Why Polylactic Acid And Polypropylene

Polymers a large molecules made up of a chain of smaller molecules, known as monomers. The monomers that a polymer is made up of decide its structure and therefore it's function. These monomers are linked and coiled in a very specific manor giving the polymer a specific tertiary structure (an extensively coiled and linked polymer chain caused as a result of the formation of more bonds forming). This tertiary structure is crucial to the function of a polymer as it denotes the necessary shape of the complementary molecule. This is easier explained through an example.

There are many impacts that bottled water has on the environment. The choice of packaging determines many impacts. The bottles, which are either plastic, aluminum, or glass, that are not recycled are thrown into landfills and buried. According to the Container Recycling Institute, 86% of plastic water bottles in the United States become garbage. If water bottlers would have used 10% recycled materials in their plastic bottles in 2004, they would have saved the equivalent of 72 million gallons of gasoline. If they used 25%, they would have saved enough energy to power more than 680,000 homes for a year (Jemmott, 2008). Incinerating used bottles produces toxins such as chlorine gas and ash. Water bottles that get buried can take up to thousands of years to biodegrade. The most common type of plastic is polyethylene

To keep it as simple as possible, (K.I.S.S.) this topic involves the study of: 1. POLYMERS FROM PETROCHEMICALS & BIOMASS

Then Oil mention Bisphenol A or BPA is used to make polycarbonate plastic which is now banned in Canada and European Union (Bridge and Le Billon, pg. 81). Also, some countries of the world are banning or put some sort of tax on plastics. This makes one to wonder why these countries are reducing or stop using plastic all together. Of course it might be that they see the health and environmental issues behind using plastic products. This causes the mass production of plastic bottles and now they are everywhere.

Polymers are formed through a process of polymerisation reactions (10), the most common reaction types being addition and condensation reactions (10). In an addition polymerisation reaction (Figure 1), double-bonded hydrocarbons (alkenes) react together to break their double bonds and covalently bond to form monomers (10). Highly branched molecules have the inability to 'line up' with one another which causes an amorphous solid, which does not have a predictable arrangement or repeating pattern (10). Long-chain molecules have regular and repeating structure which causes cyrstallinity, due to the increased attraction of intermolecular forces (10). Condensation reactions occur when a hydrocarbon molecule also contains oxygen, where two functional groups containing hydrogen are present on each molecule (10). These molecules form a dimer when attached together which then combine to create a polymer, and results in a water product

PET(Polyethylene Terephthalate) vs PLA(Polylactide), which one is better or worse than the other? Both of these polymer is used in the world today. PET is perhaps the more famous one because of its cheap prices and many uses. 30 % of the global demand for PET happens to be plastic bottles. PLA the other type of polymer is just now gaining momentum being used as a bottle in the market today. It is derived from renewable resources (corn) that we can regrow a lot easier than the polymer that we harvest from trees. In my opinion I think there are a few more pros for PET then there are for PLA.

Plastic water bottles cause pollution in the earth. Pollution is not good to breath in, it could lead to severe lung damage. Pollution is also really bad for the earth. If we keep polluting our planet, it will be bad for future generations and the world will not look like the way it looks now. We should quit polluting the earth now because pollution can even kill plants and any types of animals.

Many water bottle companies have begun to make cap sizes smaller to attempt to use less plastic. One company in particular makes their bottles entirely out of plants. Environmental Leader said, “A new trend emerging in the bottled water market is bio-plastic bottles made 100 percent from plants, as opposed to the mixed composition bottles that came out in recent years. The latest eco-bottles come from Green Planet Bottling and Keystone Water Company.” This recent advance places water bottles on the road for a more eco-friendly future. The “plant- bottles” themselves are now biodegradable causing them not to pile up in

“One of the biggest challenges facing the bottled water industry is how to respond to the environmental claims levelled against it” (Grocer). Every time someone throws a bottle away, they have taken up more space in a landfill for the next four hundred fifty to one thousand years. Besides the long decomposition rate, water bottles are the cause of several more environmental issues. Overfilling landfills, health hazards caused by refilling, and the economic stresses due to the constant and inconvenient repurchasing are just a few of the negatives water bottles have on us. These plastic pollutants are doing more harm to both the environment and their users than good.

One very common argument against bottled water is the safety concern with the plastic not being biodegradable. A quick and easy solution, glass but it is not practical. Glass brings its own problems, as in breaking. Back when glass water bottled were a major product, injuries caused by glass was at a all time high. Charles Fager informs his readers by writing “ Their broken remnants are the cause of thousands of serious injuries each year, especially in poorer neighborhoods, which is the main reason they were largely replaced by plastic bottles in the first place” ( 1 ). As companies advance, the argument of water bottles not being biodegradable is becoming false. These companies are starting to make “plant bottles,” which has plants infused into the plastic, making the product thinner and easier for the environment to break down. But recycling bottles are still the best choice.

Drinking water from a plastic bottle gained an enormous amount of popularity for two specific reasons. Firstly, the marketers of bottle water had convinced the general public that it was much cleaner, clearer, tastier and healthier than regular tap water was. Secondly, the water bottles were undoubtedly

Plastic water bottles are seen and consumed everywhere. Without knowing the deadly effects that water bottles have on the environment, consumers will keep buying them and contribute to the problem. About 17 million barrels of oil are used each year solely to make water bottles

Since its mass-production, plastics became a part of everyday living because of its versatility. The usage of plastic ranged from food containers to electronic components and humanity had become so reliant on plastic that it is unaware of the potential downsides of this versatile material, particularly the chemicals in the plastic that could be potentially harmful to humans. Bisphenol-A, or BPA, is one of such chemicals which is used in resins to line containers and one of the most notable sources of BPA is plastic bottles, a widely used liquid container that can be found just about anywhere in industrialized societies (Raloff 2007). However, there was debate on whether or not BPA is harmful and government agencies had reported that the low amount of BPA in plastic containers is not a major threat to human health thus the general public should not be overly concerned (Raloff 2007). However, scientists and researchers were looking into the properties of BPA through various experiments, uncovering negative effects of the chemical’s exposure, and unveiling to the general public about how the widespread use of plastics in daily life could potentially affect them.

Polymer scientists have been trying hard to mimic this feature for the last twenty years creating called smart polymers. These are defined as polymers that go through reversible large, physical or chemical changes in response to small external changes in the environmental conditions, such as temperature, pH, light, magnetic or electric field, ionic factors, biological molecules, etc. Smart polymers have very promising applications in the biomedical field as delivery systems of therapeutic agents, tissue engineering scaffolds, cell culture supports, bioseparation devices, sensors or actuators systems.

In these days, development of polymer composites is one of the most active research area in the field of nanomaterials. The composite consists of a matrix and a reinforcement (filler), these are combined in such a way that it enhance property as compared to the individual constituents. The property of composite material (matrix +filler) significantly depends on the mixture ratio between the matrix and nanofiller. Most commercially produced composites uses a polymer matrix material often called as resin solution. Type of composites contain polymer as a matrix known as polymer matrix. Most common polymer used as matrix are: polycarbonate, polyurethane, polyester, vinyl ester, epoxy, phenolic, polyimide, polyamide, polypropylene, PEEK, and others.