Feature

Plastic conservation

By 2021-04-19T06:11:00

A photo of an old plastic doll's head

Source: © Steven Foley/Getty Images

Usually we want plastics to degrade, so what about when we don’t? How chemists are helping museums preserve plastics

Plastic has a bad reputation for sticking around longer than we would like; there are millions of tons of it in landfill globally. Surprisingly though, some of the most valuable fine art and design created in the last 70 years is made of plastic and plastics are some of the most fragile objects found in museums. This article explains how different plastics degrade (sometimes dangerously!) and the chemistry techniques museums use to preserve them. It is accompanied by a classroom activity on polymers suitable for the 14–16 age group.

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