INTRODUCTION Most of the man's inventions have come about because of his needs. At first, he used only the materials which surrounded him in nature like wood and stone for tools and animal skin for clothing. Then he learned to weave natural fibers like cotton and silk to make cloth. Slowly he discovered the use of iron and copper to make hunting implements. Later, he learned to use fire to make pots and pans from clay and to mix metals like copper and tin to produce the alloy bronze. In this

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... , he began to make new materials that are not found readily in nature. Another synthetic material that was first made in early times was glass, a compound of silica and soda ash. Man's scientific understanding has greatly increased in the last two centuries, which have witnessed a revolution in technology. Scientists have discovered how to make special synthetic materials like plastics. The word plastic is derived from the Greek word 'plastics' meaning 'fit for moulding'. It is quite a fitting word as plastics can be fabricated into rigid, tough, corrosion-resistant objects. It can be inorganic or organic, natural or synthetic. But increasingly, the word has come to denote synthetic organic plastics, essentially polymers. These polymers, meaning many (poly) parts (rneros) are composed of giant molecules or units called monomers. Each monomer is composed essentially of carbon and hydrogen. Most of the developments in plastics took place as a result of man's search to replace wood, cement and other materials with newer ones having better properties. Celluloid first made from cellulose and camphor was developed in a bid to find good billiard bans! Some developments were as a result of military needs during World War. The first synthetic plastic, Bakelite, was invented by Baekeland in 1906 by reacting phenol and formaldehyde. Polyvinyl chloride WVC1 and related Polymers were first manufactured in the late 1920's. Polystyrene, Lucite, and plexiglass (acrylic) were invented in the 1930's. Many plastics are made from other plastics; for example Acrilan, Orlon, ABSTRACT Prawns are an extremely good source of protein, yet are very low in fat and calories, making them a very healthy choice of food. In this article, we have discussed the use of the bio-degradable wastes as a composite material. The discarded waste of the prawn shell wastes is used for making a composite material. Composite material consists of matrix and reinforcement. In this article the particulate reinforcement used is prawn shell powder and the matrix used is lapatoxy-SP 100 resin along with hardener (MYK Laticrete). The reinforcement used is prawn shell powder is mixed to the matrix taken in the fixed ratios. In this article, the composite material is fabricated and is tested for hardness. It is a discarded waste that can be easily available in the environment. And also it is bio-degradable, even during its decomposition; it releases nutrients into the environment that are used by trees. These composites cause no harm to nature and are eco-friendly. They don't require any site to grow the raw material used as the reinforcement. They possess high strength, toughness, can withstand loads, hardness etc. Composite materials are a substitute for conventional plastics and possess higher mechanical properties than those materials.