Plastic
A Toxic Love Story
Susan Freinkel
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4 quotes
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- However much they differ, all plastics have one thing in common: they are polymers, which is Greek for “many parts.” They are substances made up of long chains of thousands of atomic units called monomers (Greek for “one part”) linked into giant molecules.Oct 24 2023 7:04PM
- Plasticville became possible—and perhaps even inevitable—with the rise of the petrochemical industry, the behemoth that came into being in the 1920s and ’s when chemical companies innovating new polymers began to align with the petroleum companies that controlled the essential ingredients for building those polymers.Oct 24 2023 7:06PM
- Ethylene gas, as British chemists discovered in the early 1930s, can be made into the polymer polyethylene, which is now widely used in packaging. Another byproduct, propylene, can be redeployed as a feedstock for polypropylene, a plastic used in yogurt cups, microwavable dishes, disposable diapers, and cars. Still another is the chemical acrylonitrile, which can be made into acrylic fiber, making possible that quintessential emblem of our synthetic age AstroTurf.Oct 24 2023 7:06PM
- Unlike traditional materials, plastic won’t dissolve or rust or break down—at least, not in any useful time frame. Those long polymer chains are built to last, which means that much of the plastic we’ve produced is with us still—as litter, detritus on the ocean floor, and layers of landfill.Oct 24 2023 7:10PM