system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How does a rubber or plastic can melt in room's temperature while it has not been used for a long time

 

Recently I've encountered some strange things while cleaning up my shelves for the move. Somehow the one of the rubber bands stash just some how melted in to one blob of sticky rubber. Same with couple plastics/rubbery parts as well. It has been sitting in the shelve for approximately a year and wasn't touched since I didn't need it at the time. As well it has always been in the room temperature differentiating from 15 in winter/spring to whooping 35 (on super hot summer, perks of living in the damn Western Side of the building)

So ELI5, how the hell this happened.
gpt
The material rubber bands are made of are naturally more liquidy and they are treated with chemicals to make them tough enough to be useful, over time this breaks down back into their gooshy state, heat and sunlight speed this up.