Dutch designer Gijs Schalkx has retrofitted an old car to run on an unusual fuel source: waste plastic that is turned back into oil.

Schalkx's DIY project, titled The Plastic Car (Is Made of Metal), consists of an old red Volvo with a roof-mounted "de-refinery" that heats plastic to obtain oil for the fuel tank.

The project began as a follow-up to the Sloot Motor motorcycle that Schalkx made as part of his product design course at the ArtEZ University of the Arts, which runs on methane harvested from local bogs.

Schalkx, who is interested in DIY as a form of responsible design and living, wanted to build a car with a similarly original energy source and chose plastic because there was a ready supply to be found in his own household recycling.

He sourced an old car from a scrapyard in Germany, fixed it up to be road-legal and fitted his "de-refinery", which he says is quite similar to a "normal oil refinery", to the top.

Plastic is loaded into this reactor and burned in an oxygen-free environment to make it evaporate into gas. When the gas condenses again, it is in the form of oil, which then drips down through a tube into a fuel tank in the back of the car, ready for use.

Schalkx used only his own household recycling to power the car, which he drove for around half a year while making a video of the work, needing around one kilogram of plastic for every seven kilometres.

The de-refinery takes roughly one hour to produce 12 litres of oil. The designer calls the process "very inefficient", but that's part of the point.

Cars "will never be efficient" as a form of transport he says, and The Plastic Car is a way of "being honest" about that fact rather than covering it up.

"In comparison to an electric car, where you do not see the pollution because it's on the other side of the world, I tried to be very transparent, very honest," Schalkx said, referencing the outsized emissions involved in manufacturing an EV and its lithium-ion battery.

In fact, his ambition was to build a car "that looks really disgusting". As well as having the rickety-looking de-refinery strapped to its roof, the Plastic Car has an uneven paint job, wooden bumpers and Schalkx's website address scrawled on its side.

When it drives, it belches black smoke – not uncommon for an old diesel car but likely heightened by the plastic, even though the oil passes through three filters on the way to the engine.

Clear, undyed plastic produces a "nice, clear oil", Schalkx pointed out, while the oil from blue or black plastic is "really dirty".

"With old diesels, you can put whatever fuel you can find in there and they will run – so sunflower oil, used motor oil – and they did always smoke already," said Schalkx. "But if it drives on plastic, it is a bit worse."

Schalkx has had people get angry with him about his work – about the pollution, about the plastic being burnt rather than recycled. But he takes issue with current ideas about what constitutes "sustainable design", a term he sees being co-opted by companies to sell more products.

Instead, Schalkx focuses on repurposing what's already available and increasing reuse and repair by building up knowledge of how things work.

He also limited himself to using only his own household waste in the project and drove only as far as that would allow him – around 100 kilometres in a month. Compared to someone buying a new car and driving it, he says his environmental footprint was small.

"If you're a designer, you're making things, producing things, but we actually already have a surplus of things," said Schalkx. "So I don't think we can ever be really sustainable."

Another young designer who has aimed to keep old cars on the road is Australian student Alexander Burton, who invented a DIY electric car conversion kit that won a James Dyson Award.

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This month's Dezeen In Depth newsletter delves into the debate surrounding the future of plastics and features an exclusive interview with interior designer Kelly Wearstler.

To mark Earth Day, which has the theme of "Planet vs Plastics" and is campaigning for "the end" of the material, we investigated whether it's time to bid farewell to the 20th century's wonder material.

The newsletter also features an interview with interior designer Wearstler and a piece by interiors columnist Michelle Ogundehin on the increasing difficulty of navigating design trends in the social-media era.

Dezeen In Depth

Dezeen In Depth is sent on the last Friday of every month and delves deeper into the major stories shaping architecture and design. Each edition includes an original feature article on a key topic or trend, an interview with a prominent industry figure and an opinion piece from a leading critic. Read the latest edition of Dezeen In Depth or subscribe here.

You can also subscribe to our other newsletters; Dezeen Agenda is sent every Tuesday containing a selection of the most important news highlights from the week, Dezeen Debate is sent every Thursday featuring a selection of the best reader comments and most talked-about stories and Dezeen Daily is our daily bulletin that contains every story published in the preceding 24 hours on Dezeen.

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With Earth Day 2024 and an increasing number of environmental campaigners calling for an end to plastics, is time finally up for the 20th century's miracle material? Rima Sabina Aouf finds out if we can – and should – abolish plastic.

