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Asked by anon-335571 on 4 Oct 2022.
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Chloe Loveless answered on 4 Oct 2022:
Wow – plastics are amazing things and do lots of good (modern housing insulation, keeping food fresher for longer, keeping medical implements sterile are just a few examples). I think my least favourite plastics would have to be plastic composites (where you mix materials together). The reason for this is that at the end of that material’s usable life they are nearly impossible to recycle at the moment, meaning that they end up in landfill.
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Justin Perry answered on 4 Oct 2022:
Any plastic that isn’t being recycled is not a favourite of mine.
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Harry Dodge answered on 4 Oct 2022:
My least favourite plastic is probably thermoset plastics. These are plastics that are usually formed by a chemical reaction that is non-reversible which means they cannot be turned back to their original state. Think about it like baking a cake, once you cook it you can’t uncook it!
This poses a problem because we have to consider what happens to the plastic after its done its job. There is lots of exciting research going on in this area, like dissolving the plastics, and even using specialised enzymes to break them back down into something useful!
This is why scientists are important, we need them to figure out all of these challenges. -
Emma Daniels answered on 5 Oct 2022:
In the lab I make plastics from sugars, so they are my favorite plastics! Most plastics are super useful, but I don’t like the ones that say they are recyclable but are actually very difficult to recycle. When we see the recycle symbol on packaging we think ‘great, I can put it in my recycling bin!’ but sometimes you need to take them to special recycling centers, which are not always accessible for everyone. As Chloe said, these are often composites which are really difficult to recycle.
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