Hidden Plastics
Infographic
Finding the Theme
The project started coming to life when I wanted to investigate why people do not use bio-materials, what are the pros and cons of bio-materials and if there is enough bio-materials to replace all the polluting ones. In this mind-map below I have listed down questions and areas of research for the project.
From there I started researching about my questions on online articles and wesites.
Secondary Research
Based on my research I made I found that plastic is doomed to affect the environment. From extraction to creating the plastic pellets, it creates a lot of air pollution, affects the health of the workers, and there is also water pollution. On top of that a lot of energy is also needed to produce plastic bottles and it's not an easy process. (7 Ways Oil And Gas Drilling Is Bad For The Environment., 2019), (Life Of A Plastic Bottle., 2017), (The World Counts. n.d).
I also went on looking for alternatives of plastic and then I found this article about 5 sustainable alternatives to plastic (Welle, D., 2020.). It was then that I got introduced to bioplastic the article is about 5 bioplastic made from Olive Pits, Sunflower Hulls, Fish waste and Algae, Plant sugar, Mushroom which are totally biodegradable and compostable.
I wanted to get more details on the bioplastic mentioned so I searched and found articles about the fish waste (UK designer invents plastic made with fish., 2019.), the mushroom (Mushroom... The New Plastic?, 2014) and the olive pits (Bioplastic Made from Olives, 2019) bioplastics mentioned above. Unlike what I expected I did not get much more information on them but I only got to see them in video or how they look better. However, while researching I also found someone who made bioplastic out of orange peel and said that her bioplastic can be poured into molds thanks to its density, it can be printed on with digital printers, it takes very well the textures on which it is laid, it can be thermoformed and laser cut (Taccola, G., 2020.). I also found Shellworks who makes bioplastic with seashells and their bioplastic also seems to have great potentials (Hitti, N., 2019.).
From there I got interested in knowing if I can make bioplastic at home so I research and found a tutorial video on how to turn watermelon peel into bioplastic at home using only 5 ingredients (Ong SK 1984., 2018.), using orange peels and coffee (Sperim Design., 2018.) and also using corn starch (ScienceLuxembourg., 2016.).
After all these reading I wanted to see why people have not started using more bioplastic and from there I found a Ted talk about bioplastic which also gave me a better insight of what bioplastic is. The video talked about how bioplastic has a lot of potential but it is not well known and easy to get for consumers. The video also mentioned that there is already a plan on how we can make bioplastic more sustainable and available but this depends on consumers, if we consumers will be able to become mindful and support bioplastic then a campaign to make bioplastic more available and help sponsor research to make better bioplastics will be possible (Tan, V., 2020.). I also found another video titled “Can Bioplastics Ever Compete” which talked about the same thing (ThinkBioplastic., 2019.).
From here I made my research framework.
Research Framework
Objective
To investigate how willing will people be to live an alternative life to reduce pollution in our environment and if all plastic products will be able to switch to bioplastic.
Research Question
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What do people think of bio plastic?
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Are people concerned about plastic pollution and would like to make a change?
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How much are people willing to endure to live in a “plastic-less” world?
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Would people be willing to buy bio plastic which may be more expensive than plastic just to
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stop plastic pollution?
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Do people believe that a “plastic-less” world is possible?
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Can all plastic products be replaced by bioplastic?
Research Methodologies
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Survey shared on social medias to get people's opinion on plastic pollution and bioplastic.
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An observation study on my own consumption of plastic to see what products seems to have potential to be made out of bioplastic.
Survey
I prepared a survey based on the questions I had for the Research Questions and sent it on social medias and 149 people replied.
Survey Questions
Survey Analysis
Overall analysis
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Every person that replied cares for the environment.
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Most of them bring bags to supermarket and throw all their trash in the bin.
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Most of them recycle.
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Even though they don’t find it convenient they don’t really have a problem with doing these little things to save the planet.
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A lot of them did not knew that only 9% of plastic is recycled.
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Most of them think that we can live a life without plastic, a lot said because our grandparents never needed it so that’s why it’s possible.
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A lot of people heard about bio plastic but do not know much about it. Some of them know that they are underfunded.
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Most of the people believed in bioplastic and will support it.
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People in rural areas are less concerned.
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Most people who recycle are from urban areas.
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People with low and average pay check are concerned about their budget when it comes to buy bioplastic.
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People that are unemployed has said that it will not be convenient to live without plastic.
In overall, most people think pretty much the same no matter what country. The slight difference maybe could come from education level.
Common answers
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Will buy bioplastic products as long as it fits their budget.
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Long ago there was no plastic and people lived well.
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Educate/sensitize people.
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Create new laws.
Some of the most interesting/realistic answers I got
Conventional plastic is cheaper because the extraction of hydrocarbons for energy means the scale makes it cheap. It will only get less and less cheap when hydrocarbons are no longer important for energy. Market instruments are required to incentivise switching to bioplastics.
