sebastian sajoux of arqlite talks reducing plastic waste by transforming it into gravel #storyofdesign

let’s take a brief history of plastic. the invention of the massively produced material, which now is stranded all over the world, was firstly introduced by alexander parkes at the 1862 great international exhibition in london. however, the materials initiated years ago were purely made of natural-based material: cellulose that, once heated, could be molded and retained the shape when cooled.

perhaps, long ago, biodegradability did not really matter because they were still racing for technological advancements. so it did not take very long until plastic was acknowledged as the best packaging solution, as numerous amounts of plastic began in the production in the mid-50s. relatively manageable at that time.

however, that was only the beginning. as roz savage stated in a very thoughtful quote:

“it cannot be right to manufacture billions of objects that are used for a matter of minutes, and then are with us for centuries,”

plastic production rose more than triple times within only two decades. the moment we started to think we have found the best object to be widely used, it turned to a man-made disaster, which requires an endless struggle to clean and decompose.