Plastics: navigating the maze of dizzying acronyms

Paris: Plastics are all around us from food packaging and drinking bottles to the insulation in our homes. They are mostly all derived from foss...

Paris: Plastics are all around us -- from food packaging and drinking bottles to the insulation in our homes.

They are mostly all derived from fossil fuels like oil and natural gas, but what are the key differences between each type of plastic?

Here is a brief guide to the most commonly used plastics and their acronyms, as classified by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Three main families

Thermoplastics are the most common plastics, because they are so malleable when heated, and can be remelted.