Iron was found in rocks called iron ore. Making iron from iron ore (smelting) needed very high temperatures. Iron had a much higher melting point than bronze, which meant that, unlike bronze, iron could not be melted and poured into a mould to form weapons or tools. Instead it had to be heated and hammered into shape.

The Iron Age in the Ancient Near East is believed to have begun with the discovery of iron smelting and smithing techniques in Anatolia or the Caucasus and Balkans in the late 2nd millennium BC ( c. 1300 BC). The earliest bloomery smelting of iron is found at Tell Hammeh, Jordan around 930 BC (14C dating).

The Iron Age was a period in human history that started between 1200 B.C. and 600 B.C., depending on the region, and followed the Stone Age and Bronze Age. The use of iron became more widespread after people learned how to make steel, a much harder metal, by heating iron with carbon.

Plastic pollution is being deposited into the fossil record, research has found, with contamination increasing exponentially since 1945. They say after the bronze and iron ages, the current period may become known as the plastic age. …

1907

Most plastics were invented in the 1920s but it was not until after the Second World War that they were used widely.

A key breakthrough came in 1907, when Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland created Bakelite, the first real synthetic, mass-produced plastic.

Bakelite

Most of us will get along just fine without throwaway plastic in our daily lives. As with medical applications, many substitute materials do not provide the protection or stability that single-use plastics do. Single-use plastics are often used to package food and water.

Further, plastic packaging cannot be recycled infinitely because it degrades in quality. Contamination and mixing of polymer types can also lower the economic and technical value of the secondary plastic being made and plentiful fuel is required to melt the plastic down and re-pelletise it.