Technology IES Aljanadic

PLASTIC

Items made of various kinds of plastic.

Plastic is the general common term for a wide range of synthetic or semisynthetic
organic solid materials suitable for the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are
typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to
improve performance and/or reduce costs.

The word derives from the Greek πλαστικός (plastikos) meaning fit for molding. It refers
to their malleability, or plasticity during manufacture, that allows them to be cast,
pressed, or extruded into an enormous variety of shapes—such as films, fibers, plates,
tubes, bottles, boxes, and much more.

The common word plastic should not be confused with the technical adjective plastic,
which is applied to any material which undergoes a permanent change of shape (plastic
deformation) when strained beyond a certain point. Aluminium, for instance, is plastic
in this sense, but not a plastic in the common sense; in contrast, in their finished forms,
some plastics will break before deforming and therefore are not plastic in the technical
sense.

There are two types of plastics: thermoplastics and thermosets. Thermoplastics will
soften and melt if enough heat is applied; examples are polyethylene, polystyrene,
polyvinyl chloride and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). Thermosets do not soften or
melt no matter how much heat is applied.

Overview
Plastics can be classified by their qualities that are relevant for manufacturing or
product design. Examples of such classes are the thermoplastic and thermoset,
elastomer, structural, biodegradable, electrically conductive, etc. Plastics can also be
ranked by various physical properties, such as density, tensile strength, glass transition
temperature, resistance to various chemical products, etc.
Due to their relatively low cost, ease of manufacture, versatility, and imperviousness to
water, plastics are used in an enormous and expanding range of products. They have
already displaced many traditional materials, such as wood; stone; horn and bone;
leather; paper; metal; glass; and ceramic, in most of their former uses.

Chemical structure
Common thermoplastics range from 20,000 to 500,000 in molecular mass, while
thermosets to have infinite molecular weight. These chains are made up of many
repeating molecular units, known as repeat units, derived from monomers; each
polymer chain will have several thousand repeat units. The vast majority of plastics are
composed of polymers of carbon and hydrogen alone or with oxygen, nitrogen, chlorine
or sulfur in the backbone. The backbone is that part of the chain on the main "path"
linking a large number of repeat units together. To vary the properties of plastics, both
the repeat unit with different molecular groups "hanging" or "pendant" from the
backbone, (usually they are "hung" as part of the monomers before linking monomers
together to form the polymer chain). This customization by repeat unit's molecular
structure has allowed plastics to become such an indispensable part of twenty first-
century life by fine tuning the properties of the polymer.

History of plastics
The first human-made plastic was invented by Alexander Parkes in 1855 ,he called this
plastic Parkesine (later called celluloid). The development of plastics has come from the
use of natural plastic materials (e.g., chewing gum, shellac) to the use of chemically
modified natural materials (e.g., rubber, nitrocellulose, collagen, galalite) and finally to
completely synthetic molecules (e.g., bakelite, epoxy, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene).

Toxicity
Due to their insolubility in water and relative chemical inertness, pure plastics generally
have low toxicity in their finished state, and will pass through the digestive system with
no ill effect (other than mechanical damage or obstruction).

However, plastics often contain a variety of toxic additives to make them pliable
enough for use in food packaging, children's toys and teethers, tubing, shower curtains
and other items. Traces of these chemicals can leach out of the plastic when it comes
into contact with food. Some compounds leaching from polystyrene food containers
have been found to interfere with hormone functions and are suspected human
carcinogens

Moreover, while the finished plastic may be non-toxic, the monomers used in its
manufacture may be toxic; and small amounts of those chemical may remain trapped in
the product. The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on
Cancer (IARC) has recognized the chemical used to make PVC, vinyl chloride, as a
known human carcinogen. Some polymers may also decompose into the monomers or
other toxic substances when heated.
Environmental issues
Plastics are durable and degrade very slowly; the molecular bonds that make plastic so
durable make it equally resistant to natural processes of degradation. Since the 1950s,
one billion tons of plastic has been discarded and may persist for hundreds or even
thousands of years. In some cases, burning plastic can release toxic fumes. Burning the
plastic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) may create dioxin Also, the manufacturing of plastics
often creates large quantities of chemical pollutants.

Prior to the ban on the use of CFCs in extrusion of polystyrene (and general use, except
in life-critical fire suppression systems; see Montreal Protocol), the production of
polystyrene contributed to the depletion of the ozone layer; however, non-CFCs are
currently used in the extrusion process.

By 1995, plastic recycling programs were common in the United States and elsewhere.
Thermoplastics can be remelted and reused, and thermoset plastics can be ground up
and used as filler, though the purity of the material tends to degrade with each reuse
cycle. There are methods by which plastics can be broken back down to a feedstock
state.

To assist recycling of disposable items, the Plastic Bottle Institute of the Society of the
Plastics Industry devised a now-familiar scheme to mark plastic bottles by plastic type.
A plastic container using this scheme is marked with a triangle of three cyclic arrows,
which encloses a number giving the plastic type:

Unfortunately, recycling plastics has proven difficult. The biggest problem with plastic
recycling is that it is difficult to automate the sorting of plastic waste, and so it is labor
intensive. Typically, workers sort the plastic by looking at the resin identification code,
though common containers like soda bottles can be sorted from memory. Other
recyclable materials, such as metals, are easier to process mechanically. However, new
mechanical sorting processes are being utilized to increase plastic recycling capacity
and efficiency.

While containers are usually made from a single type and color of plastic, making them
relatively easy to sort out, a consumer product like a cellular phone may have many
small parts consisting of over a dozen different types and colors of plastics. In a case
like this, the resources it would take to separate the plastics far exceed their value and
the item is discarded. However, developments are taking place in the field of Active
Disassembly, which may result in more consumer product components being re-used or
recycled. Recycling certain types of plastics can be unprofitable, as well. For example,
polystyrene is rarely recycled because it is usually not cost effective. These unrecycled
wastes are typically disposed of in landfills, incinerated or used to produce electricity at
waste-to-energy plants.

Biodegradable plastics
Research has been done on biodegradable plastics that break down with exposure to
sunlight (e.g., ultra-violet radiation), water or dampness, bacteria, enzymes, wind
abrasion and some instances rodent pest or insect attack are also included as forms of
biodegradation or environmental degradation.

Price, environment, and the future

The biggest threat to the conventional plastics industry is most likely to be
environmental concerns, including the release of toxic pollutants, greenhouse gas, litter,
biodegradable and non-biodegradable landfill impact as a result of the production and
disposal of petroleum and petroleum-based plastics. Of particular concern has been the
recent accumulation of enormous quantities of plastic trash in oceans.

For decades one of the great appeals of plastics has been their low price. Yet in recent
years the cost of plastics has been rising dramatically. A major cause is the sharply
rising cost of petroleum, the raw material that is chemically altered to form commercial
plastics.

With some observers suggesting that future oil reserves are uncertain, the price of
petroleum may increase further. Therefore, alternatives are being sought. Oil shale and
tar oil are alternatives for plastic production but are expensive. Scientists are seeking
cheaper and better alternatives to petroleum-based plastics, and many candidates are in
laboratories all over the world. One promising alternative may be fructose.