Introduction Plastics, first invented by Alexander Parkes in 1860, have only been used widely in the past few decades. However, it has quickly become a popular and widley used material. 1 million tonnes of plastic was produced in Australia in 1999 alone. Manufacture The sources of plastics today are mainly crude oil, gas and coal. According to the Plastics and Chemicals Industries Association, Much of the raw material for plastics comes from waste in petroleum refining - some of which would otherwise be flared off and wasted.
Plastics are polymers, that is long chain molecules, made from smaller molecules called monomers.
The polymers are made in large vessels under special conditions of temperature and pressure, using special catalysts. At this stage, the polymers are in the form of resin pellets or powders. There are about forty different plastics or polymers used today. Each has a different chemical composition and set of properties that makes it suitable for certain applications. There are several ways that plastic products are formed.