How are Plastics Produced?
Plastic is the most versatile and widely used synthetic material on the market today. They are polymers, that is, large molecules (molecular weight ~10,000+) which consist of long repeating chains of smaller molecules (molecular weight ~100) known as monomers. Common monomers used in the production of plastics, such as vinyl acetate, styrene, butadiene and vinyl chloride, are extracted from crude oil or natural gas. Monomers fall into the class of chemicals known as petrochemicals. Plastics are produced using a process called polymerization, where many thousands of monomers are joined together to form a polymer chain. Monomers are made of atoms like chlorine, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen and sulphur. Monomers are easily extracted from abundant organic sources, though as the price of crude oil increases, so does the price of plastics. There are two main types of plastic; thermosetting plastics and thermoplastics. Both are produced by pouring liquid monomers into a mold where they undergo
