Know!: Good Plastic and Bad Plastic

In the modern era, mostly equipment is produced with plastic based, such as  table, chair, door, shower products, and dinnerware. But, not all of plastic products safe for the body. A lot of types of plastic that we’ve produced today and used. There are around 30 different types of plastic in regular use. Basically there are two types, that is good plastic and bad plastic. Here, the types plastics we’re discussing is good plastic or bad plastics for human use.

In this essay, I would like to explain about three types of good plastic and three of bad plastic. For good plastic, probably the easiest to identify is Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET). It is used for the clear plastic bottles which we find in supermarkets, containing fizzy drinks such as lemonade and cola. PET soft drink bottles make up about 20 per cent of all moulded plastic containers. It was known as the safest and as a well known plastic and easy to be recycled. However, recently they found that traces of DEHP in a water bottles kept in PET bottle for over 9 months.

Called high-density polyethylene or (HDPE). Scrap from PET is used to make “fibre fill”, a lining material for jackets, pillows and sleeping bags. It is also used as lining in the upholstery of furniture and as a fiber in the construction of carpets. HDPE plastic is used in the manufacture of garden furniture, flower pots, toys, dustbins and various other sorts of plastic containers. HDPE is considered safe and easy to recycle.

Low density polyethylene(LDPE), used in gro­cery plastic bags , some bottle and most of the plastic wraps. So now can you guess the number of plastic bags used in the world per year? 500 billion per year! In other words, that’s almost 1 million plastic bags used per minute it is popular by its safety but difficult to recycle. Polypropylene (PP) used in most deli, syrup, rubber maid, yogurt and soup containers, and some straws besides baby bottles.

For bad plastics types, there are three types we will discuss, that is PVC, PS, and polycarbonate. PVC or Polyvinyl chloride used for wrap, some types of plastic compress cooking oil, peanut butter jars and bottle like, window cleaner bottles and detergent. PVC is famous to be connected with liver cancer. PVC is related to the harmful effects on bone structure, spleen, body weight , liver and kidney. And this is recyclable the least.

Polydtyrene (PS) used to make eggs cartons, bowls, not reusable cups and plastic plates and styofoam food trays. Styrene is filtered from polystyrene and it conceder toxic to the nervous system and the brain .PS also known to affect liver, red blood, kidneys and stomach in animals studies . and it is not easy to recycle this type of plastic.

Polycarbonate used in sports water bottles, metal food , clear plastic cups, body bottles, water bottle of 5- gallon and plain plastic dishes. The new plastic with bio- base can be labeled number 7. It has the ability to leak Biphenyle A, the material that the hormone estrogen. It is known to increase prostate cancer, produce ovarian dysfunction, genetic damage , etc .

Those are some often used types of plastic. I hope, form this essay we can tell the difference between good plastic and bad plastic. Millions of plastic products are manufactured each year throughout the world. We must be wise in our use of plastics and be clever to recycle them. Or else, plastic will become a problem for us and even for our earth.