Plastics are man-made materials that come from natural resources such as oil, gas and coal (fossil fuels). These valuable resources were formed from prehistoric plants and animals that lived hundreds of millions of years ago. Natural gas is used for process heat in the production of precursor chemicals and plastics and as a feedstock for those precursor chemicals. Petrochemical feedstock naphtha and other oils refined from crude oil are used as feedstock for petrochemical crackers that produce the basic building blocks for making plastics. Raw materials used to make plastic include carbon-rich oil and carbon compounds, called monomers that are mixed with oxygen, sulphur or nitrogen. Organic compounds, such as ethylene, propylene, styrene, phenol, formaldehyde, ethylene glycol, vinyl chloride and acetonitrile, can also be found in plastics.
The first plastic based on a synthetic polymer was made from phenol and formaldehyde, with the first viable and cheap synthesis methods invented in 1907, by Leo Hendrik Baekeland, a Belgian-born American living in New York State. Baekeland innovation is a breakthrough for the economy crisis and problem for most country especially countries from World War 2.
Plastic is widely use in United State during this time. They change the main resources of many raw materials in daily life with plastic. For example, the first big company the use wide range of plastic colour is Tupperware. Tupperware is a homeware company that produce food container. Plastic also widely use before for soft winter glove, wrapping for flowers, plastic bag, and many others. In our daily life, plastic made a considerable impact and we are heavily dependent on plastic. Starting from daily usage utensils to decorative items all are coming in plastic. The usage of plastic is increasing day by day and researchers are also trying to develop more durable, less weight, strong plastic to meet today’s needs. The usage of plastic is increasing exponentially from the last century. Records showed that the amount of plastic made in the first 10 years of 21st century is equal to the amount of plastic made in the whole 20th century.
Generally, Plastic is of two types; high quality plastic and low quality plastic. High quality plastic is very strong and is generally used making products like cabins, mobile and laptop cases etc. Low quality plastic is generally weak and is used for making utensils, vessels etc.