Narrator: The National Library of Medicine proudly presents:
Farmtastic Plastic.
Starring Polly Mer.
Join her on the farm to help build plastics.
Olivia: Time for Environmental Games!
I love these free games!
Polly Mer: Join me and help earthlings make good choices
about plastics.
Welcome to Farmtastic Plastic.
Our mission is to collect the goods to make plastics here on
the Plastic Farm.
Get Pickin'.
Olivia: Um, these aren't tomatoes?
Polly Mer: This is a plastic farm!
Those are monomers, or single chemical molecules used to build
long molecules called polymers.
Olivia: So all of these are different monomers!
There are so many types!
Polly Mer: Monomers are the building blocks of plastics.
They are used to make different types of plastics.
Let’s collect some.
Don’t forget the gold!
Yeehaw!
We have collected enough types to earn a star!
Narrator: Expand your Farm!
Collect 3 styrene, 3 isocyanate, and 3 polyethylglycol
Olivia: So much for free gaming.
Polly Mer: Let's check out that patch over there.
Olivia: These are big ones!
Polly Mer: Yes.
Monomers can be simple or complex - these monomers are
larger molecules with more atoms.
Olivia: Ethylene oxide and Bisphenol A!
Styrene and Dimethylteraphthalate!
Narrator: Want to build faster?
Get more monomer baskets!
Polly Mer: Sounds like a pretty good deal to me!
Olivia: Pushy aren’t they?
Looks like we’ve filled our basket again.
Narrrator: Congratulations!
You've unlocked the Polymerization Mill!
Olivia: Polymers?
Polly Mer: Polymers are just long chains of monomers that are
chemically connected through covalent bonds.
Covelant bonds are the strongest bonds between atoms.
Olivia: Um, they won't connect!
Polly Mer: That’s right!
Remember – plastics are SYNTHETIC polymers,
made of monomers combined through a chemical reaction,–
not naturally occurring in nature – but made by humans.
Humans discovered how to make plastics in 1856.
Olivia: Okay- but how do we get them to stick together?
Polly Mer: It depends!
Polymerization reactions need heat, pressure, or
the presence of a catalyst, another chemical, in order to
connect the monomers together to form polymers.
Olivia: So that’s why we need the Polymerization
Reaction Mill– it provides the things needed to
combine the monomers into polymers!
Polly Mer: Let’s try it.
This one is using the catalyst Titanium (III) chloride to
speed up the reaction – grab some ethene monomers!
Olivia: Wow- ethene monomers are expensive to produce!
Narrator: Polymerizing
Olivia: Ugh! We have to wait.
Polly Mer: Time to browse the Monomer pellet catalog!
Limited edition monomers - Only $1.99.
Olivia: I thought my Biology teacher told me we have polymers
in our bodies – we don’t have plastic in us though, do we?
Polly Mer: (laughing) No Plastic.
We do have NATURAL polymers– occurring in nature without
human intervention- things like DNA, Protein, and
polysaccharides, a type of sugar.
These are all natural polymers made of various
natural monomers.
They require cellular energy and enzymes to catalyze those
polymerization reactions.
Narrator: 1 hour sale!
Olivia: Yeah, nothing predatory going on here at all...
Look! It's done!
Olivia: Oh look- they are all stuck together now-
I can’t pull them apart!
Oh I see- the double bonds from the monomers are now
just single bonds!
That’s how the monomers were able to stick together:
the double bond in the monomer is broken and
a single chemical bond is formed between the monomers.
Polly Mer: Yep- a covalent bond- very strong.
This is polyethene sometimes called polyethylene.
Even though it’s a polymer now, it’s named after
the monomer molecule ethene.
Olivia: But what if I used a different monomer?
Polly Mer: You’d make a different polymer.
Polymers can be made of only one type of monomer – or different
repeating types of monomers.
Olivia: Wait a second – this is just like a string-
how is this plastic??
How does this hold soda pop?
Narrator: Come play in our other game world!
Poly Mer: Plastics, as most people think of them—soda bottles,
furniture, phone cases—are just lots of those little strands
next to each other.
How they are held together though defines the two
Thermoplastics and Thermosets.
Thermoplastics are sheets of polymer strands held together
through weak intermolecular bonds.
When heated – the strands separate – the plastic melts,
and can be remolded into different shapes.
These types of plastics can be truly recycled
into something else.
Thermoset plastics – are held together through strong covalent
chemical bonds between the molecules of one strand and
another-created through a process called cross-linking--
this makes a very strong matrix that won’t melt when heated.
It also means that you can’t make a new item
out of those plastics.
You can repurpose the plastic by chopping it into
small pieces- but it will never melt.
Olivia: Okay- so the thermoplastics are like
ice cubes- I can melt them and refreeze them into different
shapes whereas the thermosets are like a raw egg –
once I cook it- it can never be a raw egg again
Polly Mer: Exactly!
Narrator: Make the thermoplastic:
Polyvinylchloride, PVC!
Olivia: Here we go!
Narrator: Make your PVC Blue!
Olivia: I hadn’t thought about that-
plastics do come in all colors.
Narrator: Make your plastic more light weight!
Add some filler!
Polly Mer: Fillers make the plastic lighter, reduce costs,
stabilize, and sometimes make them somewhat fire proof.
Narrator: Your PVC is too brittle!
Plasticize it!
Olivia: I thought we just made plastic!
Polly Mer: Plasticizers are chemicals added to the mix of
monomers to give the plastic different properties.
Phthalates are chemical plasticizers that are used in
PVC to make them more flexible.
Olivia: Finally!
Weird!
It smells funny!
Polly Mer: Those are the plasticizers escaping the
plastic – they can be health hazards.
Narrator: Make the thermoset plastic: Bakelite
Olivia: Weird!
This time our ingredients are liquid!
Polly Mer: Yes, remember these types form covalent bonds
between polymer strands after they cure or set.
They are usually in liquid form to begin with and over a period
of time will become a hard solid plastic.
Many of these are used as coatings- like
polyurethane on furniture.
Narrator: Polymerizing.
Time remaining: 24 hours.
Olivia: 24 hours!!!!
Guess I’ll check on that tomorrow.
Polly Mer: Time to feed the fungus!
Olivia: Pardon me?
Polly Mer: This may be a Plastic Farm – but
we still have critters to feed!
This fungus is one of the few species of fungi and bacteria
found to digest synthetic polymers like plastics.
But they only decompose specific plastics in specific conditions–
so they are not enough to save earth from plastics
that are not recycled.
That one wants PVC.
Olivia: So humans CAN choose to produce some plastics that
will be better for the planet!
Narrator: 6 hours later
Olivia's Dad: Olivia? Honey?
What are Farm bills, and why did I just get a call from the
phone company about a $500 charge for them?