[electronic beeping]
[static fizzling]
[indistinct chattering]
[female narrator] Disneyland, 1957.
An intriguing house of the future opens its doors to the public.
[man] A work surface that includes a combination supersonic dishwasher
and storage unit.
A family food center to store atomically irradiated food.
[narrator] What's really futuristic is that the whole place is plastic.
[man] A four-wing plastic shell makes a snug and solid five-room dwelling,
designed for a family of four.
[narrator] In the ten years it's open,
20 million visitors take a peek at the future.
But when it comes to taking it down,
the house proves almost impossible to demolish.
They have to use demolition cables to break it into tiny pieces,
an early omen of the challenge plastics will become.
The thing is,
almost every piece of plastic ever made still exists today.
[squawking]
In 2015, the world produces 322 million tons of plastic,
enough to fill every skyscraper in New York City.
But consider this: in the 60 years since mass production began,
we've produced 7.8 billion tons of plastic waste.
That's every New York skyscraper 23 times over.
Yet without plastics, there is no modern world.
No medicine, no computers, communications, or travel.
We can't live without them. Can we live with them?
This jet necklace, madam, is Bakelite resinoid.
We consider it equal, if not better, than the natural mineral.
It's beautiful! And how light.
And so smooth and warm to the touch.
[narrator] Bakelite, the first fully-synthetic man-made plastic.
It doesn't just look good. It's super light, super strong,
heat resistant, and doesn't conduct electricity.
So a great insulator
that can be molded into just about anything.
During the first half of the 20th century,
most radios, telephones, household gadgets, plates,
and saucers, even textiles, all contain Bakelite.
It really is a game changer.
It's so strong that a seven-passenger car can be hung on a one-inch rod of it.
-An engineer told me that. -Hmm.
[narrator] It's all thanks to the American inventor Leo Baekeland.
He came up with the word "plastics," from a Greek word, "plastikós,"
meaning "to mold or shape."
In 1907, he mixes the chemical phenol, from petroleum,
with formaldehyde, an alcohol.
He adds some fillers, heats it up, and voilà,
big breakthrough with plastics, Bakelite.
A weird word. But way easier to say than the scientific name,
polyoxybenzylmethylengylcolanhydride.
It's like a fine piece of amber.
[narrator] An easy mistake to make.
Baekeland had been inspired by the plastics that occur in nature...
such as amber.
So what is plastic, exactly?
All plastics are made of molecules called "monomers" containing carbon.
Using chemical reactions or additives, the monomers are linked together,
a bit like a bike chain, and they become polymers,
different plastics.
There's two types:
thermoplastics, which soften when heated and can be recycled,
like carpets, clothes, and furniture,
and thermosets, which, once molded and rigid, stay that way,
like electrical fittings, work surfaces, or car bodies.
We've been using nature's plastics for millennia.
Latex from rubber trees has been used since ancient times
to make baskets and clothes waterproof.
Tortoiseshell and rhino horn, yes, they're actually plastic,
have been used for centuries in making jewelry and weapons.
The difference with man-made plastics like Bakelite
is that they're largely based on fossil fuels like oil
and manufactured chemically in a lab.
As plastic technology evolves in the early 1900s,
new industries like car manufacturers make the most of this new material.
They use it everywhere,
as insulation for electric wires, spark plug caps, and light fittings,
all of which make the cars much safer.
[man] But the old-fashioned glass treated under this new invention
only gives you an old-fashioned headache.
[narrator] Plastics become so important in cars,
pioneer Henry Ford even comes up with a new way of making the stuff.
He turns to natural oil from soybeans and corn.
In 1941, he shows off a new prototype car
made mostly of soybean-based plastic.
Twenty-five percent lighter than metal, it's stunningly fuel efficient.
But Ford can't pursue the project, because history steps in.
The world faces more pressing priorities.
World War II speeds up the progress of plastic.
The Allies need it to make fighting machines more efficient.
Metal, steel, copper, aluminum, and zinc are all in short supply.
There's not much natural rubber, either.
Southeast Asia is occupied by the Japanese.
So plastics become a substitute for traditional manufacturing materials.
To cope with the demands of wartime,
petrochemical companies build massive new plants,
turning crude oil into plastic.
