Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semisynthetic materials composed primarily of polymers. Their defining characteristic, plasticity, allows them to be molded, extruded, or pressed into a diverse range of solid forms.
Plastic products are prominent in the construction, transportation, and packaging industries. Plastic innovations contributed to many life-saving products that revolutionized the health care industry.
A major new report published today by The Pew Charitable Trusts and its partners, “Breaking the Plastic Wave 2025: An Assessment of the Global System and Strategies for Transformative Change,” finds that the scale and impact of plastic pollution is far worse than previously thought, with far-reaching consequences for the environment and human health and well-being.
Plastic is a word that originally meant “pliable and easily shaped.” It only recently became a name for a category of materials called polymers. The word polymer means “of many parts,” and polymers are made of long chains of molecules. Polymers abound in nature.
The meaning of PLASTIC is a plastic substance; specifically : any of numerous organic synthetic or processed materials that are mostly thermoplastic or thermosetting polymers of high molecular weight and that can be made into objects, films, or filaments.
Plastic pollution is already bad, and it’s only slated to get worse. A lot worse. A new analysis of the rising tide of plastic is the subject of today’s newsletter. Plus, a widely-referenced ...
UNEP supports governments, businesses, financial institutions, and other stakeholders in driving a just transition to a circular economy for plastics, helping to reduce plastic pollution and its impacts.