History of plastic
This material, made from chemicals, can be shaped when heated and is used to make everything from bottles to toys.
What is plastic?
Most plastics are made from this fossil fuel that comes from deep underground.
What is oil?
This symbol with three arrows in a triangle shows that something can be recycled.
What is a recycling symbol?
This animal is commonly known as the face of the plastic problem and ocean pollution as a result of their consumption of plastic straws.
What are sea turtles?
This item is the number one use of plastic globally.
What is packaging?
This naturally occurring plastic comes from trees in the form of a cloudy liquid.
What is latex?
Oil and natural gas are examples of these ancient energy sources formed from dead plants and animals.
What are fossil fuels?
This number located on plastic products tells you the _____________________ about a product so you know how to recycle it.
What is the type of plastic?
When plastic is not properly thrown away, it can spread into ecosystems and cause environmental problems. This term is broadly called _________.
This word describes plastics that are designed to break down more easily in the environment compared to traditional plastics.
What is biodegradable?
This was the first fully synthetic plastic, invented in 1907.
What is bakelite?
What is heated?
True or false: plastic items can be endlessly recycled.
What is false?
What are microplastics?
This broad category of plastics is a major contributor to the plastic problem and makes up the majority of plastics used on a daily basis.
What are single-use plastics.
During this major global conflict, plastics became widely used to replace metal and rubber in items like helmets and parachutes.
What is World War II?
Scientists heat and change oil into smaller building blocks called this, which are used to make plastic.
Monomers
This term is used to describe plastics that cannot be recycled because they are dirty.
What is contaminated?
Scientists have been searching for alternatives to plastics in recent years to address the world's plastic problem. On solution are plastics made of natural products, called ____________.
What are bioplastics?
This property of plastic allows it to be used for many things.
What is versatility?
OR
What is cheap?
This country that starts with a "C" currently has the worst recycling score in the world.
What is Chile?
These long chains of repeating molecules are what give plastic its structure and flexibility.
What are polymers?
This term is used to describe where the majority of plastic products end up.
What is a landfill?
This area in the ocean is a giant collection of trash and plastic waste caused by materials getting caught by ocean currents.
What is an ocean gyre?
This is the main reason that plastics became used on a widespread basis in the 1950s.
What is inexpensive?