A Plastic Post

April 11th, 2008 by lynnylchan under Uncategorized

Several semesters ago, I had to take a module on “Living With Chemistry”, and one of the topics covered was plastics. You might think plastic is just plastic, but there is a huge variety of plastics in this world, thanks to the genius of petrochemical engineers. A few molecules here, a branch chain there, and voila! New material generated.

One of those new materials is HDPE, which stands for High Density Polyethylene. It’s all around you, but you just didn’t know its name. Did you just buy a bottle of juice from Giant? Chances are, the bottle was made of HDPE. When you do laundry and you pour in some Dynamo, look at the bottom of the bottle where they stamp the plastic category. Yup, HDPE again. HDPE has a very high resistance to chemicals and water, so it’s commonly used for these purposes. There are even HDPE Nets, which is just one form that scrap HDPE can take. Contrary to popular belief, HDPE is actually a reusable material.

So please be a responsible Earthling, and separate your trash as much as possible so that it can be reused and recycled.