Synthetic polymers and our environment

The most desirable feature of many synthetic polymers is their ability to resist various kinds of chemical and physical degradation. However, this same property is also why synthetic polymers stay intact long after they've fulfilled their purpose.

Consider a burger: its lifetime is approximately one week, yet its plastic wrapping can last 20 years! This difference causes environmental concern because the wrapping can end up where it shouldn't, e.g., in a turtle's stomach. Some plastic items can even last 1000 years in landfills! Imagine if we wrapped our burgers in polymers of a shorter lifetime instead.

Figure 1: Illustration of the shore of a beach full of different types of trash made of synthetic polymers.