Thinking of using plastic in your project" Our latest Dezeen guide includes more than 11 types of plastic commonly used in architecture, design and interiors, with links to hundreds of projects for inspiration.
Plastics are among the most versatile materials in existence. Defined by their plasticity, they have long carbon chains called polymers at their backbone and can be moulded, extruded or cast into any desired shape from films to textile fibres.
They can be divided into thermosetting plastics, which never soften once moulded, and thermoplastics, which can be melted and reshaped, making them more suited to recycling.
Plastics "are a co-product of fossil fuels"
Although certain plastics ? such as rubber, which is derived from the rubber plant ? occur naturally, most modern plastics are synthetic and more than 99 per cent are derived from fossil fuels. This helps to make plastics more affordable than most other materials and sees them used to create millions of tonnes of single-use items every year.
"Part of why plastics are so cheap is that they are a co-product of fossil fuels," explained designer Charlotte McCurdy, who has created a bioplastic made from algae.
"Petroleum or natural gas is pumped out of the ground and at the refinery, it is broken up into different lengths of molecule and catalytically cracked into useful monomers."
79 per cent of all plastic is dumped in landfills
This refining process yields not just fuels such a...