| · menstrual cups · zip ties · disposable diapers · transparent blast shields · bulletproof glass · more generally, safety glass other than tempered glass—tempered glass shatters into tiny pieces that won't slash open your arteries, but sometimes safety actually requires the broken glass to remain intact, as in car windshields · transparent riot shields · safety glasses and visors (glass glasses increase the risk of eye injury from projectiles in the right size range, rather than decreasing it) · plywood, particleboard, and osb (though perhaps in theory you could make them with binders that aren't plastic, plastic resins are for some reason the only things actually being used, so i consider it unproved that you could make them with something like hide glue) · glue strong enough to reconnect the broken stem of a wine glass · superglue (superglue is a plastic) · hot glue guns · o-rings and other gaskets that don't leak. historically these used to be made of leather, but leather is of course porous. as a result · virtually anything that hermetically seals around a rotating shaft · the monterey bay aquarium · photolithography resists, such as used for making integrated circuits; all the photoresists used for photolithography are plastics. so without plastics you'd have to find a different way to make integrated circuits · laminators, the kind that sandwiches paper between two sheets of transparent plastic · aluminum soft drink cans, which depend on a thin coating of plastic to protect the aluminum from the acid · mechanically stabilized earth walls, which are used for most cuts into the earth for highways and underpasses (often mistakenly believed to be concrete, because concrete plates are hung on their faces). these depend on layering the earth with geotextiles to keep it from slumping over time, and the only natural material that could be used for the geotextiles would be asbestos, which is unacceptable due to the resulting health hazards. natural organic materials would rot and metals would oxidize. conceivably glass fiber could work, but it might be unacceptably hazardous as well · nomex firefighting suits; no natural material combines the light weight, heat resistance (370°), thermal insulation, and flexibility that aluminized plastics do · the most common types of 3-d printers (fdm, sla) · scratch-and-sniff · pencil erasers (natural rubber, again) · car batteries; only plastics have the necessary combination of acid resistance, impact resistance, electrical insulation, and waterproofness for this application · hepa filters · n95 masks · carbon fiber (made by carbonizing fibers made from a thermoset plastic) · silicon carbide fiber such as tyranno (made by carbonizing fibers made from a thermoset silicone plastic) · asbestos-free brakes (nomex/kevlar again) · fire poi (kevlar with fiberglass or cotton) · ping-pong balls · knife-resistant gloves for meatpackers and cooks (kevlar again) · shrinky dinks · breathable waterproof fabric (gore-tex) |
· ion-exchange membranes and therefore deionized water
· waterproof oven mitts (silicone)
· rtv high-temperature sealant (also silicone, filled with iron oxide)
· waterproof examination gloves (latex, nitrile, vinyl, etc.)
· garden hoses
· sneakers