Plastic has become an incredibly important part of life in the last 50 years. In fact, we seem
to be reliant on the material across many industries. While plastic does seem to stir up
controversy in recent years, there is no denying that it has changed our lives and we have
been able to do many things as a result of it.
Electronics
Plastic has become increasingly prevalent within the electronics industry. It is used for
multiple appliances around the house, making them more lightweight than their
counterparts that use alternative materials. One of the most important devices in our
society, the mobile phone, also use polycarbonate for their screens. This extends further to
computers as well. It is underestimated how useful plastic is in this regard, helping to make
these things lighter which of course makes it more convenient, which is one of the most
important factors in current society.
Medicine
Plastic is used so much more often within medicine than we truly realise. First of all,
syringes and tubing are vital parts of medicine for transmitting fluids. It is used largely as a
substitute for other parts of the body that have either been lost or aren’t working properly.
Some examples of this include: Plastic vessel supports, plastic heart valves and plastic knee
joints. Furthermore, there are plastic bags that are also used for multiple things like blood,
fluids and medicine. It is hard to imagine how these problems would be tackled without the
use of plastic.
Packaging
Perhaps the most obvious use of plastic is with packaging. Now, packaging is one of the
areas where plastic seems to be a little less necessary due to the fact these are very easily
disposable and only serve one purpose. However, there are good reasons to use plastic in
this way. Firstly, for food packaging, plastic plays a large part in keeping food fresh for
longer, making it important for supermarkets. Clear plastic allows for complete
transparency of the product which has again been a very useful aspect for supermarkets.
Plastic is also very good for protecting products from contamination as well as making
fragile and dangerous objects more secure and safe.
These are just a few, there are many more areas that plastic has changed drastically.
Despite efforts to reduce our plastic usage, it still remains important in many aspects of
society. Check out the following infographic from Simply Plastics for more uses of plastic.