Losing The War

THE USES OF PLASTIC ARE MANIFOLD, BUT AS IT IS ALMOST INDESTRUCTIBLE, IT IS TIME TO FIND WAYS TO GET RID OF IT.

- Prosenjit Datta

THE TERM PLASTICS came to be used only around 1925, but what we call plastic today was invented either in 1839, 1862 or 1909, depending on how you to choose to define it. In 1839, German chemist Eduard Simon discovered polystyrene when he isolated it from natural resin. However, it was in 1922 that another organic chemist, Hermann Staudinger, realised what Simon had discovered was a long chain polymer. Staudinger would go on to win a Noble Prize for his work on polymers while polystyrene would find its use in synthetic tyres and Styrofoam (yes, the same stuff you get your coffee in).

Many chemists consider English inventor Alexander Parkes to have invented the first real plastic compound, which he named Parkesine. He was experimenting on rubber, and he combined various components to come up with the new compound. However, Parkesine was not very stable, and it did not find too many applications, and by all accounts, it did not prove to be a commercial success, though it was soon followed by other materials that took their inspiration from it.

The first all-synthetic plastic is generally credited to Leo H. Baekeland, a BelgianAmerican inventor, who invented Bakelite for electrical insulation. Unlike the variety of plastics that preceded it, Bakelite had no natural molecules, and it is deemed as the first, true modern plastic.

Plastic started to gain popularity for all sorts of applications post World War II because it has two great qualities. One, as the name suggests, it can be moulded into any shape (the word is apparently derived from Latin plasticus or Greek plastikos, both of which mean ‘able to be moulded’). It can be moulded to produce bags, combs, toothbrushes, electric wire insulation, straws and cups, buckets, pipes, water bottles and almost anything. It can also be used for building roads.