Did you know the first man-made plastic was created by Alexander Parkes, who publicly demonstrated it at the 1862 Great International Exhibition in London?
The material called Parkesine was an organic material derived from cellulose that once heated could be molded, and retained its shape when cooled.
Plastic has become the ultimate defining substance of our synthetic century.
This is because plastic combines the
20th-century characteristics of
artificiality, disposability, and synthesis.