BIRLA PUBLIC SCHOOL, PILANI

CHEMAGIX
NOVEMBER 8 AND 10
Show everyone what you've got! Get
those glass rods stirring and those flasks
bubbling for CHEMAGIX

PREWORK

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ACTIVITY -1
Disposable cups and the Environment: -

More petroleum is
The main raw material needed to make a
needed to make a paper
A polystyrene cup is paper cup than a
cup is wood, which is a
made from oil. Collecting polystyrene one. This is
renewable resource.
and transporting oil can because the wood for
However, collecting wood the paper cups has to
cause environmental
impacts on the landscape
damage, particularly if be transported by road
- trees have to be cut
spills occur during or rail to the
down both for use as
drilling or manufacturing plant.
wood and to make space
transportation. The oil or natural gas
for roads so that the needed to make
wood can be transported. polystyrene cups is
taken to the plant
through a pipeline. 4.1 g
petroleum is needed to
Paper cups are made make a paper cup but
from bleached wood only 3.2 g for a
pulp, which is made polystyrene one. If the
from wood chips. Only paper cup has a plastic
A paper cup weighs or wax coating even
about half the chips are A paper cup costs about
about 10.1 g; a more
turned into pulp. Bark 5p; a polystyrene one
polystyrene one about
and some wood waste about 2p.
1.5 g.
are burned to supply
energy for the process.
In total about 33 g wood
and bark is used per cup

To make paper,
chemicals such as
chlorine, sodium Efficient catalysts are Efficient catalysts are
hydroxide, bleach, used to make used to make
sulfuric acid, sulphur polystyrene so most of polystyrene so most of
and limestone are the chemicals involved the chemicals involved
needed. These can be recycled. About can be recycled. About
chemicals are not 0.05 g chemical waste is 0.05 g chemical waste is
recycled. In total about produced per cup. produced per cup.
1.8 g of these chemicals
are needed per cup.

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 About 580 times as
So much wood pulp is much waste water is
used to make a paper produced during the
cup that the whole manufacture of a paper Making polystyrene
process requires about cup as when a produces about 20 kg
12 times as much polystyrene one is waste metal salts per
steam, 36 times as made. The waste tonne. Making paper
much electricity and chemicals are mainly produces 1– 20 kg,
twice as much cooling removed from the depending on which
water as the process water but there is still paper plant it is.
used to make a at least 10 times more
polystyrene cup. chemical waste than for
polystyrene.

Polystyrene cups can be

More waste gas is recycled. The recycled
produced for material cannot be used
polystyrene than for for food or drink but it
paper per tonne of Polystyrene cups can be can be made into
material made. reused because they do packing materials,
However, paper cups not soak up water. Paper insulation, patio
are heavier than cups can be reused but furniture, tiles and
polystyrene ones so washing can destroy them. other products.
less waste gas is However, at present
produced per only a small proportion
polystyrene cup. of polystyrene waste is
recycled.

Paper cups cannot be Both paper and

recycled. The glue that polystyrene can be
holds the parts of the burnt in an
cup together cannot incinerator so that
be removed in the the energy
recycling process. If produced can be
the paper is coated used. Paper
with plastic it is even provides 20 MJ per
harder to find a way to kg and polystyrene
recycle it. gives 40 MJ per kg.

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Disposable cups and the environment Our society is becoming more conscious of the need
to look after our environment and conserve its natural resources. We try to make choices
that are ‘environmentally friendly’ and are sometimes prepared to pay more for products
that seem to be better for the environment. One choice that could affect the environment
is the choice of material to be used for making disposable cups.
You are a manager in a company with shops selling take-away hot drinks. You have to decide
whether you should sell your drinks in paper or polystyrene cups. You have done some
research and it shows that your customers are concerned about the environment and will
buy their drinks from the company they think takes most care of it. They do not mind that
it might make the drinks cost a little more.
1. Why do consumers who are concerned about the environment want to have disposable
drink cups? What makes them particularly useful?
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2. Which cups do you think you should use for your hot drinks? Explain your answer.
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When deciding which of two materials will have less impact on the environment you need
to consider all aspects of the product. You should include the effects of making it,
transporting it, using it and disposing of it (what happens when it is thrown away) in your
assessment.
3. Which type of cup will have higher transport costs and will require more petrol to be used
to get the cups to the shops? (Hint: look at the masses of the cups.)

