Materials & Manufacturing · Recorded milestone
Polyethylene
Recorded year1933
ICI chemists discover the world's most common plastic.
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Led to
- Tetra Pak cartonRecorded · 1952enables
- Ziegler-Natta catalystsRecorded · 1953enables
- Transatlantic phone cableRecorded · 1956requires
- Disposable nappiesRecorded · 1961enables
- Total hip replacementRecorded · 1962enables
- Drip irrigationRecorded · 1965enables
- Plastic shopping bagRecorded · 1965enables
- Retort pouch mealsRecorded · 1968enables
- Twin-blade cartridge razorRecorded · 1971enables
- Sous-vide cookingRecorded · 1974enables
- Radiative-cooling fabricsForecast · ~2028enables
- Ocean garbage patches cleanedForecast · ~2040requires
Sources & evidence
Dataset updated 2026-10-18. This individual record has not been separately re-reviewed.