What is the common denominator between these a skin care treatment bottle, hair loss products bottle and laptop computer bags? The common denominator is plastic. Plastic is made from a distillation product of petroleum. Petroleum is transported to a refinery after it is extracted from the earth. LPG, ethane, propane, butane, naphthalene, grease and tar are some of the products formed after the distillation of crude oil.
Then propylene and ethylene are made by cracking ethane and propane at 3000 degrees centigrade. Propylene and ethylene are mixed with a catalyst to make fluff which is a powder like substance which looks like detergent. Other additives are put into the fluff and blended consistently. The polymer thus formed is then molten by feeding into an extruder.
This molten plastic is then fed into a pelletizer which makes it into little pellets. The pellets are the final product sold to the customers as virgin plastic. The pellets are then moulded into desired shaped by the process of blowing, extrusion and injection by the customers themselves. As plastics are used everywhere and all aspects of our lives they are called the innovation of the 20th century.
Some desirable properties is its lightweight, does not rot rust, as it is light more bottles or packets can be transported thereby reducing transportation cost. It is believe the save natural resources, because sand to make glass is not removed off the beaches which is a home to many intertidal species endemic to the seashores only. Trees to make paper and cartons are saved, too.
Even though there are so many benefits, why is the use of plastics banned in certain places? This is because after industrial and domestic sewage plastic is the third most dangerous pollutant. It is non-biodegradable, remains in the ecosystem for 700 years, and is highly toxic.
After domestic sewage and industrial waste, plastic is the most toxic anthropogenic pollutant. It remains in the environment for more than 700 years as there are decomposers to degrade it and is highly toxic.
Right from its production to its disposal plastic is a threat to the environment and there is no safe way to deal with it. At present the only way to deal with this menace is to decrease its production and ban it. The other way is to engineer a bacterium which feeds on plastic like the once we use in dissolving oil-slicks. Hopefully these are reasons enough to avoid plastics?
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
