To be more specific, the big sheets of plastic that are used in construction. Thanks for the help!
There are many environmental effects of producing plastic. First drilling for oil (use of crude), possible oil spills, petrochemistry effects on the air and water, Then there is the problem of getting rid of plastics. Try recycling, reuse, the big sheets of plastic that are used in construction to keep areas clean are buried in a landfill and will not breakdown for hundreds of years.
The problem is disposing of plastic: the molecules are too large to be broken down by bacteria and fungi. Therefore, plastic becomes non-biodegradable. There are two ways (that I know of) to get around this: 1) Insert a cobalt atom into the plastic molecule at the manufacturing level, or 2) introduce a sugar molecule into the plastic molecule at the manufacturing level. This will allow the plastic (on a molecular level) to break down (becoming biodegradable). The disadvantage of this is in the reduced 'shelf-life' of the product.
