Plastic objects. Collection of familiar objects made using plastic. Plastic is a generic name used to describe a number of materials that consist of tangled chains (polymers) of a base chemical unit, often combined with other substances such as plasticisers and pigments. The most common base chemical units are vinyl chloride and ethene. These base units can produce both polyvinyl chloride (PVC), used for the credit card, and polyethylene, used for the bubble wrap.