ProCon’s Single-Use Plastics Quiz
- Question: Which development raised concerns about disposable, single-use plastics?
- Answer: All of these developments have raised concerns about the potentially harmful effects of disposable, single-use plastics.
- Question: Which is an argument against banning single-use plastics?
- Answer: All of these are common arguments against single-use plastic bans.
- Question: Which U.S. president fought against the movement to ban single-use plastic straws because of his dislike of the paper straws that replaced them?
- Answer: On February 10, 2025, shortly after starting his second term as president, Donald Trump signed the executive order “Ending Procurement and Forced Use of Paper Straws,” following through with his promise to end “the ridiculous Biden push for Paper Straws, which don’t work. BACK TO PLASTIC!”
- Question: Which plastic was largely created as a replacement for silk?
- Answer: Created in the 1930s, nylon was created as a plastic substitute for silk; it was widely used for parachutes during World War II (1939–45), contributing to a surge in plastic manufacturing that only intensified after the war.
- Question: Which plastic was largely created as a replacement for glass?
- Answer: Created in the 1920s and refined in the early 1930s, plexiglass is a plastic substitute for glass; it was widely used in airplanes during World War II (1939–45), contributing to a surge in plastic manufacturing that only intensified after the war.
- Question: Which American created the first commercially successful plastic?
- Answer: American industrialist John Wesley Hyatt created in the 1860s the first practical and commercially successful plastic, later called celluloid.
- Question: The first commercially successful plastic was created in an attempt to replace the material found in which items?
- Answer: Billiard balls in the 19th century were primarily made of ivory, found mainly in elephant tusks. Ivory was increasingly in short supply because of the overhunting of elephants and the growing popularity of billiards, so a New York ball company in 1863 offered a $10,000 reward for anyone who could find or create a replacement material. This challenge led to the creation of the first commercially successful plastic.
- Question: Which of the following is true about plastic?
- Answer: All of these are characteristics of plastic.
© Planet One Images—Universal Images Group/Getty Images
© Planet One Images—Universal Images Group/Getty Images
