It’s a valid question because most of us weren’t taught what this stuff actually was!
Plastic is polymer, which means that it is made by combining a bunch of subunits in various ways. Most of these subunits are petroleum-based compounds, meaning they come from natural gas, coal, or crude oil. And based on the ways these compounds are attached to each other, the final plastic product can be delicate and bendable (think cling film) or tough and bulletproof (think Kevlar). Most importantly, it’s cheap to produce.
(Source: Vox)
Yeah – we definitely need to do something about this. None of that is good for the environment. We’ll go into “plant” based plastics more in a later post – hint: we definitely do not think these are the answer in their current format!
