- Earlier, molasses act as a raw material which yield ethanol from which ETHENE (gotten is used to) produce a range of poly(ethene) plastics. - Nowadays, starting new raw materials are obtained by the fractional distillation of crude oil or petroleum. - During the thermal cracking of petroleum; long chain alkanes are converted into smaller chain alkanes, ALKENES (with Ethene being the predominate), etc. - The Alkenes such as Ethene and Propene can be made into Poly(ethene) / plastic, nylon, etc.