Earth Day 2024 has the theme of "Planet vs Plastics", campaigning for "the end" of the material starting with a 60 per cent reduction in plastic production by 2040 and ultimately building to a "plastic-free future".

"Better to incinerate plastic than recycle it"

The proposal is indicative of a broader escalation in the rhetoric around plastic.

In the face of mounting evidence of dangers to the health of people and planet, and with lobbying efforts ramping up as United Nations member states work towards a draft of a global plastics treaty by the end of this year, more abolitionist voices are emerging, and even clashing with campaigners for circularity.

Sian Sutherland, co-founder of advocacy group A Plastic Planet and alternative materials database PlasticFree, is among those who believe we should put an end to plastics – recycling and all.

"It is better to incinerate the plastic – safely – than it is to perpetuate its toxic existence by recycling it," Sutherland told Dezeen.

"We need to take plastic out of our system wherever possible. And if we burn it, despite the fact we are simply burning fossil fuels that were momentarily a bottle or plastic bag, we are taking it out of the system."

She points out that at the current rate, global plastic production is forecast to increase threefold by 2060, and that the reality is that little of it is recycled – around 5 per cent in the US and less than 10 per cent in the UK.

She also backs a recent report from the Center for Climate Integrity, which claimed that the plastics industry has spread disinformation about the efficacy of recycling as a sales tactic in the same way that oil companies have more famously obscured the climate impacts of fossil fuel.

"Recycling is the fig leaf of consumption," added Sutherland. "Makes us feel better but never actually fixes the problem. It simply prolongs it."

"We have mostly stopped material innovation"

Plastic-abolitionists like Sutherland argue that only binding phase-out commitments will channel investment into developing viable alternative materials.

"The answer to the 'is it possible' is this: for the last 50 years we have mostly stopped material innovation, because we had this miracle called plastic," said Sutherland. "It has become the default for almost everything – products, packaging, building materials, textiles."

Labelling plastic a "toxic, indestructible material", she adds that a ban would create "a vacuum that innovation will quickly fill with better, safer, nature-compatible materials".

"The odds are against all innovation whilst we still swallow the myth that recycling plastic is (a) happening and (b) the answer," said Sutherland.

Relevant technologies are beginning to emerge. Bio-based and biodegradable solutions made from crop waste, vegetables, mushroom mycelium, bacteria-forged cellulose and algae seek to emulate the light and pliable qualities that make plastic so integral to modern life.

Some designers are making do with what's already available. Richard Hutten, who at the 2019 Dezeen Day conference described plastic as "the cancer of our planet" and recycling as "bullshit", has managed to design almost entirely without plastic for years.

"Almost", because plastics – polymer-based materials usually derived from petroleum or natural gas – are so ubiquitous they're in products we don't even think about.

"The only plastic I've been using is paint on steel," Hutten told Dezeen. "It is almost impossible to avoid plastic completely."

In recent years he has made a barstool for British manufacturer Modus from cork and redesigned mid-century classics by Wim Rietveld with a mix of biodegradable latex and coconut hair in place of plastic foam.

"Plastic is not bad, it's just completely overused"

But for other environmental advocates, the idea of eliminating plastic misses the real problem: that most of the world today does not value the recovery of materials, of any type.

We may be able to replace every variety of plastic in time, but as long as we live with overconsumption and disposability we will continue to deplete the planet's resources, they argue.

"Plastic is not bad," Thomas Matthews partner and sustainability expert Sophie Thomas told Dezeen. "It's just completely overused, and we don't have the proper infrastructure to get it back in the system."

She points out that from its beginnings in the 1950s, plastic has been sold to consumers as a throw-away luxury that represented progress after the sacrifices of the second world war, when countries including the UK had strict salvage campaigns to collect household waste for reuse to make weaponry and counter slowdowns in imports.

"Every material had to be given back – bones, paper, string – everything had to go into the war effort," Thomas said. "So now this plastic comes along and it's like, don't worry about it. Use it once, throw it away."

"This is the kind of positive, clean, quick, cheap, colourful future that we wanted to bring in after the war."

Instead of changing those patterns of use, Thomas sees brands and manufacturers rushing to replace plastics in the name of sustainability, sometimes with alternatives that have a worse environmental impact.

