Know Your Plastics
Top left: Vintage tortoise shell jewellry. Top right: Tortoise shell telephone. Bottom right: Modern-day plastic. The plastics of ancient times were in natural forms of amber, rubber, horns of animals and tortoise shells but, in the last century thereabouts plastics have gathered a bad reputation. Our current reality features plastics made from synthetic materials designed to be cheap and disposable which has boomeranged into a new type of environmental pollution – Plastic waste. Animals and organisms in the environment are yet to evolve in breaking down these plastics to manage the impact. Therefore, the one constant in this fight for environmental sustainability is public awareness and advocacy on recycling – awareness through compelling public education. In this article, the focus is to paint a simplified picture of plastics – what they are, their structure, arrangement and uses. A brief history and introduction… World War I ushered in grave hardships that made previously comm