Bakelite is a phenol-formaldehyde polymer. Wood is substantially made of lignin, a cross-linked phenolic polymer, and cellulose, a long-chain saccharide polymer

Bakelite is a phenol-formaldehyde polymer. Wood is substantially made of lignin, a cross-linked phenolic polymer, and cellulose, a long-chain saccharide polymer. "Plastic" is an incredibly fuzzy category. Bakelite is a plastic by any reasonable definition of the word and I would staunchly defend the argument that wood is a fibre-reinforced plastic composite. The stuff we'd definitely agree are plastics - petrochemical-based synthetic polymers - are a hugely diverse group of materials with vastly different chemistries. Plastic materials that look and feel almost identical often have completely different chemical structures, e.g. PC and PMMA. As a polymer enjoyer, I just don't know how to make sense of the popular understanding of (and panic around) plastics. I can't imagine a similar tenor of discussion around metals, which is at least a category we can usefully define. Is there anyone out there who is terribly afraid of zinc or tin because they're right above cadmium and lead in the periodic table? Is anyone afraid of tungsten because it looks and feels just like uranium?