Over the last century, plastics have by far had the most dramatic impact on the world. Defined by their ability to be formed into precise, identical multiples of billions of units they are predominantly made by squeezing hot, sticky liquid into steel cavities. As a material of mass-production, plastic has almost singlehandedly changed the way the world looks by creating products in a vast array of bright colours.
However, the term ‘plastic’ could be on the verge of becoming as antiquated as Bakelite. Plastics fulfil so many functions that are both practical and essential, such as medical care allowing human organs to be replaced by artificial ones, or the use of plastic in lightweighting for transport, such as the leading edge of the Airbus a380, as well as functions such as the soft, comfort and cushioning under a running shoe or the crystal transparency of a plastic chair.
However, plastic is also tainted with associations of ecological disaster, images of overflowing landfills of disposable plastic waste and poisonous incineration and processing plants, but as we become more familiar with plastic we are finding new versions and new ways of recycling the materials when they are no longer useful. Traditionally plastics are defined as being oil derived, but as the boundaries between families of materials blur and new sources for plastics such as castor oil, featured in the Grown section, are identified, so this definition becomes less precise and less relevant. This section, however, looks at the oil-based plastics that are currently used for design applications and highlights innovations in plastics that allow it to contribute to more sustainable applications. This section is organized into two sub-sections of thermoplastics (plastics that can be re-melted) and thermosets (plastics that cannot be re-melted and are therefore not recyclable).