PDF chapter test TRY NOW
Carbon compounds in daily life:
- It is not easy to imagine our daily lives without carbon compounds. We use a large variety of carbon compounds to make our lives easier and more pleasant.
- These include carbon-based fuels, carbon nanomaterials, plastics, carbon filters, carbon steel, and other carbon-based compounds.
- Although carbon and its compounds are essential for modern life, some chemicals, such as (CO), cyanide, and some plastics, are toxic to humans.
Let us learn about how plastics play an important role in our everyday life as-well-as their negative impact on the environment.
Plastics - Catenated long-chain carbon compounds:
Plastics are a significant class of catenated organic carbon compounds. They are made from long-chain organic compounds called ‘Polymer resins’ with chemical additives with different properties.
Different types of polymers are used to make various plastics.
Plastics are convenient, cheap, and used in health care, transport and food safety, smartphones, computers, and the internet. As a result, plastic has given our society more benefits; but, these benefits have come at a cost.
Disadvantages of plastics:
- Plastics take a very prolonged time to decompose in nature.
- The microbes that break down plastic is insufficient to deal with the number of plastics we produce.
- A vast of plastic is not recycled and thus pollutes the environment.
- Some plastics contain harmful chemicals additives that are hazardous to human health.
- Plastic burning emits poisonous gases that are damaging to our health and contribute to climate change.
- Single-use and disposable plastics end up littering and polluting the environment.
- It would help to determine which plastics are hazardous if you first learn 'plastics' secret "language" (resin codes).
Plastics disadvantages
Register for free to see more content