In Scientific American there was an amateur scientist construction of
a Van de Graff linear accelerator, two aluminum globes and an
evacuated cylinder system. In it was stated that it could be used to
study plastic, in particular styrene which the accelerated electrons
would break the long chain of molecules in styrene up. Today I read
they finally found a bacteria that can eat Styrofoams and turn it into
another plastic that can made into spoons, etc, which, unlike
Styrofoams, will decompose in the ground. Good news I guess. There is
a site in England that collects all the various objects of electricity
and electronics. One of the questions  they were asking was about the
differential changes in shapes of empty beverage bottles popular over
there, looking almost like heat, but not, I suspect electrical
radiation.

George Myers