Plastic industry – redirecting the aesthetics of waste

The ubiquitous thin film plastic bag continues to present a range of environmental burdens across the globe, creating havoc for wildlife, impeding waste processing and defying attempts for its effective recycling.

In India, where self organised labour finds efficient recycling economies in the dismantling and disposal cycles of many industries, thin film plastics continue to present a problem. Though many types plastics are collected by ragpickers thin film types are rejected, partially because of the difficulty in separating the film from putrescible goods they often contain, and because they effort in collection does not equate to an economically viable reward when sold by weight to recycled waste merchants.

Despite government bans on their production in Gujarat, thin film plastics, along with the machinery to produce them are openly visible in the marketplace. Across the country, sacred cows pick waste food from the streets, occasionally ingesting the plastic bags leading to intestinal problems that require veterinary treatment and even lead to the animal's death. Additional measures such as charging customers fro bags, complete withdrawal from supermarket distribution and the promotion of reusable shopping bags all assist to create a schism between profitable supply, disposable convenience and the environmental burden attributed to the plastics

However, any success of such initiatives depends as much on consumers changing habits as it does on structural change. Redirecting attitudes that are dependent on convenience & disposability present challenging opportunities for design to rethink social infrastructure in the context of consumer psychology & community interaction..

If you list down all the items you use since the start of your day, more than 75% of it will be made of plastic and plastic products. It is common knowledge that this plastic is not bio-degradable and is going to remain in our eco-system for a very long time. Numerous efforts have been made to solve this problem but it seems to be very persistent. However, every small step taken towards resolving this issue can collectively make a major change. We cannot live without plastic so we might as well learn how to live with it.

We started by analysing the current plastic waste collection and recycling system.