Plastics: The IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry), in defining plastics as "organic polymeric materials that may contain other substances aimed at improving their properties or reducing costs", filled plastics are composed of the matrix (just the material chosen plastic), within which carbon, glass, Kevlar or even wood fibers are embedded. The most common polymers are synthetic, produced from petroleum derivatives, but there are also those made with materials deriving from other sources.

Plastic is known today mainly as a super-widespread material used in every sector (private and public) and super-polluting: being a material not naturally present, we never understood the danger of its incorrect disposal until it was too late. We therefore mention in addition to soil and air pollution (before there were no filters for factory smokestacks) marine pollution: the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a huge island of plastic - currently the largest on the planet - which was formed through the accumulation of waste carried by rivers and then by the currents that are poisoning the ocean.

But plastic is not only that. We must not forget that in any case it was a step forward for the industry and for our lifestyle, so let's retrace some historical stages:

• 1855: the Swiss chemist Georges Audemars produces rayon in the laboratory, obtained from cellulose and used as an artificial fiber.
• 1861: Alexander Parkes patents a first plastic material, called parkesine, obtained by chemically combining nitrocellulose and camphor.
• 1869: the American John Wesley Hyatt perfects parkesine and, with the addition of nitrogen, patents cellulose nitrate, or celluloid. It will be used for photographic and then cinematographic films, even if with the defect of being highly flammable
• 1907: the Belgian-American chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland produces bakelite, used above all to make frames for electrical appliances and the bowls of the growing billiard game, at the time made of ivory (elephant tusks).
• 1920: the German chemist Hermann Staudinger hypothesizes the macromolecular structure of plastics and their polymerization, for which he obtains the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1953.
• 1926: Waldo Semon, of BF Goodrich, introduces the use of plasticizers for the synthesis of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), starting from experiments on vinyl chloride, carried out but never perfected by Henri Victor Regnault in 1835 and by Eugen Baumann in 1872. The PVC is still used today in countless industrial, domestic and food applications.
• 1928: polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) is developed, which is also used in countless applications.
• around the twenties and thirties: urea resins are marketed.
• 1935: Wallace Carothers of DuPont synthesizes nylon.
• 1937: polystyrene resins are put on the market.
• 1938: polytetrafluoroethylene (or PTFE, patented and marketed as Teflon in 1950) is synthesized.
• 1941: the first polyester fiber, Terylene, is produced.
• 1941: Polyurethane is synthesized by William Hanford and Donald Holmes.
• 1953: the German chemist Karl Ziegler synthesizes polyethylene (PE).
• 1954: the Italian chemist Giulio Natta produces isotactic polypropylene (marketed under the name Moplen).
• 1963: Ziegler and Natta are awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in recognition of their studies on polymers.
• 2000: bioplastics are born.

But where do I want to go? We are not 100% doomed yet and we can still do something to decrease plastic pollution, such as recycling; now there are different types of plastic which can be reused to obtain new material after use at different percentages of 'purity', therefore choosing those that allow greater recovery is the best thing. They can be recognized by the codes on the products we buy every day (the law requires them), lower numbers indicate higher quality:
PET (polyethylene terephthalate): identification code 1;

HDPE (high density polyethylene): identification code 2;

PVC O V (polyvinyl chloride): identification code 3;

LDPE (low density polyethylene): identification code 4;

PP (polypropylene): identification code 5;

PS (polystyrene or polystyrene): identification code 6;

Other Plastics: identification code 7.

If recycling isn't your thing and you still care about the environment then stop using plastic. It will seem impossible to you, it is certainly not easy but there are valid alternatives: glass which is virtually infinitely recyclable, food grade silicone which you just need to wash and use forever, bee wax wraps instead of film (the aluminum is okay, you can recycle), reuse the more resistant plastic containers a few more times before throwing them away, choose bamboo (the certified one) which as well as being biodegradable as it grows subtracts CO2 from the atmosphere.

Thanks for reading this far, leave a like if you like. Bye bye

ref[https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materie_plastiche ; https://www.fasda.it/quale-plastica-e-riciclabile/]