At the end of this process, we have a mixed plastic composite many different types of plastics and many different grades of plastics.

And in the process, we started recreating how the plastics industry makes plastics.

So some of you may know about the chemical Bisphenol A, BPA.

i have a cap from plastic

Plastic does not burn easily.

Plastic does not break easily.

Those with more complex structures are often more toxic than the simple phenol.

Capt. Charles Moore on the seas of plastic

They store the plastics on the roofs.

Sesamol is a natural organic compound which is a component of sesame oil.

And these are just a few examples of companies that are buying our plastic, replacing virgin plastic, to make their new products.

In contrast to phenolics, quaternary ammonium compounds are not very effective in the presence of organic compounds.

Mike Biddle We can recycle plastic

And this becomes the currency of the plastics industry.

And sometimes they'll resort to what's known as the burn and sniff technique where they'll burn the plastic and smell the fumes to try to determine the type of plastic.

Now because the plastics are so plentiful and by the way, those other methods don't lead to the recovery of plastics, obviously but people do try to recover the plastics.

(2008), Wastewaters from fossil fuel refining, pharmaceuticals, and pesticides are the main sources of phenolic compounds.

Eben Bayer Are mushrooms the new plastic?

This discovery formed the foundation of the modern plastics industry.

Monitoring of compliance with no dumping regulations for plastics

It's mostly many types of plastics and many types of metals.

We grind the plastic down to about the size of your small fingernail.

Prepackaged meals may come with a disposable plastic spork.

The traditional way to make plastics is with oil or petrochemicals.

They manufacture plastics. They use large quantities chloroprene and benzene.

But bioplastics are not a silver bullet for managing plastics waste.

Similarly, the mixer housing can be made of metal or plastic.

But actually, plastics are several times more valuable than steel.

We said, there's got to be a more sustainable way to make plastics.

It's a bad thing that plastic breaks down into smaller little bits, because it's always still plastic.

And instead of plopping down several hundred million dollars to build a chemical plant that will only make one type of plastic for its entire life, our plants can make any type of plastic we feed them.

virA codes for a receptor which reacts to the presence of phenolic compounds such as acetosyringone, syringealdehyde or acetovanillone which leak out of damaged plant tissues.

will never gather up all the plastic and put the ocean back together again.

Plastics are a whole other story well less than 10 percent are recovered.

NEWARK, NJ Plastics are everywhere.

And they said this one friend of mine said, I've got one word for you plastic.

The waste is separated into recyclable materials (plastics, metals) and organic waste.

Button copy signs with plastic pips rather than glass appeared in the 1970s.

In 1989, OMV acquired a 25 stake in plastics group, Borealis.

But the process of separating the petroleum based recyclable plastics from other kinds of plastics and solid waste is difficult, costly, and labor intensive, so only a small proportion is recycled.

Plastics have overlapping densities over a very narrow range.

Or they burn the plastics to get to the metals in burn houses like you see here.

Upon educating myself a little further about plastics, I actually realized this was a bad thing.

These are usually made from plastic and are often shaped like an animal or other familiar objects.

This form of torture consists in covering the head with a plastic bag to cause asphyxia.