25 Most Significant Inventions In Human History

As one of, if not the most malleable products ever invented, plastic has been used to create everything from milk cartons to toys, to guns. When coupled with the substance’s low cost to produce, you get a surge in cheap-yet-(somewhat) reliable goods made of plastic that become available to pretty much every part of the world.

Plastic became a popular replacement material for more historic resources like wood, metal, ceramics, leather and stone. These days, you cannot turn a corner without seeing something made either partially or completely out of plastic material. The water bottle sitting on your desk, the chairs used in schools, the disposable cups you drink from, the pipes in your home, the garbage pail (and the bag) you throw your waste into…all of it is made from plastic. It really is one of the most amazingly useful and versatile substances that humans have ever harnessed.

However, plastic has a notable consequence to it. It has numerous chemical byproducts, and many plastic goods (especially disposable plastic water bottles) contain dangerous substances. Worse yet, because of its reputation as a cheap substance, plastic goods get thrown away quite often, and end up in massive landfills as long-term pollutants. Because they’re not wholly natural goods, it takes a very long time for them to disintegrate, which is why plastic is the symbolic substance of the littering problem that humanity faces in the 21st century.