In 1907 inventors began looking for a plastic alternative

But in general, when people refer to plastics, they’re referring to synthetic materials. The unifying feature of these is that they start out soft and malleable and can be molded into a particular shape. Despite taking the prize as the first official plastic, celluloid was highly flammable, which made production risky. So inventors began to hunt for alternatives. In 1907 a chemist combined phenol— a waste product of coal tar— and formaldehyde, creating a hardy new polymer called bakelite.