A+history+of+a+Lifestyle

=The History of a Lifestyle= By Jamie Johnson

Today, plastic is literally everywhere.

If you try to spend one day just writing down everything plastic you see, you would have one really long list.

Just from my seat at my kitchen table, I can see dozens of items lying around that are essential to my everyday life that contain plastic. From my keyboard to my cup to my cell phone and charger and the pile of CDs and a water bottle.

However, plastic as we know it today didn’t first come around till 1909 with the advent of Phenol-Formaldehyde. PET, the material that most plastic water bottles are made from now, was not created until the 1940s.

But oh my, has the plastic industry grown since then. Since 1980, the industry has grown about 3.4 percent every year until it has evolved into the huge business it is today.

Now, Imagine enough crude oil to fill up 84 Olympic sized swimming pools. Now, imagine all that crude oil going towards making plastic bottles for one year. According to the clean air counsel this is the amount of gallons of crude oil a year that is made into plastic water bottles in America.

Through all this industry, plastic has not only become present in everyone’s lives, but it also has become a vital part of the economy as well.

According to SPI, the plastic industry alone accounts for $374 billion in annual shipments in the US alone. And it only takes up about 4% of the energy use in the US.

It is also directly responsible for the employment of over 1.1 million people, and this isn’t even counting the people whose jobs were made possible by plastic, een if they aren’t directly connected.

In addition, the manufacturing aspect of the plastic industry is the third largest industry in the United States and is one of the fastest growing industries in the US.

The use of plastics also does many good things for our society and economy.

Because of its lightweight properties, plastic has drastically improved things such as cars. A car that has lightweight, plastic parts saves about 650 gallons of gas in its lifetime compared to how much it would use if it were made from heavier, non-petroleum based products.

Also, when plastic is used, it means that people don’t have to tap into vital raw materials that are also running out.

Things such as plastic bags are also cheaper to transport. Around 500,000 paper bags can fit into one truckload compared to around 2.8 million plastic grocery bags. This saves money on gas and transportation costs for companies.

Plastics also play a vital role in keeping our vital signs working. The medical industry, through the use of disposable plastic disposable materials, now has the lowest rate of cross-staph infection in the world, according to SPI.

It is also an extremely important part of prosthetics and implants as well as the equipment seen throughout hospitals.

It is also vital to medical procedures because of its presence in surgical gloves.

Plastic also plays a part in so many other functions of today’s world. It is the main source of water pipes, preventing groundwater contamination and similar problems.

It is used in many construction machines, and well as the construction industry. Decks made from a plastic wood-like substance have been gaining popularity all across America because of the fact that they are a good alternative to wood that won’t kill as many trees and will last much longer without maintenance than regular wood decks.

Even something as simple as lightweight bulletproof vest are made of plastic and have been responsible for saving 2000 police officers’ lives.

In addition, plastics are a major and vital component of most electronics. Our society would not have become as advanced as we are today without plastics.

IT is very easy to see that plastics are a huge part of our society today, and despite their negatives, also serve many beneficial purposes.