Losing The War
The uses of plastic are manifold, but as it is almost indestructible, it is time to find ways to get rid of it.
The term plastics came to be used only around 1925, but what we call plastic today was invented either in 1839, 1862 or 1909, depending on how you to choose to define it. In 1839, German chemist Eduard Simon discovered polystyrene when he isolated it from natural resin. However, it was in 1922 that another organic chemist, Hermann Staudinger, realised what Simon had discovered was a long chain polymer. Staudinger would go on to win a Noble Prize for his work on polymers while polystyrene would find its use in synthetic tyres and Styrofoam (yes, the same stuff you get your coffee in).
Many chemists consider English