One example is substituting plastic takeaway containers with paper, usually with a plastic lining that can't be separated, making both materials unrecyclable.

By contrast, PET and especially HDPE – two commonly used packaging plastics – are the easiest to recycle, when not fused to other materials.

"Complexity is the worst thing for recycling," said Thomas. "Monomaterial is the way we should go – bio-monomaterials especially."

Not all plastics are the same, and Thomas does advocate for banning some of them, such as PVC – widely used in construction – and polyurethane foam.

Both, she says, are difficult to recycle and full of "nasty" volatile organic compounds.

Design studio Layer recently developed the Mazzu Open mattress, which swaps out polyurethane foam for less toxic and more recyclable polyester-wrapped springs.

"Polyester is incredibly durable and has a long life – and it's this quality that makes it a useful material in design, as designing for longevity is one of the most powerful tools we have in terms of sustainability," Layer founder Benjamin Hubert told Dezeen.

"Foam has a much shorter lifespan before it loses its functionality, and – unlike polyester – is not recyclable. The trade-off for us here is really clear."

"All recycled plastic ends up as waste"

Much of the debate around abolishing plastics comes down to recycling.

While glass or aluminium can be recycled infinitely without degrading, the molecular structure of plastics gets weakened every time they go through the extrusion process until they can't feasibly be used any further. For single-use plastics, in particular, that means a very short lifespan.

For abolitionists, the compromised quality of recycled plastic makes it misleading to label the process "recycling" at all – hence Hutten's "bullshit" claim.

"In the most optimistic view, you could call recycling of plastic down-cycling," he said. "Eventually, all recycled plastic ends up as waste."

"It will never be a financially and materially viable solution," added Sutherland. "There is no economic model that makes sense – or to be honest Coca-Cola would have built the system years ago to recycle their 120 billion bottles every year."

Those who think there is still a place for plastic advocate for longer-life products within a system where collection and recycling can be guaranteed.

Recycled-plastic design brands such as Circuform and Smile Plastics call their furniture and sheet material circular as they can be recycled repeatedly – four times at a minimum, according to Circuform.

PearsonLloyd co-founder Luke Pearson, who focuses on circularity, agrees that plastic can be "mostly circular" if designed "intelligently".

By avoiding additives such as glass fibre, limiting colour, and adding a small amount of virgin plastic when needed for strength, existing material can be kept in the system for a very long time, he says.

As for chemical recycling – the expensive, hazardous and energy-intensive new technology that breaks down plastic to its basic building blocks so it can be remade with its original strength – Thomas believes it could one day serve as a final step to close the loop on plastic, after mechanical recycling options have been exhausted.

"We have to develop the infrastructure for plastic where you actually get that closed loop, otherwise you will have to go for a complete ban of the material," said Thomas.

"And then what? We'd have to plant huge amounts of trees if we're going to substitute with paper or any crop-based biomaterials."

"There really is no time"

Plastic-abolitionists and circularity advocates agree on a number of points: we need legal restrictions on single-use and toxic plastics, we need funding for biomaterials, and we need to change habits.

The upcoming UN plastics treaty provides an opportunity to realise these proposals. But while some sense momentum towards positive change, longtime plastic abstainer Hutten admits that he has lost some of his optimism.

Recently, he created his first plastic piece in years: a one-off cupboard called Atlas, named after the Titan in Greek mythology who carried the world on his shoulders.

In his "reversed Atlas", a comment on the futility of design in tackling the pollution crisis, the Earth is depicted as collapsing under the weight of humankind.

Sutherland, meanwhile, is in high gear trying to get provisions such as cuts to production volumes of plastics, bans on single-use items and mandated chemical testing into the UN treaty.

"We need to leapfrog the 'less bad' to 'regeneratively good' in all materials and systems now," said Sutherland. "There really is no time for any other approach."

Dezeen In Depth
If you enjoy reading Dezeen's interviews, opinions and features, subscribe to Dezeen In Depth. Sent on the last Friday of each month, this newsletter provides a single place to read about the design and architecture stories behind the headlines.

The post Is a plastic-free future possible? appeared first on Dezeen.

We need to end our use of plastics for the sake of the planet and human's health, writes the director of Earth Day's end plastic initiatives Aidan Charron.

