How Did We Become a Plastic Society
Plastic Pollution Illustration. Credits: DM. Plastic was invented about a hundred years ago, a wonder technology produced from crude oil, into something useful, cheap, sterile, and convenient. With its raw materials available in vast amounts and without the time consuming manual work, plastic is easily mass produced and quickly integrated into our world. From mechanical equipment, electric gears, cases, acrylic, nylon, and almost all things have some part of it from plastic material. Plastics are everywhere that we do not even think when we use it. It just comes and goes - but the problem is, it does not actually go away. With the growing abundance of plastic, comes the issue. Plastic is made from synthetic polymers, very durable that it takes between 500 and 1,000 years to break it down. Since its invention, more than 8.3 billion plastics have been made, only 9% has been recycled with 79% of this super tough material are accumulating as waste. Piled up in one place, there will b...