All About Plastic
Type of plastic made from plants.
Bioplastic.
Most plastics are made from _____________ .
Fossil fuels, oil, natural gas.
Plastics that are less than five millimeters in length (or about the size of a pencil eraser).
Microplastic
The main driver of the ocean currents.
Wind.
Company trying to clean up the gyres and rivers founded by Boyan Slat.
The Ocean Clean-up
The main reason we use plastics.
Can easily be formed into a desired shape when heat and pressure are applied, cheaply.
a type of plastic polymer that can be softened and molded when heated, and then solidify when cooled.
Thermoplastic.
Two sources of microplastics.
Larger plastics, pellets (microbeads).
Smaller, temporary loops of swirling water that can travel long distances before dissipating.
What you and I need to change to help this problem.
Type of plastic used for Soda bottles, water, mouthwash, and squeezable ketchup and mustard; fruit and microwavable food trays.
PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate)
_____________ are shipped to factories to be melted and molded into water bottles, food packaging, auto parts, medical devices and much more.
Plastic pellets.
This determines how much chemicals get in your skin.
Amount of sweating.
5 Gyres.
Types of things that can maybe breakdown plastic faster.
The main reason plastics last so long.
Nothing eats them.
Air pollution (toxic chemicals emitted).
The impacts of chemicals from plastic on human health.
cancer, developmental problems.
Two things transported by ocean currents.
Heat and nutrients.
Banning plastic bags is one type of solution that these entities can enact.
Governments.
is a type of of decomposition that requires sunlight, not bacteria
Photodegredation.
The length of time before PET will start breaking down.
500-700 years.
Most of the microplastics (70%) came from this source.
Fibers. (nets, clothes, cigarette butts)
Spiraling circulations thousands of miles in diameter and rimmed by large, permanent ocean currents.
Gyres.
Alternative types of plastic that can breakdown faster.
Bioplastic.