British media analyzes the past and present of plastics
"Those who are thrown away by you will return it to you one day." This is the last warning in the recent article "Take out, destroying our next generation". The British media said that the article would ruin the next generation of black pots and the plastic flood caused by the hot meal, causing an uproar.
According to a report by the BBC on September 28th, a series of plastics in the series "The Magical Invention of the Modern Economy" produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation’s international reporter Harford, entitled "Takeaways destroy the next generation" The past and present of plastics. The following is a summary of the article:
"Unless I am mistaken, this invention must be important in the future." Leo Beckland wrote this in his diary on July 11, 1907. At that time, he was in a good mood, only 43 years old, and his career was quite successful.
Becker was born in Belgium, his father was a shoemaker, he was uneducated, and he did not understand why his son wanted to go to school. When Leo was 13 years old, his father asked him to be an apprentice. But Leo’s mother has other plans.
With the encouragement of her mother, Leo insisted on going to the evening school and later got a scholarship to study at Ghent University. Received a Ph.D. in Chemistry at the age of 20.
He married the daughter of the mentor and moved to New York. The money earned by making photo papers is enough to live without worry for the rest of your life. The Becker couple bought a house on the Hudson River in Lex, and Leo prepared a lab at home to fully enjoy the hobby of playing chemistry.
In July 1907, he was playing with formaldehyde and phenol.
This test will bring him the second bucket of gold in life.
Beckland is too famous. "Time" magazine used him to make a cover without even adding a name. This sentence: "It will not burn, it will not melt."
In July of that year, Leo invented an unprecedented synthetic plastic material, which he named bakelite (Bakelite).
Baekeland’s prediction of the importance of his new invention is completely correct. Not long after, plastic is everywhere.
During the book Plastic: A Poisonous Love Story, Susan Fleenkel used to spend a day recording all the plastics she touched that day: switches, toilet lids, toothbrushes, toothpaste cartridges; she also wrote down Something that is not plastic: hand paper, wooden floor, ceramic faucet.
One day passed, there were 102 plastics, and 196 plastics.
Plastic made a phone, radio, gun, coffee pot, billiards, jewelry, and even into the first atomic bomb!
The success of Beckett shocked and changed the three views: What kind of synthetic materials can be created that have properties that are not necessarily found in nature?
In the 1920s and 1930s, a variety of plastics were constantly emerging in laboratories around the world. Polystyrene, usually used as packaging; nylon, nylon stockings make it famous; polyethylene, which is the kind of plastic bag.
During the Second World War, the supply of natural raw materials was tight, and plastic production reached a new level to fill the gap. After the war, exciting new products like Tupperware (plastic storage containers) entered the consumer goods market.
However, it is not too long to be excited: the image of plastic has gradually changed.
Half a century has passed, and despite the image problems, plastic production has increased by about 20 times; it will double again in the next 20 years.
Another point to consider is that during this period, the evidence for the (plastic hazard) environment is becoming more and more conclusive.
Some of the chemical components in plastics are believed to affect the development and reproduction of animals. Plastic waste fills the earth, and those chemical components eventually penetrate into the groundwater; plastic waste is thrown into the ocean, and some animals swallow it.
However, there is always another side of the balance. Plastics also have benefits, not only economic but also environmental.
Cars made of plastic parts are lighter and consume less fuel; plastic packaging prolongs food preservation time and reduces waste; if the bottle is not plastic, it must be glass. What kind of broken bottle do you want to see in the amusement park where children go to play?
In the end, we must improve the recycling and reuse of plastics, even if it is because crude oil is not used.
Some plastics cannot be recycled, such as bakelite, but many that can be recycled are still not recycled. In fact, the recycling rate of plastic packaging is only about one-seventh, far less than paper and steel. The recovery rate of other plastic products is even worse.
Improvement requires everyone to work hard. As you may have seen, some plastic products now have a small triangle with numbers 1 to 7. That is the "resin identification code", which is an initiative of the Plastics Industry Association to help recycle. But this system is far from perfect.
If the industry can make more efforts, the government can. At present, the recycling rates of plastics in various countries and regions vary greatly.
A very successful example is Taiwan.
The measures taken by Taiwan have made recycling more convenient and the offenders face fines, successfully challenging the traditional attitude of people dealing with garbage.
So, is there any other technical method for managing plastic waste?
People who love science fiction must love a recent new invention: ProtoCycler. Give it plastic scrap, it will spit out 3D printed wires!
For now, this may be the most like a copy machine in Star Trek.
At that time, people must feel that bakelite is revolutionary, just like we see the copy machine in Star Trek today.
Simple, inexpensive synthetic products, good strength, can replace porcelain tableware, metal gadgets; also beautiful, beautiful to be used for jewelry, and even replace precious ivory.
Plastic is really a magical material. However, like all plastic products, we take it for granted.
One idea that today's manufacturers have not given up is still to make practical, valuable products with cheap, worthless materials.
The latest technology to upgrade plastic waste is to combine it with agricultural waste and nanoparticles to create new materials with new properties.
In this regard, Leo Baeke will definitely applaud.
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