Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semisynthetic materials composed primarily of polymers. Their defining characteristic, plasticity, allows them to be molded, extruded, or pressed into a diverse …

Nov 19, 2025 · plastic, polymeric material that has the capability of being molded or shaped, usually by the application of heat and pressure.

Plastic is a word that originally meant “pliable and easily shaped.” It only recently became a name for a category of materials called polymers. The word polymer means “of many parts,” and polymers are …

May 16, 2022 · Plastics are (mostly) synthetic (human-made) materials, made from polymers, which are long molecules built around chains of carbon atoms, typically with hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and …

Plastic production has sharply increased over the last 70 years. In 1950, the world produced just two million tonnes. It now produces over 450 million tonnes. Plastic has added much value to our lives: …

Plastics are in products we use every day that help keep us safe. They are in bicycle helmets, child safety seats, and automotive airbags that protect us and the cell phones that connect us. Plastics …

Due to plastics’ design potential, diversity, flexibility, low cost, and durability, their use now exceeds most other man-made materials across nearly all industrial sectors. Plastics have enabled tremendous …

Learn what you can do to reduce your own single-use plastics, and take your pledge. The world of plastic contains many confusing terms, as we discovered while reporting on and researching the...

1 day ago · If there's one material that defines modern life more than any other, it's plastic: present from the moment we're born in newborn stool, in product packaging, in the soil beneath our feet and the ...

Every day, the equivalent of 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic are dumped into the world's oceans, rivers, and lakes. Plastic pollution is a global problem. Every year 19-23 million tonnes of plastic …