Blog B: Plastic Invisibility

Plastic’s seamless integration into society has left the modern day environment riddled in synthetic polymers in everyday tasks and actions, from the waste littered ashore to the packaging that decorate the supermarket aisles. We don’t seem to value Plastic highly at all, due to it’s association with mass production and it’s easy accessibility due to advances throughout history. “These days, our lifestyles are sustained by plastics...We tend to ignore or forget about plastics yet they are literally everywhere” (Tonkinwise 2004).

Plastic covered fruit and vegetables in a Japanese store (Getty 2015)

With such an ingrained presence in society, it’s difficult to refocus back onto plastic due to it’s  constant transforming aesthetic. Mankind has become so susceptible to perceiving it as an indestructible yet easily disposable material. In both it’s transparent and opaque form, Plastic simply does the job of presenting the product to the consumer without hindering their path to the object. This can be perceived in it’s ability to appear to the consumer in varying thickness, opacity, consistency - all components that are easily changeable due to the low manufacturing costs of producing Plastic. “We don’t think about the material, because there is nothing about a plastic’s materiality that draws attention to itself” (Tonkinwise 2004)

Home built of plastic bottles in Panama (Plastic Bottle Village 2015)

Plastic’s non-invasive demeanour allows it to slip into the cracks of our daily lives, with it’s lack of smell and it’s inability to rub off on anything else. The synthetic form is able to move from both sides of the spectrum, rendering it both an impermeable object as well as invisible one also.

“We nonetheless often assume that plastics are almost indestructible” (Tonkinwise 2004) due to it’s ability to reshape and reform for a new function. This notion can be seen in both positive and negative perspectives, where it takes an impossibly long time for the matter to decompose yet on the other hand allows us to really utilise the material and recycle it for other situations. Reflecting on how we have arrived to The Plastic Age that is modern society today, and how we decide what to do next will really impact on our perception of Plastic, and possibly with further awareness and ambition - we will all be able to open our eyes and see the plastic in front of us.

Emma Watson at the 2016 Met Gala wearing a dress made out of plastic bottles (Getty 2016)

References:

Getty 2015, 'How hard can it be to remove all plastic from your supermarket shop? You might be surprised’, The Spectator, viewed 15 May 2016 <http://cdn2.spectator.co.uk/files/2015/10/vegetables-supermarket.jpg>

Getty 2016, ‘Emma Watson’s Met Gala 2016 Dress Was Made Out Of Recycled Plastic Bottles’, US Weekly, viewed 15 May 2016 <http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-style/news/emma-watsons-met-gala-2016-dress-was-made-from-plastic-bottles-w205117>

Plastic Bottle Village 2015, The Village Eco-Community, viewed 15 May 2016 <http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5674704dc647ad126efd8fe1/t/56e4c0c04d088e29141fdfde/1457832150638/?format=750w>

Tonkinwise, C. 2004, ‘Everywhere and Nowhere: An Introduction to Plastics’, Change Design, viewed 15 May 2016 <http://www.changedesign.org/Resources/EDFPublications/Articles/Papers/Plastic1.htm>