Did you know that most plastics are manufactured from petroleum. Petroleum is the end product of thousands of years of decay of previously living-organisms. We all know that plastic bottles are not biodegradable and it is actually funny that plastic indirectly comes from a once-living organism.
Most plastic bottles and other plastic products are made from propylene. Propylene is a simple chemical component of petroleum. If propylene is heated up in the presence of a catalyst(a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself undergoing any permanent chemical change)individual chemical units link together by forming strong carbon-carbon bonds with each other and results in polymers long chains of monomers called polypropylene.
This specific product is not known to nature, and organisms that decompose organic matter, do not recognize the plastic and ignores this product in the soil.
How long does it take for plastic to decompose?
Surprisingly a plastic bottle can take between 450 and 1000 years to decompose, if ever. Sad to think that we are destroying the earth daily because we buy plastic bottles as well as plastic containers on an everyday basis. Even normal rubbish is stored in plastic bags and these take just as long to decompose.
Why do factories create plastic containers?
Plastic containers is very cost effective to make. Because it has such a long lifespan, plastic can be used over and over again. It can be melted again and can be resold. If this was not done, it would be safe to say that every single plastic bottle is still somewhere on earth.
What happens after recycling?
Most of us recycle. We feel good about ourselves if we do, because we are helping to save the earth.We have these bins everywhere to split the paper, plastic and glass from each other, but what actually happens after we recycle? Have you ever thought about that? Many plastic bottles are melted again, but this is in fact very harmful to the environment. When plastic is burned harmful amounts of dioxins- highly toxic to humans are emitted.
What can we do with plastic bottles?
While I was doing research I've come across a few ideas that could help with this big plastic bottle issue. Apart from the fact that we should all stop buying plastic bottles, we should start re-using these bottles more than once.
I also had my kids in class do a few projects and I asked them to create usable things with plastic bottles. Some of the kids were very creative and some of the projects that stood out were the following: These pictures are merely examples of the products the students made.
- Water sprayer connected to a hosepipe to water the garden.
- Piggy banks to save money
Even though these were cool, the best idea ever - and I was not aware that it could be done- were the project about plastic houses built for humans to live in. How amazing would it not be if this could become a new trend and people could actually start using plastic bottles to build houses instead of polluting the earth! Look at this!
This is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen and I think one of the best inventions ever.
The plastic bottles are filled with sand and then used as bricks instead of normal bricks. The rest of the process of building is basically the same as building a normal house.
Do you realize how much less pollution there would be?
I would live in a plastic house...would you?
I still don't understand why there are still so many homes and schools that don't recycle! It has become so important for our survival! Thanks for a good read, definitly going to be using my next bottle as a sprayer (since mine has gone walk about)!
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STOPThanks for sharing more details on the chemical makeup of plastics @andreajane! It's interesting to gather more insight into the origins of the household goods we take for granted.
To others perusing this post, if you're hungry for more information on these types of houses, I'd recommend checking out...
For a general overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship Videos by Earthship Biotecture: https://www.youtube.com/user/earthship
I tried making one of these houses myself using recycled tires as the base, and never got around to completing it with bottle-bricks. I'm sure kids in schools would enjoy seeing how to build their own house using much more accessible and earth-friendly materials -- so thank you @andreajane for fostering that creativity in them!