The Plastic Age 1907-present

_Elsa_

The following week the students arrive at class even before Rip. They are loving this class and hope that he has plans for future classes. The school bell rings and Rip apologizes when he walks in for not being in class earlier.

“I had a meeting with the principal,” says Rip. “He wants me to teach another class so if you students want to continue learning more history I’ll do some research for another great more in history. Now let’s begin the Plastic Age.”

‘If ever there was a material that is both a blessing and a curse it is plastic. While we tend to think of it more in terms of what it represents, either negatively (cheap, insubstantial, environmentally threatening) or positively (affordable, utilitarian, recyclable), the word ‘plastic’ these days is a collective noun for a vast range of materials that interact with virtually every aspect of 21st century life: from the trivial toys you find in Christmas crackers (‘commodity’ plastics) to life-saving synthetic heart valves (‘engineering’ plastics). Depending on your point of view, these petrochemical derivatives have the potential to stimulate the economies of emerging nations or create environmental meltdown.

They contaminate our oceans and yet have made spaceflight possible. They are destructive and innovative. In fact, the only thing plastics really have in common is that they fall under a broad definition of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic compounds that are malleable and can be moulded. And even that’s up for debate, with the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry issuing guidelines to remove ambiguity when using the word (for example, not treating it as a synonym for polymer).

The first man-made plastic was invented by metallurgist Alexander Parkes, who exhibited his Parkesine nitrocellulose compound (intended to be a substitute for ivory) at the Great London Exposition of 1862, where it won a bronze medal. The first fully-synthetic plastic was Bakelite, invented in New York in 1907 by Leo Baekeland, who also gave us the term ‘plastics’. The rest is history, with the material becoming a convenient and economic alternative for just about any engineering material imaginable: metals, wood, ceramics, stone or glass.

Because commodity plastics are cheap, they are ubiquitous in food packaging, most of which has historically been thrown away, and because they have large molecules, decomposition rates are slow. This, in turn, has led to the development of industries such as recycling and bioplastic.’ (Source)

“This is the end of my instruction,” says Rip. “Next week will be the last class and I would like each of you to create a picture or write a story about what age you would like to see if you could go back in time with a time machine. Tell me why you choose that specific prehistoric age. If you need any help with this project send me an email here at the school and I’ll see if I can offer you any help.”

Let’s continue - Tiffi starts working on her project

Start at the beginning – Tiffi goes back to school to learn about the prehistoric ages