A brief history of plastic

A brief history of plastic with tags plastic, plastic waste, recycling, plastic recycling, inventions, invention of plastic, ivory, billiard balls, elephant tusks, john wesley hyatt, celluloid, polymers, synthetic material, plastic pollution, ocean pollution, acrylics, plastics century, one use plastic, plastic packaging, climate change, landfills, global warming, biodegradable plastic, sharon coleman, education, animation, history, ted, ted-ed, ted ed, teded, ted education

Trace the history of the invention of plastic, and how the material ushered in what became known as the plastics century.

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For centuries, billiard balls were made of ivory from elephant tusks. But when excessive hunting caused elephant populations to decline, they began to look for alternatives. John Wesley Hyatt took up the challenge. In five years, he invented a new material called celluloid, which would become known as the first plastic. Trace the history of the material that ushered in the “plastics century.”

Directed by Sharon Colman.

Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Joe Giamartino, Filip Dabrowski, Barbara Smalley, Megan Douglas, Tim Leistikow, Andrés Melo Gámez, Renhe Ji, Ka-Hei Law, Michal Salman, Peter Liu, Mark Morris, Catherine Sverko, Misaki Sato, Tan YH, Ph.D., Rodrigo Carballo, SookKwan Loong, Bev Millar, Merit Gamertsfelder, Lex Azevedo, Noa Shore, Taylor Hunter, Kyle Nguyen, MJ Tan Mingjie, Cristóbal Moenne, Goh Xiang Ting Diana, Kevin Wong, Dawn Jordan, Yanira Santamaria, Prasanth Mathialagan, Savannah Scheelings, Susan Herder, Samuel Doerle, David Rosario, Dominik Kugelmann, Siamak H, Tracey Tobkin, Dwight Tevuk, Anthony Kudolo, Mrinalini, Yanuar Ashari, Ivan Todorović, Alex Schenkman, Brittiny Elman, Ryohky Araya, Paul Coupe, David Douglass, Ricardo Paredes, Bill Feaver, Eduardo Briceño and Arturo De Leon.