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4. What are the main advantage(s) of paper cups?
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5. What are the main advantage(s) of polystyrene cups?
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Waste in landfill sites in a landfill site, the rubbish is put into a large hole in the ground.
Other waste is piled on top of it. This means that very little oxygen can get to the rubbish,
so when it biodegrades it does so anaerobically. The same number of cups will produce six
tonnes of waste if the cups are made of paper or one tonne of waste if they are made of
polystyrene. When six tonnes of paper cups biodegrade anaerobically, they produce 2370 kg
methane and 3260 kg carbon dioxide. Methane, like carbon dioxide, is a ‘greenhouse gas’ –
it is believed to contribute to global warming. One molecule of methane is thought to cause
about 10 times more warming than one molecule of carbon dioxide. During anaerobic

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decomposition, methane and carbon dioxide are produced in the ratio 2:1. This is worse for
global warming than burning the cups: the waste gas produced by burning is nearly all carbon
dioxides.
Recent research has provided evidence that paper put into a landfill site does not always
degrade or bio-decompose, especially in dry regions. 50-year-old newspapers that are still
complete and readable have been dug up from landfill sites. 6. What do the following terms
mean?
a Anaerobic decomposition
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b Biodegrade
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c Greenhouse gas.
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7. Does the information above affect your answers to questions 4 and 5? If so, how?
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8. From the evidence you have here, which of the cup materials appears to be better for
the environment? Explain your answer. Does this surprise you?
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9. As a drinks company manager, which cups would you choose for your stores? Explain
your answer.
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Activity -2
What use is plastic?
Many of the things that are now usually made of plastic used to be made from other materials.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using plastic? Think about this as you complete the
table below.

Item now made What it used to Advantages of Disadvantages of

of plastic be made from using plastic using plastic

Bucket

Milk bottle

Rope

Disposable cups

Chairs

Water pipes

Disposable nappies

1. Add two other items that are now made of plastic to the table.
2. What are the main advantages and disadvantages of using plastics?

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 3. Plastics last a long time before they corrode. When is this an advantage and when is it a
disadvantage?

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Degradable plastics – information sheet

UK plastic facts:
● We produce three million tonnes of plastic each year
● Households are the biggest producers of plastic waste
● 60 % of household waste comes from packaging
● More than 80 % of this plastic is used once and then goes to landfill sites
● Only 7 % of plastic is recycled.

In addition to household waste, there is also the issue of plastic litter (mainly packaging) which is
discarded in the environment. On land it is ugly but in the sea it can be deadly – it can cause
injury and death to birds, fish and other sea creatures. Given all this, it is not surprising that
people are concerned about plastic waste and are increasingly looking to scientists to produce a
degradable plastic to help solve the problem. However, there is much debate among scientists and
environmentalists as to whether degradable or non-degradable plastic is better for the
environment. The conclusions drawn by researchers studying this topic are not always what you might
expect. To understand fully the effect a product has on the environment it is necessary to carry out
a ‘life cycle analysis,’ which means looking at the impacts of production, use and disposal of the
product.
There are two kinds of degradable plastic: photodegradable and biodegradable.

Photodegradable plastic is usually made of oil-based polymers, just like ordinary plastic. It either has
bonds in its structure that can be weakened and broken by sunlight, or it contains a chemical
additive which absorbs light and then attacks the polymer and breaks some of the bonds. Once a
photodegradable plastic is exposed to light it begins to break down – whether you want it to or
not. This can be disastrous if it is mixed in with other plastics during recycling. Photodegradable
plastics tend to break down into small particles of plastic rather than decomposing completely.
The idea is that these small pieces will then biodegrade. Unfortunately, they are often not
biodegradable and so remain in the environment. The effect that a build-up of small pieces of
plastic in the soil might have on the environment has not been investigated. At present, most plastic
waste ends up in a landfill site where it is buried in a dark hole in the ground. Under these conditions,
photodegradation cannot take place.

