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with consumers use a type of plastic called ABS that's found in LEGOs, white-
water plastic canoes and hard-bodied suitcases.
There are a few reasons that plastic remains the queen of 3D printed mate-
rials. First, plastic is cheap and easy to work with. Second, plastic has a long
and successful track record as a raw material for mass manufactured objects,
ranging from simple bottles to elaborate and expensive boat hulls.
Sometimes the word “plastic” is used disparagingly to describe a person
or object that's not genuine. In fact, plastic is very real. It's so real that it's a
major (and rapidly increasing) source of pollution to our planet. Twenty-ive
times as much plastic was produced in 2000 compared to 1960.
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Journalist Susan Freinkel traces the shift in our society from an initial infat-
uation with plastic to our current relationship, a highly dependent relationship
she describes as a “toxic love affair.” When plastics irst were developed nearly
150 years ago, they were heralded as a democratizing new material that would
save tortoises and elephants from extinction.
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After World War II, plastics came
into widespread public use. According to the American Chemistry Council,
plastic became the world's most widely used material in 1976.
Most plastics today are made from fossil fuels, both natural gas and petro-
leum. One reason plastic costs so little to make is because it's made from waste
byproducts produced when fossil fuels are extracted from the environment.
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In
a demonstration of how just a few molecules can completely change an object's
characteristics, plastic contains a high amount of carbon and hydrogen, the
elements that characterize living objects.
A plastic object's ability to endure rough handling and challenging condi-
tions is what makes plastic so useful. Yet the same tenacity and endurance also
make plastic objects environmental malingerers, a rapidly growing zombie
army of waste that refuses to biodegrade, no matter how long or far it travels.
From the garbage can, plastic objects travel to the landill. Or they end up
washing into the ocean.
In 1997, during a sailing trip to a remote part of the Northern Paciic Ocean,
Charles Moore was shocked and dismayed to ind his boat surrounded by a
vast loating tangle of discarded plastic “confetti.” Moore dubbed this glut
of loating plastic particles—a region whose size is estimated to be slightly
smaller than that of the state of Texas—“The Great Paciic Garbage Patch.”
After this wake-up call, Moore wrote about his experience in his topic
Plastic
Ocean
.
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He made it his life's work to begin collecting and analyzing the plastic
