the.com/plastic
the material that promised convenience and delivered an immortal civilization-wide stain.
means A synthetic, moldable material made from polymers that can be shaped into nearly anything and then, unfortunately, lasts nearly forever.
from From Greek 'plastikos,' meaning 'able to be molded or shaped,' from 'plassein,' 'to mold.' For centuries 'plastic' was just an adjective for anything pliable — sculptors worked in plastic clay, and the word kept that sense well into the modern era. Only in the early 20th century, when chemists began cooking up moldable synthetic compounds, did the adjective harden into a noun for the stuff itself.
- age
- Mass production began only around the 1950s.
- persistence
- A bottle outlives the great-grandchildren who toss it.
- body count
- Microplastics now float in human blood and placentas.
- origin
- First fully synthetic plastic was made from coal tar.
- scale
- Half of all plastic ever made is single-use.
great pacific garbage patch — 5 trillion pieces of plastic floating in the north pacific ocean
operation clean seas — the ocean cleanup project removing 80,000 tons of plastic from the great pacific garbage patch since 2018
plastic bottle city — floating community in panama built from 250,000 recycled plastic bottles
bakelite — first fully synthetic plastic invented by leo baekeland in 1907