Plastics Over Time

1. Plastics Over Time

3. History of plastic Parkesine -1862 Celluloid - 1870 Bakelite - 1907 Polystyrene - 1929

4. 1955 • LIFE Magazine article “Throwaway Living” • New idea: “waste saves time”

5. Supply Production Recovery for recycling

6. Demand

7. Consumption The U.S. consumes as much oil as: Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Luxembourg Bulgaria Czech Republic Denmark Finland France GermanyGreece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Kazakhstan Lithuania Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia Slovakia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Turkmenistan Ukraine United Kingdom Uzbekistan COMBINED!

8. Plastic bags: production • 1974 U.S. – Retail giants Sears and J.C. Penney switch to plastic shopping bags • 1977 U.S. – Grocery stores begin offering plastic bags • 1.2 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide each year  greater than 1 million bags per minute • Average use before disposal = 12 minutes

9. Plastic bags:costs • Ingestion of plastic by sea turtles is increasing. • 12 million barrels of oil are used to make plastic bags for the U.S. each year. • In San Francisco alone, $8.5 million was spent annually to deal with plastic bag litter.

10. Toothbrush • 3500 B.C. Egypt – wooden “chew stick” • 1000 A.D. China – ivory handle and boar bristles • 1780 A.D. England – first mass-produced toothbrush is made out of cattle bone and pig hair bristles • 1938 A.D. – nylon replaces animal bristles

11. Contact lens • 1887 Germany – first lenses made of blown glass • 1888 Switzerland and France – first use of contact lenses to correct optical defects • 1936 United States – first construction of plastic contacts

12. Food wrap • 1851 France – wax paper invented by Gustave Le Gray for use in photography; later used for food wrap • 1933 U.S. – Saran wrap accidentally discovered by Ralph Wiley; 1st sprayed on military planes and to cover upholstery • 1953 U.S. – Dow Chemical Co. designs Saran cling wrap for household use

13. File folder: paper or plastic?

14. Surfboards • 400 A.D. Polynesia – surfboards originate and weigh 77–200 lbs • 1926 U.S. – Tom Blake designs a hollow surfboard from redwood trees • 1946 U.S. – Pete Peterson designs the first plastic board using fiberglass • 1949 U.S. – Bob Simmons creates boards with a styrofoam core

15. Coffee cup • Coffee cups can be made from just about anything: ceramic, metal, paper… or styrofoam.

16. 1950’s: Aluminum Drink carrier 1940’s to present: Cardboard 1960: Plastic 6-pack ring 1930’s–1940’s: Wooden crate

17. Drinking straw • First drinking straws were hollow stems of natural rye grass • 1888 U.S. – Marvin Stone makes the first paper straw • 1960’s – plastic straws replaces paper ones

18. Music recording • 1877 U.S. – Thomas Edison makes recordings on the surface of a piece of tinfoil wrapped around a rotating “phonograph cylinder” • 1888 U.S. – Emile Berliner designs the disc-shaped gramaphone record out of vulcanite (hard rubber) • 1962 Netherlands – Philips produces cassette tapes made of plastic • 1982 Japan and Netherlands – Philips and Sony launch plastic compact disc