polyethylene

From poly- +‎ ethylene.

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polyethylene (countable and uncountable, plural polyethylenes)

1. (organic chemistry) A polymer consisting of many ethylene monomers bonded together; used for kitchenware, containers etc.

   Synonyms: PE (initialism), polyethene (IUPAC name), polythene (alias)

   Hypernym: polyolefin

   Coordinate terms: polypropylene, polypropene

   • 2022 April 3, Sabrina Imbler, “In the Ocean, It’s Snowing Microplastics”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 5 April 2022:

     For eons, the debris has contained the same things — flecks from plant and animal carcasses, feces, mucus, dust, microbes, viruses — and transported the ocean’s carbon to be stored on the seafloor. Increasingly, however, marine snowfall is being infiltrated by microplastics: fibers and fragments of polyamide, polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate. And this fauxfall appears to be altering our planet’s ancient cooling process.

   • 2023 June 5, Yvonne Gordon, “Microplastics found in every sample of water taken during Ocean Race”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     The most abundant chemical in the plastics is polyethylene, which is used for single-use packaging, plastic bags and containers such as bottles.