Plastic
A material that contains a high polymer as an essential ingredient and that can be shaped by flow at some stage of its processing into finished products.
Also called plastics.
How it connects
Plastic is a kind of Polymer.
Plastic includes ABS, Polycarbonate, Polystyrene and Polyvinyl chloride.
Other kinds of Polymer: Acrylic, EVA, Man-made cellulosic, Polyamide, Polyester, Polyolefin, Polyurethane, PTFE, Resin, Rubber and Silicone.
In other taxonomies
- PlasticsUniclass, Ma_60_65nearly the same
- plasticWikidata, Q11474nearly the same
For developersRecord, identifiers and graph
Where it sits
One rule per term beside it, taller for each narrower term
Record
Use when a source says plastic without naming which; use a narrower term when it names one. Added on 2026-10-14 beneath Polymer. Elastomers are polymers that ISO 472 does not count as plastics, and the fibre families are polymers named by their own terms, so Rubber, Resin and the fibre families are not beneath it. A source saying only plastic does not establish a polymer family, a grade, a thermoplastic or thermosetting behaviour, or recycled content.
- Also called
- plastics
- Broader
- Polymer
- Narrower
- ABS · Polycarbonate · Polystyrene · Polyvinyl chloride
- Provenance
- referencedISO 472:2013 Plastics: Vocabulary; the same wording in the Bureau de normalisation du Québec entry, https://vitrinelinguistique.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/fiche-gdt/fiche/8355296/plastique; TAX-60 review of Material Bank's Plastic tag, read 14 Oct 2026
For machines
Permanent address
/id/material/plasticKnowledge graph
Stored incoming and outgoing relations from the public V1 graph. Ancestors, descendants, and siblings are labelled as derived views rather than stored facts.
- has-conceptMaterialincoming
- has-conceptMaterialincoming
- broaderABSincoming
- belongs-to-axisMaterialoutgoing
- belongs-to-facetMaterialoutgoing
- broaderPolymeroutgoing
- narrowerABSoutgoing
- narrowerPolycarbonateoutgoing
- narrowerPolystyreneoutgoing
- narrowerPolyvinyl chlorideoutgoing
- broaderPolycarbonateincoming
- narrowerPolymerincoming
- broaderPolystyreneincoming
- broaderPolyvinyl chlorideincoming
Derived hierarchy views
- ancestor (derived)Polymeroutgoing
- descendant (derived)ABSoutgoing
- descendant (derived)Polycarbonateoutgoing
- descendant (derived)Polystyreneoutgoing
- descendant (derived)Polyvinyl chlorideoutgoing
- descendant (derived)Vinyloutgoing
- sibling (derived)Acrylicoutgoing
- sibling (derived)EVAoutgoing
- sibling (derived)Man-made cellulosicoutgoing
- sibling (derived)Polyamideoutgoing
- sibling (derived)Polyesteroutgoing
- sibling (derived)Polyolefinoutgoing
- sibling (derived)Polyurethaneoutgoing
- sibling (derived)PTFEoutgoing
- sibling (derived)Resinoutgoing
- sibling (derived)Rubberoutgoing
- sibling (derived)Siliconeoutgoing
Crosswalks
| Scheme | Identifier | Their label, or the search | How close |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uniclass | Ma_60_65 | Plastics | nearly the same |
| Wikidata | Q11474 | plastic | nearly the same |