Introduction
Plastics, Plastics and more Plastics! Over the course of my lifetime I have observed that virtually everything is now made of plastic: our rugs, our toys, our cars, our phones, and even our clothes. A startlingly high percentage of our foods and beverages are packaged, stored and served in plastic. Contact lenses, artificial joints, disposable diapers, and iPods were not imaginable to most of us five decades ago. In a single generation, plastics have revolutionized the modern world and have made an enormous impact on our everyday lives.
The versatility of plastics enables them to fill almost every product niche in our modern lifestyles. The enormous size and flexibility of synthetic plastic polymer chains, how the monomers are bonded together, and chemical structure of the monomer (repeating unit) are what provide unique chemical and physical properties. The various properties we depend on and enjoy relate to the unique chemistry of these synthetic polymers.
So, how did so much plastic infiltrate our lives in a single generation? How is it made? What is the chemistry behind our dependency on this synthetic polymer based on organic compounds? Which plastics are recyclable and which are not? What happens to plastics as they enter the waste stream? Are there severe negative impacts on the environment with all this plastic waste being discarded?
Will Green Chemistry have any solution for the controversy over the abundant use of fossil fuel-based plastics? Will fossil fuel-based plastics be available in the future, or will we have to look for other sources such as corn to make our plastic? Will the high oil prices we have seen trigger a resurgence of interest in bioplastics made from renewable biomass such as cellulose and starch?
In my unit, I intend to have my students investigate the birth and life cycle of plastic. If plastics have a negative impact on the environment and/or can no longer be made from fossil fuels, then what are the alternatives?
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