PLASTIC
CHEMISTRY |
Chemistoplasty!
What is plastic? A freaky material
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| Take a carbon compound, add petroleum or natural gas to it
and also hydrogen. Provide high temperature under other controlled conditions. You get
Ethylene. Linking together of many ethylene molecules gives polyethylene. This process is
called polymerisation -linking together of monomers to give a polymer |
Type of Plastic and
its typical use–
LDPE (Low Density Polyethylene):
Polybags
HDPE (High Density Polyethylene):
Crates for soft drinks
PP (Polypropylene):
Drinking straws
PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate):
Soft drink and mineral water bottles |
 |
This polyethylene actually is a complex compound. It consists of
thousands of carbon atoms; each surrounded by other atoms. It is in molten stage. Changing
the production process, |
| you can get different plastic commodities. Press it or roll
it to get plastic sheets or mould it to get bottles. Similarly, vary the chemical
-chlorine or oxygen or nitrogen instead of hydrogen, and you get a poly-Cl2/N2/O2/F2,
again resulting in a different product. |
| Plastic technologists do some jugglery with PE and it is possible to
get Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) and High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) each with
different |
|
| properties and applications. While LDPE is more flexible
and used in packaging, lamination and making bags, HDPE is a little rigid and is used in
making drums, bottles and other domestic appliances. |
| If you change the way these building
blocks (monomers) are linked, the result is different. See how the structure of
polyethylene is different from polypropylene. What we do is branch the ethylene monomer and we have PP, which we use to make |
PS(Polystyrene):
Packaging for take away foods, disposable utensils and foam
packaging.
PVC(Polyvinyl Chloride):
Coating on Copper wires, rain proof sandals and many more.
ABS(Acrylonitrate Butadiene Styrene):
Car parts |
| suitcases. These are all feats, no
other material can achieve.Plastic becomes an enchanting material. |
|
POLYGLUT!
A menace we carry around and refuse to let go ofOmnipresent,
the plastic carry bag has strewn itself everywhere. In the gardens, parks, drains, garbage
dumps, on branches of trees and even in bird nests, it can be found to exist, propagating
almost like a life form. Light and flimsy, the ubiquitous carry bag floats around in a
light breeze, finding new places to inhabit and litter forever.
– Ravi Agarwal, an
expert on solid waste disposal.
Plastic bags litter the roads, ruin the landscape, get embedded in soil and lower
productivity, prevent rainwater from seeping into the ground, and clog drains. The
additives in plastic bags like lead and cadmium leach into the food. Hundreds of cows die
in New Delhi alone every year when they choke on plastic bags while trying to eat
vegetable waste stuffed in polybags. |
TOXIC!
Your toys, chappals, pipes, water tanks are all made of PVC, the most toxic plastic of
them all
Yet most Indian toys are made from PVC (even teethers). What is
most terrible is that it is not possible to tell PVC toys from non-PVC toys. Manufacturers
do not do labelling of toys for the type of plastic used. So, a child might end up sucking
at a pacifier made of PVC and ingest all those dreadful toxins. Greenpeace (an NGO) tried
to investigate into this matter and will you believe it, the industries refused to give
any information about the chemicals used in manufacture of toys. So Greenpeace collected
toys from different cities and vendors and tested these toys in a lab. Can you guess what
they found? All Indian toys were made of PVC and had phthalates between ten to forty
percent.You will get goose pimples when you learn what each of these toxins used in making
PVCcan do.
Phthalates, which are added to PVC plastic, leach out because they are not bound to the
plastic. They are used in PVCtoys to give it softness but what it can do to children is
hard and hitting. Phthalates are known to damage the liver, kidneys, and reproductive
organs and even cause cancer. Small children suck and chew toys and end up swallowing a
lot of phthalates.
Then there is lead, which lowers intelligence and makes children dumb.
PVC in itself is very bad. It actually is chlorine, which combine with carbon and
oxygen. This gives organohalogens. All these organohalogens are terrible but amongst them
the worst is dioxins. These wicked dioxins remain in the environment and our body forever
in the form of gases.  They
bio-magnify ie. become bigger and bigger as they move up in the food chain – from
micro-organisms to higher mammals. In human beings, dioxins can cause different types of
cancers, abortions in expectant mothers, low birth weight of children and reduced birth
size. You must be wondering – if dioxin is in the
atmosphere then how does it reach the
human body. PVC burns and releases dioxins, which remain in the atmosphere never to go.
They have a high affinity to fats and oils and the fat containing food absorbs dioxins. We
eat this food and dioxins enter our body.
Innocent children, without even
knowing, end up eating a lot of lead, cadmium, phthalates and dioxins for snack…again
and again. All toxic.
Other additives of PVC like lead and cadmium used as stabilisers, and chloroparaffins
used as fire retardant in the manufacture of PVC are all toxic.
Not only are we making these toxic PVC toys but also importing them from other
countries like China and Thailand. There is no government agency which monitors these toys
for phthalates and other toxins.
DOWNCYCLED!
Recycling plastics only produces worse stuff
A plastic manufacturer will tell you that plastic is not a problem
because it can be recycled. Sure it can be, but...plastic CANNOT be recycled, it can only
be ‘downcycled’. There is lack of control of temperature and if no other
precautions are taken, then the quality of recycled plastic keeps degrading. This plastic
is only fit for making those thin polybags. Ragpickers do not want to collect them as it
is too much effort. Collection is difficult and tiresome. They are paid about two to three
rupees for a kilogram and to collect one kilogram, you need about 800 to 1000 bags. So
they remain and litter forever.
FUNDUNG |
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Let us suppose that a plastic container was used to store fertilizers, or chemicals or
any other toxins in its first life. The phony recyclers, claim (along with plastic
producers) that to protect the environment they give it a second life – the polybag.
In its new avataar it still contains these toxins. You are an innocent customer and
the store fellow gives your paneer or meat in that very new avtaar. Your paneer
absorbs toxins from polybag and you eat it. It happens again and again: slow poisoning.
That was about your health. Have you ever thought of the people working in the
recycling plants? It is nowhere close to being safe. The workers do not have protective
clothing such as gloves, masks etc. and are directly exposed to toxic plastic fumes and
these fumes are killing.
There is politics in recycling also. The plastic industry does not want to promote
recycling to such an extent that it conserves resources and reduces the amount of virgin
plastic in the market. For more profits, it is ideal that more virgin plastic be produced.
Recycling
units operate in one room sheds where sorting, cleaning, reprocessing and cutting take
place simultaneously in unhealthy conditions |
A
Down To Earth Supplement
