Plastics

 Plastics are lightweight, durable, and inexpensive. Their ability to be molded into virtually anything allows them to be used in various industries. With all its uses, the consumption of such material is inevitably extremely high. More than 420 million tons per annum of plastics are manufactured around the globe. With the amount that is being created, it would be much more beneficial to recycle or upcycle the existing plastics rather than creating new plastics.  (Leblanc, 2020) 

Plastics are not all bad, the problem lies with what we do after using them. 

There are 6 main recyclable plastics: 

1. Polystyrene (PS) – made by polymerizing styrene monomers. It is used to make a wide variety of consumer products such as plastic cutlery and containers. (What is Polystyrene? 2021) 
2. Polypropylene (PP) – made by polymerizing propylene monomers. Examples of this are lunch boxes and ice-cream containers. (Staff, 2016) 
3. Low-density Polyethylene (LDPE) – made by polymerizing ethylene monomers. Examples of this are garbage bags. (Professor Plastics: Highlights of Low-Density Polyethylene, 2018) 
4. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) – one of the most used thermoplastic polymers, made by the polymerization of chloroethene. Examples of this are squeeze bottles. (Staff, 2021) 
5. High-density polyethylene (HDPE) – made of tightly packed ethylene monomers. Examples are Shampoo containers or milk bottles.
6.  Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) – made by the polymerization of ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid. Examples of this are fruit juice and soft drink bottles. (Polyethylene terephthalate, 2020) 

Next time you buy a Starbucks or a milk or juice carton, see if you can find the logo that indicates what kind of plastic it is. The results might be ... educating.