It's used in planes and tanks
to make gearwheels, synthetic rubber tires,
parachutes, and ropes, all made from nylon.
[man] This paratrooper, floating down to welcome Mother Earth,
is depending on plastics to get him there safely.
[narrator] Plastic plays a huge part in helping the Allies win the war.
[big band music playing]
With the Nazis beaten,
the United States is now in a great position
to take the lead in plastics production.
It owns two-thirds of the world's manufacturing capacity.
The plastics industry comes of age,
turning from war to peace, from fighting to fun.
[man] Here's a pair being tried on during office hours.
Men will of course be observing the lack of wrinkles round the foot.
[narrator] Plastics are about to conquer the world.
It's the dawn of a consumer explosion.
[rock 'n' roll music playing]
In 1945, most people had never heard of a television.
But, by 1949, as plastic makes TVs cheaper,
Americans buy 100,000 a week.
Between 1955 and 1965,
42% of Americans rely on condoms for birth control.
And in 1965, the symbol of everything plastic
also arrives: the plastic bag.
Today, the world uses about 500 billion plastic bags a year,
a million a minute.
[jazz music playing]
Through the '40s, '50s, and '60s, the plastic revolution begins.
[man 1] Ann has her own system when she prepares salads and other foods.
She just covers them with clear plastic film.
[man 2] Every record is made with the same high-fidelity standards.
[man 3] In the world of tomorrow, plastics will certainly call the tune.
[classical piano music playing]
[narrator] These postwar decades are when plastic becomes a lifestyle.
[woman] The one way to buy Tupperware is a fun way: at a Tupperware home party.
[man] Nowadays, everything can be made in plastic,
turning a huge sheet of plastic into a boat in nine minutes flat.
The extras are optional.
And there's no need to worry about running on the rocks. This new boat will take it.
[narrator] By the end of the '60s, plastic even makes it off-planet.
That flag Neil Armstrong plants on the moon, nylon.
Here's where plastic really goes through the roof.
[man] Beautiful, just beautiful.
[narrator] In 1950, the world produces 1.5 million tons of plastic,
about 60 oil tankers.
By the middle of the 1960s,
production has rocketed to about 25 million tons,
around 1,000 oil tankers.
In the 1970s, it doubles, reaching about 50 million tons,
nearly 2,000 oil tankers.
Roughly the same weight as the Empire State Building
140 times over.
[man] Coca-Cola has the taste you never get tired of.
Always refreshing.
[narrator] In 1975,
when Coke and Pepsi decide
it's time to replace their famous glass bottles
with something a little cheaper...
chemists come up with the answer...
the PET soda bottle.
Nothing to do with cute animals.
PET is short for polyethylene terephthalate.
It's strong enough to hold pressurized drinks.
But more importantly, it can be recycled,
used again and again to make more bottles cheaply.
It swiftly becomes the most popular form of packaging.
-[zapping] -[beeping]
It isn't until the start of the 1980s
that the world wakes up to the big problem with plastics.
Our addiction to the stuff has created an environmental catastrophe.
How do we get rid of something that's virtually indestructible...
and yet so cheap, we just throw it away?
Scientists estimate it takes around 450 years
for one plastic bottle to break down naturally.
But that's only a guess. We don't actually know.
Plastic doesn't degrade like other materials,
because it's man-made.
It comes from monomers of propylene,
linked together by extremely strong carbon-carbon bonds.
There is nothing like that in nature,
so nature has no idea of how to break it down.
As a result, plastic pollution
is one of the biggest environmental threats we face.
[squawking]
To confront the growing problem, toward the end of the 1980s,
recycling begins to take off,
as manufacturers come up with better ways to dispose of the stuff.
Those three recycling plastic arrows first appear in 1988.
And recycling changes how we look at plastic.
Just one plastic bottle saves enough energy
to power a 60-watt light bulb for three hours.
[dinging]
Nineteen PET plastic bottles
saves enough fiber to make one big T-shirt.
Recycling one ton of plastic saves over 1,000 gallons of gas.
And it creates jobs.
In the US, over 700,000 people work in the recycling business.
But one of the biggest benefits of recycling:
it takes 88% less energy to make plastics this way
than using raw materials.
But the truth is,
recycling is a long way from working.
Globally, only 19.9% of all plastic thrown away is recycled.
Still, plastic is an addiction we just cannot kick.
