Plastics and Polymers

The word ‘plastics’ refer to a group of materials more technically known as ‘Polymers’. In dictionaries, you will find the major attributes of this word are: Synthetic, Soft and Moldable. Indeed the very first plastic known as ‘Parkesine’ demonstrated in the International Trade Fare in 1862 by Alexander Parkesine was claimed to be capable of doing almost everything that a natural rubber can do.

The development of ‘Plastics’ prior to World War One was limited to only four polymeric materials: Parkesine, Bakelite, PVC and Cellophane. However, soon after the first world war a large number of polymers are successfully developed from Petroleum. Soon ‘Plastics’ became the everyday material of our civilization. The figure below shows the major usage of Plastics today.