A Brief History of Plastic
A product that was meant to save the environment but ended up hurting it
Plastic is in every corner of our life. Without plastic, we as a civilization would not be able to carry out the smallest of tasks. Due to this high demand, we have seen a rise in innovation and production in the plastics industry along with its environmental impacts. Yet, plastic was not always seen as a hazard. Quite to the contrary, plastic led to the innovation boom of the past few decades.
But what is plastic?
Plastic is a word that originally meant “pliable and easily shaped.” It only recently became a name for a category of materials called polymers, meaning — “of many parts”. Polymers are made of long chains of molecules and are found in abundance in nature. Cellulose, the material that makes up the cell walls of plants, is a very common natural polymer. The horns of a rhino, the shell of a turtle, or the ivory tusks of elephants — everything is made of polymers.
Over the last century and a half, humans have figured out ways to synthesize polymers by using carbon atoms from petroleum and fossil fuels. Synthetic polymers are made up of long chains of atoms, arranged in repeating units, often much longer than those found in nature. It is the length of these chains, and the patterns in which they are arrayed, that make polymers strong, lightweight, and flexible. In other words, it’s what makes them so plastic.
Let’s take a stroll through history to see how plastics became such an integral part of our civilization.
1. Parkesine — the first synthetic polymer
In 1862, Alexander Parkes introduced the world’s first man-made plastic — Parkesine — at the Great International Exhibition in London. It was marketed as a substitute for horns and ivory. Parkes discovered this when he was trying to find a substitute to shellac for waterproofing. Though the product was not a commercial success, Parkesine represented an important first step in the development of man-made plastic. However, the material didn’t start to truly show its potential value and diversity of applications until John Wesley Hyatt, in Albany, New York, discovered a way to manufacture an improved version of Parkesine, most commonly known as celluloid.
2. Bakelite
In 1907, Leo Baekeland invented Bakelite, the first fully synthetic plastic — meaning it contained no molecules found in nature. Baekeland had been searching for a synthetic substitute for shellac, a natural electrical insulator, to meet the needs of the rapidly electrifying United States. Bakelite was not only a good insulator, but it was also durable, heat resistant, and, unlike celluloid, ideally suited for mechanical mass production. Marketed as “the material of a thousand uses,” Bakelite could be shaped or molded into almost anything, providing endless possibilities.
Bakelite was a commercial success. It still is. This led to a lot of chemical companies investing in research to find newer plastics to suit various needs.
3. Innovation with World War II
As Nazi Germany wreaked havoc across Europe, the need for war supplies boomed. Plastic was a great substitute for metal. This led to a staggering number of innovations in plastic during the war.
- Polyethylene (PE) was created in England in 1933 and was a closely held state secret, as the lightweight plastic was used to insulate radar cabling, sufficiently lightening them to be placed on airplanes.
- Polystyrene (PS) was created first as an alternative to die-cast zinc, but quickly became a replacement for rubber in the copolymer of polystyrene and butadiene: styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR).
- Nylon, which DuPont released for sale as synthetic silk hosiery, in 1939, to much fanfare, was quickly rationed by the U.S. military for use in parachutes and ropes.
- Plexiglass provided an alternative to glass for aircraft windows.
“Plastics have been turned to new uses and the adaptability of plastics demonstrated all over again.” — Joseph L. Nicholson and George R. Leighton, ‘Plastics Come of Age,’ Harper’s Magazine, August 1942.
During World War II plastic production in the United States increased by 300%.
4. Peace and prosperity
The surge in plastic production continued after the war ended. After experiencing the Great Depression and then World War II, people (mostly Americans) were ready to spend again, and much of what they bought was made of plastic. Polyester was introduced in the 1950s, and polypropylene, today one of the most used polymers in the world, got its start as a commodity in 1954, becoming a very useful polymer due to its adaptability. High-density PE (HDPE), today most commonly used to make plastic milk jugs, was developed during this period as well.
According to author Susan Freinkel,
“In product after product, market after market, plastics challenged traditional materials and won, taking the place of steel in cars, paper and glass in packaging, and wood in furniture.”
The possibilities of plastics gave some observers an almost utopian vision of a future with abundant material wealth thanks to an inexpensive, safe, sanitary substance that could be shaped by humans to their every whim.
5. Growing concerns about plastic
Plastic became so popular because of its strength, flexibility, and ease of manufacturing. However, this also meant that it could not be decomposed by nature: the only way to dispose of it was by dumping it. The world started seeing its effects when plastic debris in the oceans was first observed in the 1960s.
Rachel Carson’s 1962 book, Silent Spring, exposed the dangers of chemical pesticides. In 1969, a major oil spill occurred off the Californian coast and the polluted Cuyahoga River, in Ohio, caught fire, raising concerns about pollution. As awareness about environmental issues spread, the persistence of plastic waste began to trouble observers. The image of plastics soon became a negative one and gradually became a word used to describe something that was cheap, flimsy, or fake.
6. Increasing usage and innovation
Even after knowing the environmental hazards — even though not completely — the importance of plastic could not be ignored. Oil embargoes drove consumers and companies to refocus on biobased and biodegradable plastics during the 1970s, in the interest of both environmental conservation and economic necessity.
Recycling plastic was seen as a solution to the problem in the 1980s, but it was far from perfect — and still is. The growing concerns led to more research. The bioplastics of the late 1980s and early 1990s were a direct response to these concerns but failed to be a success commercially.
By the 2000s, plastics were literally everywhere, in our computers and cell phones to satellites, from our toilets to our electricity cables. Plastic also found its way inside our body — through willful means like pacemakers for the heart, and artificial knee joints, and unwillingly when researchers found microplastics in human waste in 2018.
7. The future of plastic
Today there are thousands of types of plastics serving different purposes. It is impossible to imagine life without it. Still, it is also impossible to imagine life with the environmental hazards that arise from plastic. As the use of single-use plastic is banned in many countries, research is being conducted in various fields to counter its hazards. Instead of making completely synthetic plastic, scientists are finding ways to make plastic from natural substances which would aid the biodegradation. Some progress is also being made with ways to decompose plastic using plastic-eating bacteria.
Amidst this environmental crisis, all we can do is minimize the use of plastic as much as we can and wait for science to allow this phase to be a part of history.