As we enter the 1990s,
our whole lives are shaped by plastic.
Your home only exists thanks to plastic.
The plumbing, the furniture,
the lighting systems, all plastic.
It's the same for your TV, sound system, and kitchen gadgets.
Your health also depends on plastic.
Surgeons in modern operating rooms
perform more effectively thanks to plastic.
Plastic artificial joints, pioneered in the 1960s,
get even better in the 1990s as tougher polymers become available.
By replacing that damaged articular cartilage
with artificial materials, such as metal or plastic, reduces the pain.
[narrator] Most medical research,
whether creating life or defeating disease,
couldn't happen without plastic.
It literally saves our lives.
[beeping]
Every year, 600,000 people live longer
thanks to pacemakers insulated with plastic.
Car seat belts with plastic webbing cut the risk of being killed by 45%.
Each year, defibrillators, delivering high-energy electric shocks to the heart,
save 30,000 lives in the UK alone.
Globally, more than 10 million people
benefit from 3D-printed plastic hearing aids.
And worldwide,
around 35 million diabetics are kept alive
thanks to disposable plastic syringes.
Plastics also protect our heroes.
Since the 1980s, Nomex and Kevlar-treated clothing
help firefighters and search and rescue teams save lives
and stay alive themselves.
[indistinct chattering]
And since 1987, body armor made from Kevlar,
one of the toughest plastics ever made,
has saved the lives of 3,100 American police officers.
[indistinct shouting]
It helps our sports heroes perform better.
Check out this 2007 ski suit.
It absorbs all the impact energy
through the rate-sensitive intelligent molecules,
which are in the suit.
[narrator] Plastic has an impact on everything we do,
making our lives much better.
But our failure to dispose of used plastic is killing the planet.
So how do we solve this dilemma?
We're not just burying plastics in landfills, which is bad enough.
We're swamping our oceans with it.
Between 8 to 12 million tons of plastic are dumped into the sea each year,
roughly a garbage truck every minute.
There are five massive areas in the oceans
where tides and currents have created giant, floating plastic garbage dumps.
The largest, called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch,
is twice the size of Texas.
There might be 80,000 to 100,000 tons of plastic in this area alone.
And it's not just ugly. It's deadly.
Every year, plastic kills over 100,000 marine animals
and a million sea birds.
Some see the plastic as food and eat it.
They're poisoned as toxins build up in their bodies.
But there's so much plastic in the sea, they can't escape it.
At the rate we're going,
by 2050, there will be more plastics in our oceans than fish.
In an ominous development, even we are becoming plastic.
Research in 2018 shows microplastics have been found in human waste.
How it gets there is unclear.
It might be from packaging, clothes, furniture, or carpets.
Whether it's medically dangerous, it's too soon to say.
But plastic pollution is so widespread,
we might all be ingesting a credit card's worth of plastic a week.
Solutions are needed, and they're starting to come.
Giant companies like Adidas
are moving towards using 100% recyclable plastic in their sneakers.
A host of smaller firms
are making handbags and clothes out of recycled plastics.
Even more radical solutions are in the pipeline.
What about chemicals or enzymes that could actually eat plastic?
[man] Discovery of the enzyme is amazing.
Something that can eat plastic, that normally takes 400 years to degrade,
the bacteria are starting to eat this in a matter of days.
[whirring]
[narrator] Today, most plastics are still based on petroleum,
which is why they're not biodegradable.
So they don't break down in the earth.
But perhaps there are different, friendlier ways plastics can be made.
As Henry Ford first tried to show us in 1941,
you can make plastics out of natural plant oils,
and those plastics do decay back into the Earth.
Recently, scientists have begun working along similar lines,
experimenting with algae to develop a new type of biodegradable plastic.
These microorganisms create a bioplastics polymer
that's much less toxic and that degrades more quickly
than synthetic plastics.
They're also looking at plants, like switchgrass, oilseed,
and sugarcane, to produce natural polymers.
These could all be part of future solutions.
[squawking]
The miracle of plastic comes at a high price.
Our lives depend on it,
but how we dispose of it threatens the planet.
If we can wean ourselves off plastic that is not essential
and use biodegradable versions where we can,
we might just find a way to have the best of all worlds...
or at least save this one.
[electronic music playing]