Today, however, the image of plastics has changed. Plastics perform an extremely broad range of functions, from heart valves and artificial kidneys to ski boots, nonstick surfaces, supper glues, and spacecraft parts, and they compete with natural products in durability. No other materials expect plastics could perform all these different functions.
Plastics are replacing more and more parts of your car. The use of 1 lb of plastic can replace an average of 3.5 lb of metal in an automobile. An automobile with 400 lb of plastic substituted for metal will weigh about 1000lb less, which increases its gas mileage by about 3 mi/gal. The fuel savings are estimated to be about 160 million barrels of oil annually. That`s more than the total amount used by the chemical industry as raw materials to make the polymers. As another example, synthetic polymer fibers are commonly used in fabrics, for both economical and practical reasons. If the world`s synthetic fibers were replaced by cotton, this would require an additional 40 million acres of farmland.
Certainly the use of polymer plastics will increase. One can expect to find more applications in home construction and furniture because of the unlimited design freedom of plastics. Plastics will be used more in drink containers and food packaging. The 700 billion gallons of liquids consumed each year in the United States will find their way to the consumer more and more in plastic bottles. Diseased of malfunctioning parts of the body will be replaced by specialized plastic components to a greater degree. We are indeed becoming a plastic society.