Question: Hello, we are young boys wondering: Do the carbon dioxide inserted into plastics affect their properties?

Helen Pritchard-Smith answered on 18 Jun 2013:

When carbon dioxide is inserted into the polymer it becomes a different functional group, commonly a lactone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactone) or an ester (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ester).

The presence of either of these groups does affect the structure and bonding in a plastic generally making it stronger (oxygen has more electrons available to bond to other chains of polymers, stronger bonds make it tougher to break) and more flexible (all carbons make a plastic quite brittle).