Biodegradable plastics can be made from oil or from plant-based products. They are attacked by
bacteria, fungi or other micro-organisms which use them as food. The most commonly used plastics
have been tested to find out whether they are biodegradable. Polythene is biodegradable as long as its
chains have a molecular weight of less than 500; most other polymers are not.
Polyesters are susceptible to biodegradation but they are used very little in packaging materials. As
the majority of plastic waste is from packaging, using polyesters will not really help solve either the
problem of the large quantity of waste produced or that of litter in the environment.

There is a lot of interest in the idea of making a plastic that can biodegrade in a landfill site.

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Unfortunately, once a landfill is covered with soil, there is limited oxygen and water available (the
conditions are said to be ‘anaerobic’) and the rate of degradation of all materials (even those that
biodegrade rapidly on the surface) becomes extremely slow. Discarded food has been found in landfill
sites several years after it was thrown away.
With this in mind, the British Plastics Federation (a trade association of plastics manufacturers)
opposes degradable plastics on the grounds that plastic waste is best recycled. The environmental
pressure group ‘Friends of the Earth’ agrees, arguing that degradable plastic does nothing to
promote lasting solutions to plastic waste and that we should be aiming to reduce the amount of
plastic we use in the first place and reuse or recycle what we do use.

Degradable plastics
The Co-op chain of supermarkets has announced that it will use degradable plastics for both its plastic
bags and its bread bags. It is suggesting that this is good for the environment. What is the chemistry
behind making plastic degradable and is it a good idea? This activity will help you think through the
science and the issues involved.
There are two main ways of making a plastic so that it can rot away. One is to make it out of a
material that bacteria consider food so that they digest it in a process called biodegradation. The
other way is to make the plastic sensitive to sunlight. The sunlight can then break some of the bonds
in the plastic and cause it to break down in a process called photodegradation.

Photodegradation
There are two ways to make plastics photodegradable. Chemists can add a substance that absorbs
sunlight to the plastic. The sunlight makes this substance more reactive, and it attacks the polymer
chains the plastic is made from. When a ‘package’ of light (a photon) hits a molecule of the added
substance this molecule helps focus the energy of the sunlight in a way which causes some of the
bonds in the polymer to break. The chains become fractured and brittle so the plastic falls apart.

Biodegradation
In order for a material to be biodegradable, enzymes must be able to attack it. A plastic
biodegrades when enzymes chew up (metabolise) the polymer at specific points in the chain.
They can easily snip the chemical group -CH2-CO- from the chain. Polymers such as polythene,
polystyrene and polyvinylchloride do not have such bite points along the chain and so cannot be
attacked. Micro-organisms can attack polythene but only slowly and not if the polythene has a
molecular weight greater than about 500 – above that it is too much of a ‘mouthful’ for the
enzymes. Plastics with a polythene backbone are more resistant to attack by enzymes if one or more
of the hydrogen atoms is replaced with another atom or group. In PVC (polyvinyl chloride) one of
the hydrogen atoms from the polythene structure is replaced by a chlorine atom; in polystyrene
it is replaced by a benzene ring.

Chlorine atoms and benzene rings are completely alien to the micro-organisms so they steer clear of
them. These plastics are also very resistant to moisture (water does not soak into them). The
micro-organisms are carried about by water so the lack of water in these polymers makes them
even harder to break down.

Items such as plastic bags are often made biodegradable by including starch in the material. Starch
is a natural polymer which can be consumed quickly by bacteria. This leaves behind the synthetic
polymer, but without the starch it is fragile and quickly disintegrates.

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1. Explain the meaning of the term biodegradable and photodegradable.

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2. Which of the following polymers would you expect to be biodegradable, and which do you
think are very slow to degrade? Explain your answer.

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