Sources of Plastic

SOURCES OF IPLASTIC WHERE THEY FROM & THE PROCESSES INVOLVED AND POINTS BASICS KEY Plastics are either found naturally or are synthetic man-made The majority of everyday plastics are synthetic From crude oil compounds are formed called polymers - which is plastic THEPROCESS FROM CRUDE OIL During the refining of crude oil petrol, paraffin, lubricating oil and petrol are the 01 BI-PRODUCTS These are then broken down into MONOMERS 02 (which is a chemical substance consisting of one molecule) When 1000's of monomers are linked together this is called 03) POLYMERISATION - the compounds formed are called Polymers - and plastic is the common name for Polymers! Most polymers (plastics) are made from combining the element carbon with one or more other elements such as hydrogen, chlorine, fluorine or nitrogen. NATURAL PLASTICS Plastic can be found naturally and occur in such things as: 02 Plants 01 Animals from which cellulose from which horn and can be extracted. milk (used to make glues) are obtained. Insects Trees 04 from which shellac (used to make polish) is obtained. from which latex, amber and resin can be extracted. 03 Plastic Bags How convenience is killing our planet The Problem 1 Trillion Number of plastic bags produced worldwide in 1 year 3012 Time taken for 1 plastic bag to fully degrade 1,000 Years 3.5m Tonnes Net weight of plastic bags discarded in a year TOP 10 PLASTIC ITEMS 1 2,117,931 1,140,222 cigarette / cigarette filters food wrappers / containers 3 1,065,171 4 1,019,902 beverage bottles (plastic) bags (plastic) 6. 958,893 692,767 cups, plates forks, knives, spoons caps, lids 7 8. 611,048 521,730 straws, stirrers beverage bottles (glass) 10 298,332 339,875 beverage cans cigaretter / cigarette filters