Plastic is everybody’s problem. Regardless of whether or not you use or purchase single-use plastic products, they continue to suffocate our land and waterways at  alarming rates. It’s estimated that there are over five trillion pieces of plastic debris in our oceans alone. In some parts of the world, the plastic crisis is visible. In other places, it flies under the radar creating the illusion that the problem is under control

Plastic touches the entire ecosystem. It’s in the air, water and soil. It’s being absorbed by plants and eaten by animals – it’s even found its way into the human body. There’s now so much waste plastic on the planet that there’s no way we will see the end of it in our lifetime. And as its creators, it’s our responsibility to find solutions for the crisis we’ve created.  Our aim through this case study is to better understand the plastic emergency and unearth pathways for change. We’re choosing to do so via the mediums of design, bio-innovation and future craft. We want to find ways to draw attention to the problems of plastic as a new material, remove as much of it as we can from the environment, and give existing waste plastics a new purpose and a longer, less harmful life. It’s time to get radical about plastics.

Today when we hear the word ‘plastic’ we generally think of a group of materials called polymers . Polymers are part of the natural world. Cellulose, silk, and wool are examples of polymers that occur in nature – natural plastics, if you like. The ironic thing about human-made plastic is that it was created as a replacement for natural materials such as ivory, tortoiseshell and horn. During the 19th century, these materials were highly prized and used to make everything from boxes to billiard balls and cutlery. Eventually, however, these resources became scarce and manufacturers turned to chemistry for solutions.

One of the first manufactured plastics, Parkesine was introduced to the world at the 1862 Great International Exhibition in London. It was made from cellulose nitrate. A few years later, American inventor John Wesley Hyatt. developed the more commercially viable celluloid in response to a $10,000 prize for anyone who could create a substitute for ivory. This material transformed the manufacturing landscape and was celebrated as the saviour of the natural world. 

In the 20th Century, fully synthetic plastics made their way into our lives. Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland was the mind behind Bakelite – a combination of formaldehyde and phenol, brought together using heat and pressure with no molecules from nature. Bakelite was easy to mass-produce and made products such as telephones, radiosand cameras vastly more accessible to the common consumer. From this moment onwards, product culture was changed forever.

An estimated 50% of plastics are made to be used once and thrown away and most of them are harmful to the planet and to our health. Our challenges today are to reduce our reliance on plastic, remove and repurpose the plastics already polluting our environment, and find sound circular solutions for the replacement of plastic in our modern lives.

There’s too much of it and we keep producing more. From 2000 to 2019, global plastic production doubled to 460 million tonnes.