Charles Perry Partners, Inc. history

1862 - Display of Parkesine, predecessor of celluloid (cellulose nitrate), at the 1862 Great International Exhibition in London

1872 - Hyatt brothers patented first plastics injection moulding machine

1880 - Fashion for long hair leads to cellulose nitrate replacing horn as the preferred material for combs

1885 - George Eastman Kodak patents machine for producing continuous photographic film based on cellulose nitrate.

1890 - Thermoforming introduced and used to make babies rattles from cellulose nitrate

1892 - Viscose silk (rayon) developed by Cross and Bevan (Chardonnet Silk)

1898 - Beginning of mass production of rpm gramophone records from shellac

1899 - Krische and Spittler in Germany awarded patent for Casein Plastic from milk.

Artefacts introduced at the Plastics Universal Exhibition in 1900

1907 - BakeliteLeo Baekeland created the first entirely synthetic resin: bakelite, which, when heated, rapidly takes the shape of its container.

2Leo Hendrik Baekeland seems to have been the first person to use the term “plastic materials” to describe products made from macromolecules (resins, elastomers and artificial fibers). That was in 1909.

1910 - stockings made of viscose (CA) begin to be manufactured in Germany

The German professor Fritz Klatte developed manufacturing processes enabling its industrial development from 1912.

1913 - German Inventor Friedrich Klatte patented a polymerisation process to manufacture PVC

1916 - Rolls Royce begins to use phenol formaldehyde in its car interiors and boasts about it

1919 - Eichengrun produce first cellulose acetate moulding powder

Aware of its qualities as an electrical insulator, industry started to use it back in 1920 to manufacture telephones and the first household appliances.

1924 - Rossiter at British Cyanide develops urea thiourea formaldehyde resins, subsequently commercialised as the first water white transparent thermosetting moulding powder.

1926 - Eckert and Ziegler patent first commercial modern plastics injection moulding machine.

1930 - ‘Scotch’ tape, the first transparent sticky tape invented in US by 3M Company

1933 - Polyethylene (PE, PE-HD, PE-MD, PE-LD, PE-LLD)The discovery of low-density polyethylene was the result of research on resins by E.W. Fawcett and R.O. Gibson.

1935 - Troester in Germany produce first extruder designed for thermoplastics.

1936 - First production of aircraft canopies made from ‘Perspex’.

1937 - Polyurethane (PUR)When Doctor Otto Bayer developed polyurethane, no one could have imagined the success that it would have.

1938 - First toothbrush with nylons tufts manufactured

1939 - Outbreak of war – strategic stockpiles, plastics in war

1940 - DuPont introduces polyacrylonitrile (PAN), an early engineering product

1942 - ‘Super Glue’ (methyl cyanoacrylate) first discovered by Dr Harry Coover, Eastman Kodak

1944 - Polystyrene (PS, PS-E)Expanded polystyrene was developed in 1944 by Ray McIntire, who was working for Dow Chemical on flexible rubber.

1945 - The production of LDPE the Sqezy bottle by Monsanto caused a rapid expansion of the industry, with containers produced to replace glass bottles for shampoos and liquid soaps.

A symbol of the “American way of life”, Tupperware first appeared in 1946.

1948 - Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) produced

1949 - Launch in US of Tupperware made from low density polyethylene

Since 1950, 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic have been produced.

1954 - Polystyrene foam (introduced by Dow Chemical Co.)

1956 - Eero Saarinen’s Tulip Chair launched, consisting of seat made of glass-fibre-reinforced plastic.

1957 - First production of polypropylene by Montecatini using Ziegler-Natta catalysts

1958 - Lego patents its stud and block coupling system and produces toys of cellulose acetate, later Acrylonitrile- butadiene-styrene polymer.

1962 - DuPont launches polyimide films and varnishes

1966 - Blow moulding of fuel tanks introduced

1973 - Polyethylene terephthalate beverage bottles introduced

1977 - Polyaryletheretherketone (PEEK) was first prepared by ICI

1979 - First PVC-U double glazed windows installed in the UK

1980 - First production of linear low density polyethylene

1982 - First artificial heart made mainly of polyurethane, introduced implanted in a human.

1988 - Introduction of triangular recycling symbols relating to plastics

1989 - The Gravimetric Batch Blender is invented by Steve Maguire revolutionising the industry and bringing affordable gravimetric blending to processors

1994 - Smart car with lightweight flexible integrally coloured polycarbonate panels introduced

2000 - First commercial metallocene catalysed polyolefins introduced.

2004 - First window manufactured from 100% post-consumer recycled PVC

2005 - NASA explores the advantages of a polyethylene based material RFX1, as the material for the spaceship that will send man to Mars

2008 - Airbus 380, comprising 22% carbon-fibre reinforced plastics flies into Heathrow

2012 - Over 142,000m2 of PVC fabric used in the construction of London 2012 Olympic venues

In 2016, the petrochemical industry used the equivalent of 17.4 million barrels of oil per day, which is just under 20% of global oil consumption.

A German study published in 2017 estimated that ten rivers, of which eight are in Asia and two in Africa, account for 90% of plastic waste in the oceans – the Yangtse alone releases 15 million metric tons each year.

In a 2018 study, the International Energy Agency predicts production of around 600 million metric tons by the middle of the century.

Philippe Chalmin, « The history of plastics: from the Capitol to the Tarpeian Rock », Field Actions Science Reports, Special Issue 19 | 2019, 6-11.

The future (2020) - Over 800,000 tonnes of PVC products will be recycled per year across Europe by 2020