Plastics Started as a Sustainability Solution. What Went Wrong?
Plastics Started as a Sustainability Solution. What Went Wrong?
Plastics Were Invented to Spare Nature. They Did the Opposite
Synthetic polymers were supposed to free us from the limitations of our natural resources. Instead they led to an environmental crisis
In 1864 Scientific American published a competition launched by a billiard-table manufacturing company: “Ten Thousand Dollars for a Substitute for Ivory.” The owners of Phelan & Collender were pleased to see it; they wrote to the magazine to elaborate on what they were looking for in an “ivory alternative” that could be used to make billiard balls and hoped it would “have the effect of stimulating the genius of some of your numerous readers.” The real stuff from elephant tusks had become scarce, but its elasticity, hardness and density were hard to find in another material.