Abstract
Over the past half-century, synthetic plastics have become the major new materials for everything from replacements for human body parts to the construction of supersonic aircraft and spacecraft. Much of this growth has taken place at the expense of more traditional materials, such as steel, aluminum, paper and glass. Quite understandably, the industries associated with their manufacture have fought back through public relations campaigns intended to protect their own specific markets. Unfortunately, advertising agencies are not the most reliable sources of scientific information, and as a result, the public perception of the role of plastics in society is based more on what can only be described as “mythology” than on demonstrable facts. It is the purpose of this chapter to deal with a number of the misconceptions about plastics generally and about the role of degradable plastics in particular. The first of these will involve resource considerations.
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Guillet, J. (2002). Plastics and the Environment. In: Scott, G. (eds) Degradable Polymers. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1217-0_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1217-0_12
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