The First Man-Made Plastic – Parkesine

The first man-made plastic was created by Alexander Parkes who publicly demonstrated it at the 1862 Great International Exhibition in London. The material called Parkesine was an organic material derived from cellulose that once heated could be molded, and retained its shape when cooled.

Celluloid

Celluloid is derived from cellulose and alcoholized camphor. John Wesley Hyatt invented celluloid as a substitute for the ivory in billiard balls in 1868. He first tried using collodion a natural substance, after spilling a bottle of it and discovering that the material dried into a tough and flexible film. However, the material was not strong enough to be used as a billiard ball, until the addition of camphor, a derivative of the laurel tree. The new celluloid could be molded with heat and pressure into a durable shape.

Besides billiard balls, celluloid became famous as the first flexible photographic film used for still photography and motion pictures. John Wesley Hyatt created celluloid in a strip format for movie film. By 1900, movie film was an exploding market for celluloid.

After cellulose nitrate, formaldehyde was the next product to advance the technology of plastic. Around 1897, efforts to manufacture white chalkboards led to casein plastics (milk protein mixed with formaldehyde).

The following are the contemporary history of plastic bags:

1957 The first baggies and sandwich bags on a roll are introduced.

1958 Poly dry cleaning bags compete with traditional brown paper.
1966 Plastic bag use in bread packaging takes over 25 to 30 percent of the market.

1966 Plastic produce bags on a roll are introduced in grocery stores.

1969 The New York City Sanitation Department’s “New York City Experiment” demonstrates that plastic refuse bag curbside pickup is cleaner, safer and quieter than metal trash can pick-up, beginning a shift to plastic can liners among consumers.

1974/75 Retailing giants such as Sears, J.C. Penney, Montgomery Ward, Jordan Marsh, Allied, Federated and Hills make the switch to plastic merchandise bags.

1973 The first commercial system for manufacturing plastic grocery bags becomes operational

1977 The plastic grocery bag is introduced to the supermarket industry as an alternative to paper sacks.

1982 Kroger and Safeway start to replace traditional craft sacks with polyethylene “t-shirt” bags.
1990 The first blue bag recycling program begins with curbside collection.

1990 Consumer plastic bag recycling begins through a supermarket collection-site network.

1992 Nearly half of U.S. supermarkets have recycling available for plastic bags.

1996 Four of five grocery bags used are plastic.

China Plastics Processing Industry Association said that the Chinese plastics industry remains the overall double-digit growth in 2008, the development trend is still optimistic.

In 2008, Chinese import and export of plastic products is still growing, export growth in 2007 and 15.52 percent for the same, exports 26.914 billion U.S. dollars; import growth fell by 9 percentage points, increased by only 6.62%, a total of 11.932 billion U.S. imports million.

In November and December, Guangdong Plastics exports reached 650 million and 810 million U.S. dollars, a substantial increase of 30% and 53.4%.

Statistics show that in 2008, Guangdong exported 6.25 billion U.S. dollars of plastic products, up 6.2 percent, the growth rate down 7.9 percentage. The first 10 months in 2008, due to the cost of prices, trade barriers, domestic policy adjustments and financial crisis, Guangdong chemical plastic exports fell 1.4%.

The industry believes that there are three problems on the plastic products industry. First, the impact of economic decline the market’s demand of the plastic products. Second, the plastic enterprises are facing increasing pressure from the cost of the environmental protection. Third, the plastics industry’s compability of dealing with the risk is poor.

January 2009, China imprted 106,399 tons of ABS resin, over the same period in 2008 for 173,487 tons, with a 38.7 percent decline.

January 2009, China imprted 11,404 tons of Polyester chip, over the same period in 2008 for 12,240 tons, with a 6.8 percent decline.

January 2009, China imprted 20,000 tons of synthetic textile, over the same period in 2008 for 30,000 tons, with a 43.0 percent decline.

January 2009, China imprted 27,148 tons of synthetic fiber yarn, over the same period in 2008 for 49,670 tons, with a 45.3 percent decline.