Environmental Health: The Road Ahead. Reviews on Environmental Health, 28(1), 1-8. doi:10.1515/reveh-2012-0030
PlasticsEurope. (2015). What is plastic? Retrieved May 13, 2015, from PlasticsEurope: http://www.plasticseurope.org/what-is-plastic.aspx
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