It sounds like a really great alternative. However, I believe it wont be this decade that it will replace the non biodegrable plastics - the latter have monopolized the market for so long that people will be resistant to the change - and really it all comes down to the big companies, are they willing to go with this new safer for the planet plastic? Are they as easy to make/get our hands on? Are they as easy to work with as the non biodegrable plastics? And again, many many people would not be able to afford this new plastic, no matter how good of an influence it has on the environment, the economical side of it must be considered. If it's the same price or even cheaper than the non biodegradable plastic, i am sure people will be more welcoming towards it. But if not, only those from middle working class (perhaps) and higher class will purchase it. Also, companies could suffer from immense loss if the plastic were to be of a higher price, which would discourage an uncountable number of companies.
In the Netherlands they will now charge you a little extra on most plastic bottles. When you bring them back to the supermarket you get that money back. I think that's a great initiative.
Encourage people to recycle plastic. In Mauritius, people pay an extra fee when buying drinks if they do not return a glass bottle first. In the same way an extra fee should be added on water bottle to encourage people to recycle their plastic bottle.
Find that plant/solution that eats plastic, that will completely oblirate plastic without causing any damage to the environment in the process. It will definitely be a much faster process go achieve this. It won't necessarily stop plastic pollution, cause people will always keep polluting, but it will destroy all of that pollution.
Observation Study
The observation study was made in my apartment based on my own consumption of plastic products. The items were listed down and then categorized and quantified in the table from the slider below.
I also quantify the items that was made of plastic but there exist an alternative on the market like for example the product is made of wood or glass instead. And I also listed how many of those items seems to have potential to be replaced by the bioplastic that already exists. However, I realized with that observation study that a few things like plumbing pipes and electronics like laptop and many more, may not be possible to replace with bioplastic because bio plastic is made to degrade and those things need to be very durable and last for years. So a future completely without plastic may not be possible so soon.
Hidden Plastics
Interview
After that more research was required for my envisioned information piece because I wanted to create awareness about consumption of plastic. So I had to interview people from different households and make a list of the plastic items that they have in their house and ask them about the exact or an approximation of the quantity of certain products that they have. I have interviewed 4 people and I have highlighted all the common items from the list for all the people.
With this interview I found that it will be really hard for someone to not use plastic at all because plastic is used in so many essential products that we need like water pipes, internet router, stationaries, and many more. Even if we wanted to and are willing to try hard, there's a limit that we will hit where we will not be able to not use any plastic products.
Bibliography
Hitti, N. (2019). Shellworks turns discarded lobster shells into recyclable bioplastic objects. Retrieved 8 November 2020, from https://www.dezeen.com/2019/02/22/shellworks-bioplastic-lobster-shell-design/
Material Insight: Bioplastic Made from Olives // Material ConneXion. (2019). Retrieved 8 November 2020, from https://materialconnexion.com/material-insight-bioplastic/#:~:text=Bio%2DPura%2C%20the%20Bioplastic%20that's,as%20an%20alternative%20for%20plastic.&text=While%20it%20takes%20450%20years,plastic%20decomposes%20within%201%20year
Ong SK 1984. (2018). ALP project - Bio plastic from watermelon rinds [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql9J84zmMAU
PepsiCo Recycling, 2017. Life Of A Plastic Bottle. [video] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watchv=erGnf7ws20E&feature=youtu.be> [Accessed 13 November 2017].
ScienceLuxembourg. (2016). Make bioplastic by yourself! [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqg-QpaF1lk
Sperim Design. (2018). DIY bioplastics from orange peels and ground coffee [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrUjjzznwEE
Taccola, G., 2020. Behance. [online] Behance.net. Available at: https://www.behance.net/gallery/35475565/ALCHIMIA?tracking_source=search_projects_recommended%7CBiodegradable [Accessed 17 September 2020].
Tan, V. (2020). Are Bio-plastics a Sustainable Solution? | Vivian Tan | TEDxAbbotsford [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjb7AlYOSgo
The Wilderness Society. 2019. 7 Ways Oil And Gas Drilling Is Bad For The Environment. [online] Available at: <https://www.wilderness.org/articles/blog/7-ways-oil-and-gas-drilling-bad-environment#> [Accessed 9 August 2019].
Theworldcounts.com. n.d. The World Counts. [online] Available at: <https://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/pollution-from-plastic>.
ThinkBioplastic. (2019). Can Bioplastics Ever Compete? | Our Plastic Predicament: Episode 8 [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttcZdA0nP0k
TRT World. (2019). UK designer invents plastic made with fish | Money Talks [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaEanR3CSaM
University of San Francisco. (2014). Mushroom... The New Plastic? [news] [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRnJeNurdEY
Welle, D. (2020). 5 Sustainable Alternatives to Plastics. Retrieved 8 November 2020, from https://www.ecowatch.com/5-sustainable-alternatives-to-plastics-2645932261.html?rebelltitem=6#rebelltitem6