GC: n
S: ScHist – https://www.sciencehistory.org/education/classroom-activities/role-playing-games/case-of-plastics/history-and-future-of-plastics/ (last access: 29 December 2024); UNEP – https://www.unep.org/interactives/beat-plastic-pollution/ (last access: 29 December 2024).
N: 1. 1905, “solid substance that can be molded,” originally of dental molds, from plastic (adj.). The main current meaning, “synthetic product made from oil derivatives,” is recorded by 1909, used in this sense by Leo Baekeland (see Bakelite).
2. plastic, polymeric material that has the capability of being molded or shaped, usually by the application of heat and pressure. This property of plasticity, often found in combination with other special properties such as low density, low electrical conductivity, transparency, and toughness, allows plastics to be made into a great variety of products. These include tough and lightweight beverage bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), flexible garden hoses made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), insulating food containers made of foamed polystyrene, and shatterproof windows made of polymethyl methacrylate.
3. Many of the chemical names of the polymers employed as plastics have become familiar to consumers, although some are better known by their abbreviations or trade names. Thus, polyethylene terephthalate and polyvinyl chloride are commonly referred to as PET and PVC, while foamed polystyrene and polymethyl methacrylate are known by their trademarked names, Styrofoam and Plexiglas (or Perspex).
Industrial fabricators of plastic products tend to think of plastics as either “commodity” resins or “specialty” resins. (The term resin dates from the early years of the plastics industry; it originally referred to naturally occurring amorphous solids such as shellac and rosin.) Commodity resins are plastics that are produced at high volume and low cost for the most common disposable items and durable goods. They are represented chiefly by polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, and polystyrene.
Plastics also can be divided into two distinct categories on the basis of their chemical composition. One category is plastics that are made up of polymers having only aliphatic (linear) carbon atoms in their backbone chains. All the commodity plastics listed above fall into this category.
4. Plastics Manufacturing: plastic, plastic material.
- A material that contains as an essential ingredient a high polymer and which at some stage in its processing into finished products can be shaped by flow.
- Elastomeric materials, which also are shaped by flow, are not considered as plastics.
- In some countries, particularly in the United Kingdom, it is a permitted option to use the term “plastics” as the singular form as well as the plural form.
- Any of a large and varied class of substances that are polymers of high molecular weight based on synthetic resins or modified natural polymers and may be obtained in a permanent or rigid form following moulding, extrusion, or similar treatment at a stage during manufacture or processing when they are mouldable or liquid.
- Phraseology: laminated plastic, reinforced plastic.
S: 1. Etymonline – https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=plastic (last access: 29 December 2024). 2 & 3. EncBrit – https://www.britannica.com/science/plastic (last access: 29 December 2024). 4. TERMIUM PLUS – https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng&i=1&srchtxt=plastic&index=alt&codom2nd_wet=1#resultrecs (last access: 29 December 2024).
SYN: plastic material. (depending on context)
S: TERMIUM PLUS – https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng&i=1&srchtxt=plastic&index=alt&codom2nd_wet=1#resultrecs (last access: 29 December 2024); GDT – https://vitrinelinguistique.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/fiche-gdt/fiche/8402245/plastique (ast access: 29 December 2024).
CR: microplastic
