20th Century is Plastic Century, What about 21st Century?

Jun Wang

When talking about the solution to curb plastic pollution, a most commonly heard saying is “there is no one-size-fits-all solution”. However, we may forget that there was once a one-size-fits-all solution to our material – THE PLASTIC！

Looking at the history of the plastic as a family of material, in less than 100 years since its booming innovation from 1930s and exponential growth from 1970s. plastic has beaten all other materials, metal, glass, paper, etc. and become the most broadly used material in human lives. That’s a great achievement of innovation, manufacturing and commercialization.

100 years ago, before 1930, who could image that starting from the crude oil, via refinery, cracking, polymerization and compounding with additives, a man-made material called plastic would be created and used for so many applications and make our life so convenient. How many innovations, investments, commitments, efforts and collaborations have been put into the flourish of plastic today?

That might be the reason why currently it is so so difficult to find a replacement for plastic. It needs not only innovations, investments, commitments, efforts and collaborations, but also time, courage, policy, and luck, probably.