For those of us who've spent a significant amount of time working in the Plastics industry, (30+ for me), there is an incredible evolution we've witnessed around it's capabilities and applications. Thousands of items that we use in our daily lives have either been transformed into plastics from other materials or invented because of what plastics can do. Very few people ever stop to think about it. If Jay Leno did one of his famous "Jay-walking" episodes and interviewed the typical braintrust that he stumbles into, I'll bet he'd get some really wacky answers about where plastics come from and what products come from it.
Of course, other than a few cellulose (plant) materials, 98% of plastics come from oil, and as such, have the same foreign-dependency and inflationary price issues as other oil products like gasoline and natural gas; problems that everyone is familiar with. I've been living with these price and supply issues both at home and on the job!
When I read about these issues and even the idea about eventually running out of oil entirely, I think about plastics mostly, first because I live in that world, and second because I think that alternative energy will solve the issues around gas and gasoline. But there is no such thing as "alternative plastics".
An interesting take on life without plastic is referenced below. It would be a different world; way beyond even what she manages to include in her blog I think.
http://www.bigbeargrizzly.net/articles/2008/02/14/news/plasticland.txt
It's one of those things that someday our children's-children or their children perhaps, will have to overcome. If we had to do it sometime before that, we'd be up the creek without a paddle; unless it's a birchbark canoe!
1 comment:
Without a doubt, oil is our
black gold.
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