Plasticised: Navigating our plastic ridden planet.

Alhaan Ahmed

June 2, 2024

You and I, both as a consumer and designer are inhabitants of a ‘plasticised’ world. Plastic and its fragments are omnipresent, it is embedded in the products we use and is traveling into the bodies of marine life and our bodies as well, by rapidly rising through the food chain (Seltenrich, 2015). Plastic symbolises the epitome of throw-away culture and our excessive overconsumption. However, as I designer, I will not put all the blame on the consumers for our ‘plasticised’ world. Us designers are equally at fault for not thoroughly seeking alternative production methods and designing to limit superfluous consumption habits. Collectively, “it is indispensable to rethink our existing lifestyles,” (Chiapponi, 1998) and understand that our planet cannot be simply disposed of. As a designer aiming to translate this way of thinking into the minds and lives of people, it is integral to understand human behavioural motivations related to the environment and consumption habits.

The functionality of plastic is what attracts consumers rather than the plastic itself (Jia, Evans and Linden, 2019). Likewise, designers and manufacturers find that plastic is simply the most effective, cost-efficient and accessible material on the market for mass production. Designers have made plastic the ubiquitous material for which consumers cannot seek sustainable alternatives with ease. Behavioural theory supports this argument and suggests that individuals make decisions by evaluating the expenditure of money, availability, time, effort and distance against the value created by consuming and buying a certain product or service (Jia, Evans and Linden, 2019). Another reason consumers are locked into purchasing plastic products is the pure ignorance and lack of awareness of the harm that it is causing to our environment. Studies show that individuals who are aware of issues related to pollution in the environment and possible solutions for it are more likely to make environmentally conscious decisions in their daily lives (Löhr et al., 2017), but the design industry must also be held accountable for its use of plastic by establishing a level of transparency to allow consumers to better understand the urgency of our plastic predicament.

In the recent surge of ‘sustainability’ as a topic, the design industry has made hazy use of a variety of buzzwords to draw attention to a particular product or brand. As a designer, I deem this morally incorrect. Imprecise terminology and acts of greenwashing are hindering designers’ attempts to create more environmentally conscious products by essentially deceiving consumers (Fairs, 2019). In other words, designers are taking the easy way out. An example being “recyclable” plastics which are advertised as more sustainable and environmentally conscious. However, “recyclable” plastics do not guarantee that the product will be recycled (Fairs, 2019). Such misinformation skews buying behaviour by synthetically increasing the purchase of products that are theoretically recyclable, yet are only converted into trash in the real world (Chiapponi, 1998). As a designer, I would like to see designers produce solutions that aid the cleanup and reduction of wasteful product life cycles, rather than merely appearing to do so.

All manufacturing processes, products, and forms of consumption produce waste, however, the concept of waste itself should not be accepted. Instead, both consumers but more importantly designers should view the accumulated plastic waste as a valuable resource that one can acquire with ease at virtually no cost. Moreover, there is an urgent need for a design to be informed by the natural world, where waste does not exist (Webster, 2013). Here ‘design for disassembly’ can be implemented as a tool to emulate nature. ‘Design for disassembly’ encompasses the careful consideration of how a product can be disassembled into individual components and given a second life, if not upgraded entirely (Webster, 2013). Even so, when designing for the natural world, numerous considerations must be taken to navigate and successfully design for the environment as a consumer of a particular product. The simplicity fundamental to the design process and the complexity of the natural environment as a system gives rise to a significant contradiction (Chiapponi, 1998) that a designer must learn to traverse through. Overall, design as a discipline needs to focus on utilising the existing plastic waste out in the world and using design methods to prevent more plastic waste from polluting our environment. As a consumer, I often feel guilty for my irresponsible consumption habits, despite being well aware of the consequences of my choices. As a designer, I have a far greater responsibility to shape how a large number of people consume. This brings me to the “designers’ paradox” which brings forth a profound question: how can I as a designer abate waste and harm caused to the world by me and the designers that came before I did? (Fairs, 2019). I look forward to exploring this question and finding novel responses to it throughout my journey as a designer in the 21st century while inspiring other designers and greater society to take a more wholehearted approach to ‘un-plasticising’ our planet.

Reference List:

Chiapponi, M. (1998). Environmental Design and Industrial Design: Integrating Knowledge around Urgent Issues. The MIT Press [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].

Fairs, M. (2019). “To end plastic pollution, we first need to eliminate language pollution”. [online] Dezeen. Available at: https://
www.dezeen.com/2019/10/15/climate-change-greenwashing-opinion/ [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].

Jia, L., Evans, S. and Linden, S. (2019). Motivating actions to mitigate plastic pollution. Nature Communications, [online] 10(1).
Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12666-9#citeas [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].

Löhr, A., Savelli, H., Beunen, R., Kalz, M., Ragas, A. and Van Belleghem, F. (2017). Solutions for global marine litter pollution.
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, [online] 28, pp.90-99. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/
article/pii/S1877343517300386 [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].

Seltenrich, N. (2015). New Link in the Food Chain? Marine Plastic Pollution and Seafood Safety. Environmental Health
Perspectives, [online] 123(2). Available at: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/ehp.123-a34 [Accessed 26 Nov. 2019].
Webster, C. (2013). The Art of Design for Disassembly. [ebook] Ellen Macarthur Foundation, pp.1-5. Available at: https://
www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/assets/downloads/news/EMF_Engineering-the-Circular-Economy_300913.pdf [Accessed 26
Nov. 2019].

Webster, C. (2013). The Art of Design for Disassembly. [ebook] Ellen Macarthur Foundation, pp.1-5. Available at: https://
www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/assets/downloads/news/EMF_Engineering-the-Circular-Economy_300913.pdf [Accessed 26
Nov. 2019].

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