Plastics and the Environment

The generation of plastics waste has been stimulated by increased production coupled with an increasing population, and it is responsible for the world s present environmental crisis. The rapidly increasing demand and production of plastics has led to increased pollution and the replacement of many non-plastic items in the market place. 

Every year, a large amount of plastics waste is generated worldwide, however, waste plastics data are lacking for many countries. Even though annual usage is often well quantified, the data quality is variable [1]. 

Over the past half century, synthetic plastics have become the major new materials for everything from replacements for human body parts to the construction of supersonic aircraft and spacecraft. Much of this growth has taken place at the expense of more traditional materials, such as steel, aluminum, paper and glass. Quite understandably, the industries associated with their manufacture have fought back through public relations campaigns intended 

Degradable Polymers Edited by Gerald Scott and Dan Gilead. 

One of the common mythologies about plastics is that because they are made from oil or natural gas, which are non-renewable resources, their use should be discouraged to extend the useful lifetime of these raw materials for other purposes. Apart from the fact that chemical raw materials represent less than 5% of the total oil and gas production world-wide, plastics can be made from a wide variety of carbon sources, and in fact, the restriction of automobile speeds to 55 miles per hour in the US and more recent legislation on automobile fuel economy have saved more oil than was necessary to produce all of the world s plastics. 

However, not many people realize that polyethylene, another product that Commoner was very worried about, was originally produced in Britain by the fermentation of grain to produce alcohol and dehydration of alcohol to produce ethylene. It and many other common plastics including styrene and polyester can be produced by known chemical processes from renewable resources such as wheat, cellulose, starch, biomass, etc. through the following chemical reactions. 

However, as pointed out in earlier publications [1-3], the use of renewable resources such as biomass, to replace synthetic plastics or fibres, implies the utilization of vast areas of agricultural land to provide the raw materials - a 

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Report 75 Plastics and the Environment, I. Boustead, Boustead Consulting Ltd. 

The tables were taken from A. Tewarson, Flammability of Polymers, Chapter 11 in Plastics and the Environment, A. L. Andrady (editor), John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Hoboken, N.J. 2003. 

Tewarson A. Flammability of polymers. In Plastics and the Environment. Andrady AL, Ed. John Wiley Sons Hoboken, NJ, 2003 chap. 11. 

Plastics and the Environment-Quick Facts (The Society of the Plastics Industry, 2001)2. 

The emotive issues related to plastic and the environment have yet to be logically and scientifically resolved. However, predictable future trends which will increase the use of plastics in pharmaceutical applications are likely to include ... 

Phthalate Information Centre Polyisocyanurate Insulation Association Plastics and the Environment Plastics and Health Polystyrene Packaging American Plastics Council (APC)... 

Plastics Resource This site, a service of the American Plastics Council, contains extensive information on plastics and the environment. http //www.plasticsre-... 

J. Guillet, Plastics and the environment. Degradable Polymers Principles and Applications, ed. G. Scott and D, Gilead, Chapman Hall, 1995, Ch. 12. 

Smith, B., 2003. Wastes from textile processing. In Andrady, A.L. (Ed.), Plastics and the Environment, first ed. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., Hoboken, USA. 

Plastics and the Environment, Edited by Anthony L. Andrady. ISBN 0-471-09520-6 2003 John Wiley Sons, Inc. 

Gregory MR, Andrady AL. Plastics in the marine environment. In Andrady AL, editor. Plastics and the Environment. Hoboken John Wiley Sons 2003. 

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