Written by Corinne Newman
For a material that has permeated much of modern day-to-day life, it feels as if the general public doesn’t know much about its creation. There is a high focus on what happens to plastics after they are made. The issues they can cause after their original use is done and the ways they could possibly be reused or recycled. But there isn’t as much of a conversation and understanding of how they are created in the first place or the history behind their creation.
On a molecular level, plastics are created out of polymers. Polymers are long chain-like monomer structures. Plastics are not the only things made out of polymers, paper, rubber, and even some stones such as diamonds have a base of polymers. But what differentiates modern-day plastics from these is the purely carbon and hydrogen based materials that plastic polymers are synthesized from. These materials are what give plastic polymers their unique ability to be easily shaped and molded under pressure and heat.
The history behind our modern-day use of plastic is an ironic one. The first known invention of a plastic product that could be reliably replicated and produced at large was in 1869. The invention came to be because of a crisis with the overconsumption of ivory, and the want for a New York billiards company to find an alternative. In one business’s attempt to circumvent one environmental issue, the catalyst for a much larger one was created by John Wesley Hyatt.
The plastic that Hyatt created wasn’t as variable in its possible applications as current-day plastic. The way we use plastics now is in larger part thanks to Leo Baekeland. In 1907 he invented and patented Bakelite. It was the first fully synthetic plastic, making its production not reliant on the limitation of unreliable natural resources. Bakelite opens a new door for the average person. It was inexpensive and mass-producible. It made its way into things such as phones and furniture.
After the spread of Bakelite, there was a boom of chemical companies researching and creating their own plastics to patent. A large driving force behind this surge was the want to use this new avenue of possibilities to find a use for waste materials from processing crude oil and natural gases. Currently, crude oil is the most popular base for plastics, so it’s safe to say that they succeeded.
But the world’s most abundant plastic, called a wonder material due to its strength, flexibility, and heat resistance, was created by accident. In 1933, an Imperial Chemical Industries plant was attempting to combine ethylene and benzaldehyde. Due to an error that resulted in oxygen leaking into the chamber, a white waxy substance was produced instead. They had accidentally created polyethylene. A critical material for equipment during the Second World War. It wasn’t long after that the use of polyethylene expanded. It’s used in everything from plastic bags to artificial hip joints, living up to its name as a wonder material.
Plastic in its many forms was revolutionary for the world. Not just on a commercial level by making things more widely available for people, but also, in many branches of science and technology. The intentions of its initial creation were not bad or based solely on corporate greed. Though, in the current day, surrounded by the negative impacts that the mass production and consumption of plastics have generated, it can be hard to look back on its history fondly.