Plastic Products…A complete story

Not so long go, a well-known newspaper tabloid regularly splashed a sequence of socially conscientious stories, as to how some kids from a renowned school were planning to redefine the way we Indian shop vegetables. Yes, vegetable shopping became focus point, given the fact that many of us fail to carry bags from home when it comes to buying vegetables. And therefore purchase vegetables in plastic bags that’s freely available with vendors

So, these school kids , well-aware of the disastrous consequences of using plastic bags, did what the adults should have done way back… design paper bags from newspapers and sell them to the vegetable vendors at an affordable rates.

But as they, old habits die hard; we are back to ground zero, as people have gone back to their bad old ways of using plastic bags. So what went wrong with the children’s campaign of popularizing paper bags? Why did the concerned newspaper cease to carry more stories on it? We don’t the reason why?

As of now, what we know is that the use of plastics have increased like never before and this can wreak havoc in the environment as most of them are not biodegradable, therefore not environment-friendly.

But living in a world without plastic is an unimaginable prospect; given the fact plastics over the years have become a fundamental part of our living.

Advantageous of plastics

The significant growth in use of plastics is due to its favorable properties. These include:

• It's Versatility and can be customized to meet very specific technical needs.

• Light in weight as compared to other materials, leading to less fuel consumption during transportation.

• Very durable

• Resistant to chemicals, water and impact.

• Hygiene properties in terms of food packaging.

• Thermal and electrical insulation properties.

• Inexpensive to produce

As per the latest reports, people world over manufacture and use 20 times more plastic today than we did 50 years ago!

Plastic products are used for all and sundry purposes. The kind of products produced from plastics include, Industrial Plastic Products, Plastic water tank, Pet Preforms, Plastic Aircraft Products, Plastic Automotive Parts, Plastic Bags, Plastic Balls, Plastic Barrels, Plastic Basins, Plastic Baskets, Plastic Bins, Plastic Bottles, Plastic Bowls, Plastic Boxes, Plastic Buckets, Plastic Prefab Homes, Plastic Canisters, Plastic Cans, Plastic Capacitors, Plastic Caps, Plastic Clothings, Plastic Coatings, Plastic Mugs, Plastic Packaging Products, Plastic Panels, Plastic Pallets, Plastic Pipe Fittings, Plastic Pipes, Plastic Sanitaryware, Plastic Sheets, Plastic Stationary, Plastic Straps, Plastic Strips, Plastic Tanks, Plastic Tapes, Plastic Toiletries, Plastic Toys & Games, Plastic Trays, Plastic Tubes, Plastic Tumblers, Plastic Vases, Prefab Homes, Plastic Yarns …the list is long. So it is plastic and plastic everywhere.

So it is safe to surmise that plastics have made their presence felt in a big way in our daily lives. Packaging industry is reported to be the single largest sector using plastics. So doing away with them completely is not that easy, considering its significant influence in our daily lives, however, one can chalk out various strategies to make the most use of them, thereby restrict their production.

There are 50 groups of plastics with hundreds of varieties. The best thing being all varieties can be recycled. However, reusing plastic is preferable than recycling as it uses less energy and fewer resources.

Degradable plastics

Numerous retailers in UK have recently come up with degradable carrier bags. These bags are made from a special type of plastic that degrades under certain conditions. For instance, degradable plastics are of two types, bio-degradable plastics and photodegradable plastics. Bio-degradable plastics contain only a small amount of non oil-bases material, like corn starch and photodegradable plastics will break down when kept under the sun.

Degradable plastics are widely being used in countries like Austria and Sweden, where fast-food retail chain McDonalds has been using bio-degradable cutlery since three years. Plastic which photo-degrades in six weeks are been used in manufacturing carriers for beer cans.

Bio-plastics

As hazardous chemical additives are used in plastics, leading to health and safety concerns, manufacturers are gradually shifting to plant-based plastics. For instance, world’s largest toy manufacturer Mattel had announced that company will be using plant-based plastics for manufacturing of toys. Similar promises were also made by companies like LEGO, IKEA, Nike and The Bodyshop. So hopefully, within few decades, we could expect the whole world shifting towards using plant-based plastics.