Plastics are derived from natural, organic materials such as cellulose, coal, natural gas, salt and, of course, crude oil. Crude oil is a complex mixture of thousands of compounds and needs to be processed before it can be used. But bio-plastics are technically speaking just part of the plastics family. However, what people know more commonly as plastic is that which is derived from fossil fuels. These are often know by abbreviations, such as PET, HDPE, PVC, LDPE, PP and PS.
