Quiz: Plastics 101

A polymer, from the Greek words for “many parts,” is a large molecule composed of many repeating subunits, known as monomers, chemically bonded together. Polymers are characterized by their high molecular weight and can exhibit a wide range of physical and chemical properties.

While natural polymers – such as silk, wool, DNA, cellulose and proteins – occur in nature and are often water-based, synthetic polymers are human-made and derived from petroleum oil. Common synthetic polymers include nylon, polyethylene, polyester and Teflon.

Leo Baekeland invented Bakelite, the first synthetic plastic, in 1907. Baekeland had been searching for a substitute for shellac, a natural electrical insulator, to meet the needs of the rapidly electrifying United States. Bakelite became a great commercial success, and was used in electrical insulators, radio and telephone casings, and a wide range of consumer products.

According to the UN Environment Programme, about 400 million metric tons (441 U.S. short tons) of plastic waste are produced annually – the equivalent of approximately 1,208 Empire State Buildings by weight.

Only about 9% of all plastic ever made has been recycled, with the rest ending up in landfills, incinerators, or the natural environment. “The Fraud of Plastic Recycling,” a recent report from the Center for Climate Integrity, found that Big Oil and the plastics industry deceived the public about the viability of recycling plastic for decades causing a plastic waste crisis.

From fossil fuel extraction to landfilling, plastics produce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change at every stage of their lifecycle. Even plastic recycling comes with an environmental footprint, though it generally results in a net reduction of greenhouse gas emissions compared to the production of virgin plastic.

Bioplastics are produced from biological substances such vegetable fats and oils, corn starch, straw, wood pulp, or recycled food waste. Bioplastics can also be biodegradable, meaning they can be decomposed by the action of living organisms, usually microbes. Though bioplastics can offer many benefits, they aren’t a silver bullet when it comes to the world’s plastic pollution problem.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world. The entire Great Pacific Garbage Patch is bounded by the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (a large system of swirling ocean currents) which covers an area of about 7.7 million square miles. The Patch is almost entirely made up of microplastics – tiny plastic pieces less than five millimeters in size – which pose significant threats to marine life.

Nanoplastics are tiny plastic particles smaller than one micrometer. (Though also small, microplastics are defined as fragments less than five millimeters.) The study found that on average, a liter of bottled water contained some 240,000 detectable plastic fragments—10 to 100 times greater than previous estimates, which were based mainly on larger particle sizes. Though nanoplastics are so small they can easily pass into the human body, scientists are only just beginning to study their potential impacts on human health.

The French company Carbios is already using a process called “enzymatic recycling” to recycle PET plastic according to a circular economy principle. But challenges related to efficiency, safety, and technical and economic viability will need to be overcome before “plastic-eating” bacteria become a practical reality.