In 1863, an impatient young inventor from New York identified an advertisement in the newspapers that would change the course of material history. The opinion offered a price of $ 10,000 to anyone who could invent an ivory substitute in billiard balls. Playing the swimming pool was a booming leisure activity at the time, but the ivory request was already elephant populations. Enter John Wesley Hyatt, 26 years old. He had already experienced a synthetic derivative of cellulose nitrate and took up the challenge of creating a false ivory.
Based on the previous work of the English inventor Alexander Parkes, Hyatt used photographic film bases to reproduce the aspect and the feeling of Ivory. In the 1870s, his company made a wide range of goods – combs with piano keys – supporting what had been luxury items within reach of the masses. The advertisements even said that the new equipment was “saving elephants”. At the time, ivory was appreciated for having given the billiards their weight, their roll and their ideal rebounds, but only one elephant defense gave only four or five high quality balls. Businessmen feared that the growing demand for whim and whimpering materials will soon go beyond the supply of elephants.
Celluloid, like the material of the wonder of Hyatt has become known, carried its own whims. He was dazzling and voluntary, easy to transform into objects that were ivory, turtle or coral – but he was also very flammable. The newspapers and the memories of the time exchanged stories of combs which sang too quickly in a curling iron, or billiards that cracked with a ball pop when it is right. The very quality that made the celluloid so malleable also made it volatile, a reminder that even the first plastic was as much alchemy as dangerous.
Plastics as conservation success
When the plastic came on the scene for the first time, it was celebrated as a breakthrough. Early plastics were presented in the form of rarity solutions and as durable and affordable substitutes for wood, shell and bones.
The Second World War marked the turning point of plastic as a novelty in need. The niche material previously has suddenly become essential for the war effort: light nylon for parachutes, plexiglass for plane windows, polyethylene for radar insulation.
The necessity in wartime has led to rapid innovation, an increase in production and diversification applications. At the end of the war, plastics had proven itself not only as substitutes for rare natural materials, but also to strength, sustainability and higher cost. This momentum only made peacetime. In the middle of the 20th century, plastics had become central to packaging, fashion and household items, accelerating a culture of convenience and disposition. While global ivory prohibitions and other natural materials are installed, plastic has become the undisputed defect.
An abundant world, a world of waste
Over time, the very qualities that have rendered revolutionary plastic, also fueled its transformation into one of the most omnipresent pollutants on the planet. This started as an intelligent material solution and a nod to conservationist thought would evolve towards an cornerstone of modern consumption culture over the next 100 years.
“In the 1950s, we had reached” the era of life to throw “,” explains Melissa Valliant, director of communications for Beyond Plastics. “What had to be a good thing because convenience was a luxury. It was something only the rich could really appreciate, and now the middle class was able to spend more time with the family. It was considered this wonderful material, until people start to notice all pollution in their streets and in their waterways. ”
Companies, suspicious of being held responsible for the growing waste crisis, turned to a new strategy: to change the blame. The coalitions of the industry have paid millions into brilliant advertising campaigns, persuading the public that the real problem was not mass production but individual behavior – that if people simply recycle more diligently, the problem would disappear.
This cultural adoption of the provision was deliberate. The advertisements of the 1950s and 60s celebrated families throwing plates and cups in the air, praising the marvel of “single use”. The convenience was marketed as the absence of chore, a symbol of modernity.
But companies already knew that recycling could not keep the pace of the growing tide of waste. In the 1970s, documents in the internal industry revealed what many scientists had already suspected: recycling would never be enough.
“The documents have exposed this truth, but the companies were and are, worried about their pockets,” explains Valliant. “And that is why we are here in 2025 with a massive crisis of plastic pollution.”
This crisis is driven by an unprecedented increase in production. Since 1950, plastic manufacturing has increased by more than 200 times and should again almost triple by 2060, exceeding a billion tonnes per year.
The result is a world covered with waste. The researchers estimate that more than 8 billion tonnes of plastic have accumulated on the planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest ocean trench. Today, the residue is everywhere: microplastics in the oceans, in the ground, in the food we eat and in our blood circulation.
The cost of convenience
Although plastic may seem at low cost on the shelf, its real price is amazing. Researchers estimate that plastic is responsible for at least 1.5 billion of dollars in damages related to health each year in the world. More than 16,000 chemicals are known to be used in plastics or involuntarily in plastics.
Scientists have linked chemicals associated with plastic with cancer, damage caused by the nervous system, hormonal disturbances, fertility problems, and now even at increased risk of heart attack, stroke and premature death. A recent study suggests that the average human brain now houses as much microplastic mass as a plastic spoon. And the exhibition begins very early, as microplastics and nanoplastics were detected in newborns.
“Essentially, humans are now born pre-polluted,” notes Valliant. “It is completely worrying – and there are so many things that we don’t even know. I see plastic and its associated chemicals like lead: we may not fully achieve the extent of the problem until it is too late. ”
[ Related: Plastic makers lied about recycling for decades. What do we do next? ]
And the costs are not also worn. Valliant stresses that if companies often defend their dependence on plastic by calling it affordable, this assertion ignores hidden costs. Black communities and low-income living near plastic production sites, she notes, bring the weight of pollution by higher medical bills and chronic health problems. And finally, adds Valliant, the consequences on health extend to everyone, no matter where they live.
“There is another paradox,” notes Valliant. “As a taxpayers, we are those who place the invoice for cleaning all this plastic waste. It is not the companies that produce it – it is us. We pay transport, recycling, discharge, incineration, all this. ”
But “there are reasons of hope,” she said.
All over the world, governments are starting to slow down unnecessary single -use plastics, bags and straws with foam containers and hotel toilet bottles, while some are legal action against the companies that do them.
“Individuals should not underestimate their power when it comes to encouraging these kinds of changes,” continues Valliant. “Their voice and activism can be the catalyst for their institution or their community of disposable practices. Beyond plastics, guides to help restaurants, dry cleaning companies and programs like meals on wheels stand out from single-use plastic and safer options for people and the environment. ”
At the same time, scientists are looking for more solutions: a study published today in the journal Nature communications Detailed a new type of plastic made from bamboo that competes with traditional plastics in strength and sustainability, but biodegrades in the ground within 50 days. The material can even be recycled in a closed loop while keeping most of its original force, signaling a potential jump to a truly durable design.
Associated with the growing transition to reuse and recharge systems in communities and businesses, Valliant stressed that solutions to the plastic crisis are not in a single material, but in the collective imagination to build another type of future. Whoever learns from Plastic’s past and recovers what he was supposed to offer: innovation at the service of the planet, not at his expense.
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