Plastics: From a Success Story to an Environmental Problem and a Global Challenge

摘要

The 20th century witnessed the success of plastic materials. In just a few decades, these materials derived from petroleum chemistry became essential in our everyday life. A myriad of new products imposed themselves in countless daily applications and transformed our daily lifestyle profoundly. Several technical and medical innovations were made possible due to the versatile and adaptable material properties of plastics. To name only a few of these advantages, plastics are light yet stable, corrosion‐resistant, and have excellent insulating properties. Since the 1950s, the global production of plastics increased from 1.5 million tonnes to 359 million tonnes in 2018, growing by a factor of more than 200.