One of the truly man-made substances produced is plastic. As a substitute for many natural materials such as wood, stone, bone, leather, glass and some metals, plastics are produced in different ways to create specific use materials. While earlier attempts to reproduce natural materials with organic substances met with varying degrees of success, the modern plastics industry is mostly focused on the use of hydrocarbon petrochemical as a basic ingredient in the production of the different forms of plastics used today.

In order to be moulded into the infinite shapes and forms this substance can take requires various chemical processes mixed with pressure and heat to rework the properties of the molecular polymer carbon chains. There are several obvious problems with this system. Almost all of the substances used to create plastics come from non-renewable resources. The majority of these resources either create toxic byproducts during manufacture or are already toxic to begin with.

The electrical energy consumption to rework these substances into the liquid molding state can be enormous. Whether through the use of fossil fuel burning generators up to nuclear reactors, the production of this energy is a major pollutant in itself.

The first true plastic was developed in 1909 and given the trade name of “Bakelite”. This entirely synthetic substance was made of a polymer derived from phenol and formaldehyde. While somewhat brittle, Bakelite was very heat resistant and is not subject to degradation. Even in fragments, this first plastic will exist on the planet for as long as it circles the sun.

Some of the most well known plastics are polystyrene and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). While highly moldable polystyrene is used for everything from plastic model toys to the ubiquitous “Styrofoam”. With chlorine as a part of its construction, all these plastics give off deadly fumes if the catch fire and burn.

Until the environmental destruction of polyvinyl chloride was known it was a standard byproduct of plastic manufacture. It was not until 1995 that plastics recycling began to find ways to reuse this durable and slow decaying substance. Some thermoplastics can me remelted and reworked although most of these polymers can only be ground up and used as filler. While single plastic products like beverage containers can be easily sorted and recycled, complex items that contain multiple plastics generally can only be landfilled.

In recent years there has been a trend to attempt the creation of biodegradable plastics. Various methods have included adding starch to the mixture or creating artificially created microbes to feed on the plastics. Thus far none of the attempts has been entirely successful. Some require direct exposure to sunlight and others require a specific mix of conditions to decay. In all these biodegradable plastics greenhouse carbon dioxide gasses are released and at least one produces methane upon decomposition.

Whatever the future of plastic production, one thing is abundantly apparent. Most of these plastic products will be with us well into the future whether they are buried in landfills or littered across the landscape.