What makes plastics decompose slow????(any chem teacher or anyone can answer these)plss thankyou!!?

Question

what particular substance is responsible pls???and is there anything that would be able to fasten it's decay process???plss and what particular substance plss??and where can we find these substance??plss thankyou very much!!!pls understand my situation!!

Answer 1

"Decomposing" means breaking down, either physically (like paper breaks apart when it gets wet) or chemically, or biologically (bacteria eat it).

Very few bacteria can eat plastic, because they aren't able to break it down.  (Chemists are working to make kinds that bacteria *can* eat, like polylactic acid made from corn.)  So that lets out biology.

Many plastics do absorb water, but they've been designed to react very slowly with water, and to stay strong even when they get wet.  So they don't tear apart like paper.

Chemical reactions can break down some plastics; for instance, ultraviolet light can "weather" plastic and eventually cause it to break down.  That can take hundreds or thousands of years, though, because chemists have put a lot of work into making them stable enough to NOT break down... sometimes we've done our work a little too well...

Plastics can be recycled, and that often involves breaking them down or dissolving them using other chemicals.  That's a whole separate topic, though.

I have no idea what your situation is, so I don't think I understand it... but hopefully the answer was helpful anyway ;)