In 1967, an iconic movie was released. It starred Dustin Hoffman, Anne Barcroft, and Katherine Ross and was titled “The Graduate.” At the beginning of the film, the Braddocks are hosting a party to honor their son, Benjamin, who has just graduated with a bachelor’s degree. At various times during the festivities, Ben is approached by one of his father’s business friends who says that he just needs a second of Ben’s time. When he eventually gets Ben’s ear, he utters the one word that he believes should be considered by the graduate for his future: “Plastics.”
Our lives changed
It may be hard to understand this in 2025, but plastics changed lives in the twentieth century. In Popular Mechanics, Manassee Wagh writes that “energy companies like ExxonMobil and Dow Chemical were trying to turn the waste material leftover from processing crude oil and natural gas into something useful. Their experiments led to the creation of Perspex, polyethylene, Nylon, Teflon, and many other plastic compounds that have made their way into everyday life.”
Plastic was inexpensive to make, and it could be molded into almost anything, from baby bottles to nylon stockings to Tupperware. Today, about 500 billion PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles are made annually to replace glass. Most of all, plastics fit nicely with one of the most important values of post-war American society: convenience. So, because of the ubiquitous use of plastics, by the end of the twentieth century we had achieved the goals of convenience and affordability, but they came at a different kind of price. Our health. The plastics contained PFAS (Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances) chemicals, known colloquially as “forever chemicals.”