The Benefits Of Plastics

Introduction

According to the Chemical Heritage Foundation, plastics are defined as “a group of materials, either synthetic or naturally occurring, that may be shaped when soft and then hardened to retain the given shape.” (1) Plastics are also considered to be polymers, a substance made of many repeating units. While there are many natural polymers, synthetic polymers have exceptionally useful properties that can be engineered for specific tasks. The first synthetic plastic was invented in 1869, a modified cellulose that was used as a substitution for Ivory (2). The ability to synthesize new plastics helped to increase public access to previously scarce natural resources. The first entirely synthetic plastic was ‘Bakelite’, first made

By 1980, many cities were starting plastic collection programs, where citizens could drop off waste plastic to be broken down and reused. In 1986, several cities and states began experimenting with mandatory recycling programs. However, recycling plastic was not as simple as recycling metals and other resources. Different varieties of plastics need to be sorted out to be recycled, and some plastics cannot be recycled at all. In 1988 a coded system of labels was used to address this issue, by labeling specific plastics with a

The Coca-Cola Company obtains 7 percent of its plastic from recycled materials, while Nestle Waters North America uses 6 percent recycled plastic (6). Many companies such as Belson Outdoors make products like benches and outdoor furniture almost completely out of recycled plastic. Most of the companies that use recycled plastics to make consumer end products buy reprocessed plastic from companies that specialize in plastic recycling.
Most plastic recycling companies focus on a few specific types of plastic to recycle, targeting specific production facilities and consumer groups to collect that plastic locally. For example, B & B Plastics INC, located in California, is on of the United States’ largest plastic recycling companies, recycling 136,000 tons per year. B & B only recycles HDPE, LDPE, HIP, and GPPS plastics. The next largest company in the U.S. is B. Schoenberg & Co. Inc, located in New York, which process 115,000 tons of recycled material per year. Their primary focus is on flexible PVC, ABS, HMW-HDPE, and Ethylene(7). A full list of the largest plastic recycling companies in the U.S. and Canada is provided in Figure 1, attached in the