What is plastic made out of?

When you watch television, use a computer, ride in a bus, train, or plane, you are using plastics. When you go to the doctor's office or hospital or shop at the grocery store, you again are relying on plastics. So where do plastics come from … and just what are they? read more

These chains are called polymers. This is why many plastics begin with “poly,” such as polyethylene, polystyrene, and polypropylene. Polymers often are made of carbon and hydrogen and sometimes oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, chlorine, fluorine, phosphorous, or silicon. The term “plastics” encompasses all these various polymers. read more

While containers are usually made from a single type and color of plastic, making them relatively easy to sort, a consumer product like a cellular phone may have many small parts consisting of over a dozen different types and colors of plastics. read more

Essentially, plastics are human-made, synthetic polymers made from long chains of carbon and other elements. Through a process called cracking, crude oil and natural gases are converted to hydrocarbon monomers like ethylene, propylene, styrene, vinyl chloride, ethylene glycol, and so on. read more

Unplasticised polystyrene is a rigid, brittle, inexpensive plastic that has been used to make plastic model kits and similar knick-knacks. It also is the basis for some of the most popular"foamed" plastics, under the name styrene foam or Styrofoam. read more