What is plastic??!?!

Has anyone stopped to ask themselves this? More importantly has anyone stopped to ask someone else this? From what I gather it is some conglomerate of polymers melted down into a goo-ey substance and then molded into just about everything we use in our lives. It cannot be repaired. There are about a million types of it. It doesn't really ever properly decompose. It apparently has estrogen in it (and probably a million other harmful chemicals). Mr. McGuire calls it "the way of the future" in The Graduate (1967) and to a large part, he has been right. But does anything know anything good about this product?