Plastic Dinnerware

Plastic is a common material utilized in square dishware sets, along with glass, earthenware, porcelain, and stoneware.

Plastic is a term that is used to describe a very large variety of different synthetic or even organic amorphous solid materials that are used to make different products. Usually, plastics are polymers that have a very high molecular mass.

Plastic, as a word, is actually derived from the Greek word plastikos, which is a word that means “capable of being shaped or molded”. Plastics are very malleable, and are able to be shaped, pressed, or cast into virtually any shape. They can be made into boxes, plates, fibers, films, tubes, bottles, and many other shapes.

Per the article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic, the first human-made plastic was invented by a man named Alexander Parkes. He invented his plastic, which was called Parkesine, in 1855. In was unveiled at the Great International Exhibition in London in 1862.

Since then, many types of plastic have been developed and adopted for use. Nowadays, plastic is used for almost everything. You will find plastic in automobile parts, plumbing fixtures, electronic components, medical equipment, food packaging, and even clothing. Some additives in plastic have been banned for being toxic, though plastics are, for the most part, pretty safe for normal usage.

One problem that has arisen with the development of plastics is the problem of degradation. Basically, because of the very strong molecular bonds holding plastic together, it degrades at a very slow rate. Since it has been invented, over one billion tons of plastic has been discarded.

This plastic may take hundreds, or even thousands of  years to decompose! The recycling of plastics is one method to curb this problem, but it is labor intensive...and only a very small amount of plastic actually gets recycled out of the mass amounts of it that are thrown away.