PARKESINE TO POLLUTION: HOW THE USE OF PLASTICS HAS EVOLVED OVER TIME

As the faint rays of light illuminate the night sky at dawn, you stir in your sleep on your plastic-filled pillow. Once your alarm rings for the millionth time, you jolt awake, realizing you are late for your online class. Rushing in your plastic slippers, you hastily brush your teeth with a plastic toothbrush. In the same rush, you decide to have just a cup of tea and some cereal. Once the water boils in your plastic kettle, you prepare your tea, have it whilst eating cereal from a plastic bowl, and enter the password to your account on your computer using a plastic keyboard.

In this pandemic, this is a typical day in our lives; it is impossible to go through a day without plastics in the picture. Now I know what you are thinking: if plastics are this important, why are we blaming them for modern-day problems like pollution? To understand that, we must rewind and see where this story began.

Plastics can be loosely defined as materials that are organic (made of a group of compounds based on carbon), solid and, moldable (Miodownik, 2013). With this definition of plastics, horn, tortoiseshell, amber, rubber, and shellac can be called natural plastics, so plastics are not new; rather, synthetic plastics are.

So, the tale began in the mid 19^th century when the industrial revolution was on the rise, leading to a scarcity of animal-derived materials like ivory from elephants and turtles. The need to tackle this issue reached the peak of the iceberg as inventors started manufacturing materials with cork, blood, and milk! (Science Museum, 2019)

In this supposedly desperate time, Parkesine by Alexander Parkes came as the first sliver of light in 1862. Even though Parkes was trying to develop a waterproof material as a substitute for shellac, he ended up developing the first-ever manufactured plastic that was marketed as an alternative to ivory and horns (History of Plastics, 2021).

Following this, the improved version of Parkesine, called celluloid, was developed by John Wesley Hyatt and his brother. Due to the efforts of the Hyatt brothers, George Eastman was able to develop celluloid film, which replaced glass film in cameras. This paved the path for the Kodak camera to be developed by Eastman, thus making photography possible for the masses (Miodownik, 2013).

As the success of celluloid dramatically decreased their prices, there was an increase in plastic combs and billiards. However, its usage was not just restricted to them, but rather expanded to cinema film as well. The spike in plastic combs declined as movie stars popularized short hair, hence in the 1920s, manufacturers shifted to sunglasses (Science Museum, 2019).

1907 can be carved in history as the year in which Leo Baekeland developed the first fully synthetic plastic called Bakelite. An interesting thing to note is that at the same time, James Swinburne was working on fully synthetic plastic as well; however, Baekeland beat him by one day! Due to this breakthrough, products like the Purma camera, the GPO telephone, and the EKco AD36 radio became icons of the 20^th century (Science Museum, 2019).

However, the 20^th century was not just an era of inventions that shaped our modern world but also wars that impacted the entire globe. During World War II, specifically in 1933, along with its war strategies, England kept another thing a state secret: polyethylene (PE). Due to its lightweight, it was utilized to insulate radar cabling of airplanes, hence proving an edge to Britain’s planes over that of Germany’s. Along similar lines, in 1939, the U.S military rationed Nylon to be used in parachutes and ropes even though it was originally released in the market as synthetic silk stockings (History of Plastics, 2021).

The story does not stop here. In the 1950s polyester and polypropylene were introduced, which turned out to be two of the most used polymers around the globe due to their adaptability. 1965 brought with it Kevlar, a material out of a science-fiction movie (at least for that time) as it could be used for bulletproof vests. Economic necessity and environmental conservation drove both consumers and companies to refocus on biobased and biodegradable plastics in the 1970s. However, as the products failed to meet consumer expectations, the excitement around them dampened (History of Plastics, 2021).

Still, the question remains: if a material changed the way we live today, why would we look for an alternative? The very element that increased their plastics has become a reason to cause issues beyond our imagination: their durability, making it difficult to dispose and degrade them. As you might have understood by now, post world war saw a rapid rise in the usage of plastics, particularly in replacing expensive paper, glass, and metal used in throwaway items.

A few materials that became the “culprit” include polyethylene for shopping bags, polystyrene for food containers, and PET for drink bottles. The irony is that PET drink bottles were first introduced in 1973 as they were considered safer compared to glass. Little did we know that even though it was “safe” for human beings, our oceans would end up paying the price (History of Plastics, 2021).

In 2021 whenever plastic is mentioned, it was viewed as the sole “culprit” for our modern-day problems like climate change. It almost seems like the plot of a movie that the once “hero” turned out to be the real “villain”. However, as demonstrated by its history, plastic is not just limited to disposable items; rather, it can be argued that we are living in a plastic world in 2021. Our environmental issues will not end with the end of plastic as it would give rise to other problems due to our dependence on it. Rather, by recycling the already tons of plastic on our planet and using alternate materials can this issue be tackled.