Sacred Heart Of Mary Girls’ School

Material Investigation
FACTS ABOUT PLASTICS INFORMATION PAGE 1

Plastics - Why is it such an amazing material? FACTS ABOUT

PLASTICS
There are 2 main element, and oil
Recycling a single plastic
groups of plastic, naturally has lots of
bottle can conserve enough
Thermoplastics & them. energy to light a 60W bulb for
Thermosetting Plastic recycling is up to 6 hours.
plastics. the process of 9.1 billion plastic bottles
recovering scrap or were disposed of in 2002 with
Once 'set', only 360 million of them being
waste plastics and
Thermosetting recycled.
reprocessing the
plastics cannot be In Britain we use about
material into useful
reheated to soften, 275,000 tonnes of plastic bottles
Plastic has fast products in our homes every year- that's
shape and mould.
become the most about 15 million bottles every
day.
used material, but Thermoplastics can
why is this? be re-heated and It takes about 450 years
just for one plastic bottle to
therefore shaped in
Plastics are break down in the ground!
various ways.
extremely versatile. An average 323 plastic
As plastics are Plastic is a bags are taken into our homes
Plastic products have every year and it takes 500
generally manmade, man-made product
a symbol on them to years to decay when sent to
this means we can that doesn’t occur landfill.
help identify the type
create a material naturally on its own. It takes about 25 recycled
of plastic they are,
with specific Almost all plastics plastic drinks bottles to make
this helps them be
properties. Plastics are made from oil by one fleece jacket.
recycled more easily.
can be strong, a special procedure Only 2.5% of plastic bottles
Next time you buy a
flexible and that changes the oil’s are presently recycled in Europe.
plastic item, look for
translucent. carbon. Carbon is an
the symbol.

Acrylic -This is the most common plastic in a school workshop. It is

purchased usually in the form of sheets and comes in a range of colours.
It can be translucent, transparent or opaque. It is resistant to most acids
and weather conditions.

Melamine Formaldehyde - Used in the production of plastic laminates

because of its smooth surface and hygienic qualities. It is also used in
electrical plugs and sockets because it can be cast and it is an excellent
insulator.

Polythene - This can be moulded into almost any form due to its excellent
moulding qualities. Used for the production of bottles, bowls, toys, tube
etc... It is available in large sheets. There are two types: High density
which is rigid and hard, and low density which is tough and flexible.

Injection moulding is a
manufacturing process for producing parts
from both thermoplastic and thermosetting
plastic materials. Material is fed into a
heated barrel, mixed, and forced into a
mould cavity where it cools and hardens to
the configuration of the mould cavity.