Plastics have become ubiquitous in our lives, they are everywhere and unavoidable but it hasn't always been like that. They are relatively new materials and while they do have some benefits, they are overused! Why the hell do we need to wrap a peeled orange in a clamshell container? Who does that benefit?

This has to stop. We need to end plastics for the sake of human and planetary health. This is why we are demanding a 60 per reduction in the production of all plastics by 2040.

Production of plastic is twice as high as 20 years ago with no sign of slowing down

Like smoking and lead in the 20th century, we know so little about the over 15,000 chemicals that can make up plastics and regard them as harmless. Of those chemicals, over 4,200 are hazardous, while only 980 are regulated and the vast majority of the other 11,000 or so are just not studied or regulated at all.

Our use of plastics is still increasing, with production of plastic twice as high as 20 years ago with no sign of slowing down. If we continue at our current trends, plastic use will triple from current levels in less than 40 years.

We don't have the technology or ability to handle the waste we currently have, so what will happen in 2060 if we triple production? Pictures of choked waterways, ocean-floor littering and trashed public areas will be the norm – not to mention the massive health implications of plastic and its additive chemicals.

Currently, plastics contribute $250 billion to healthcare costs annually in the United States alone. This stems from the diseases caused by the many chemicals such as PFAS, bisphenols and phthalates, which provide the unique characteristics of each plastic.

It is clear we need to ween ourselves of plastic

Last year the Earthday.org team set out to analyze and produce a report that goes over the main health issues that arise from plastic use, specifically those we are seeing in infants and children. The information we found was staggering. Microplastics are bioaccumulating in our major organs, being found in human placentas, detected in breast milk.

It's scary enough that they are able to penetrate all of these places. But even worse, they are actively contributing to general and childhood cancer rates the world over, with phthalate exposure linked to a 20 per cent increase in childhood cancer.

I could dive into more, including how infertility rates are increasing because of decreased sperm quality, while plastics production has risen. But if what I've highlighted so far doesn't frighten you a bit, I don't know what will (maybe the mention of the decrease in male genitalia size).

It is clear we need to ween ourselves of plastic. So, why a 60 per cent reduction by 2040 and is this possible? In my opinion, it is not only possible but the bare minimum we need the world to do.

At present 50 per cent of all plastic is single-use and the majority of that is single-use packaging that is not recyclable. Globally only nine per cent of all plastics are recycled. In the United States, it's only five per cent.

We need a ban on single-use plastics, our throwaway culture is new and needs to go away.

We need a ban on single-use plastics, our throwaway culture is new and needs to go away. Reuse, reuse, reuse should be how we think about most things, especially plastic. If we eliminate single-use plastic, that's 50 per cent of our reduction right there, with only 10 per cent to go.

Looking backwards can be a great way to move forward and the call for reusability makes sense. We have existing materials that pose less of a risk to human health compared to plastics. Glass can be used again and again and even when it breaks, it can be melted down and remolded. Glass! One of the oldest human-manufactured products, let's utilize it like we were for millennia.

Technology is great, don't get me wrong. And some great products have come out as alternatives to plastic such as mycelium composite alternatives to certain packaging. But what happens if we technology our way into something worse than plastic? Something that has worse health effects than current plastics and their added chemicals.

They had their hay day and it's time to move beyond them

Let's move back to utilizing longer-lasting materials. Wood is regenerative, let's start using in places where plastic has taken over like in the building of furniture. Stop making our clothes from synthetic materials, that flake off microplastics into the air and waterways.  Organic cotton, hemp, and wool grow back unlike plastic.

Once we start going for quality over quantity, we can start reducing our plastic production. We can get to a 60 per cent reduction in plastic. Two years ago, over 75 per cent of Americans wanted to see a reduction in single-use plastic, I suspect that number has grown with the attention plastics are getting in our media and with the advent of the Global Plastic Treaty.

It's time to call on our leaders to support the phase-down of plastics, they had their hay day, and it's time to move beyond them. Let's shoot for a 60 per cent reduction of production by 2040. We can do it, we just need those in power to listen to the vast majority of people who support it!

Aidan Charron is director of end plastic initiatives at Earthday.org.

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Indonesian non-profit Sungai Watch has unveiled the debut furniture launch from its design studio Sungai Design, aimed at creating useful products from the mountains of plastic waste that it fishes from Bali's rivers every day.

The Ombak lounge chair, created in collaboration with American designer Mike Russek, is made using a sheet material produced entirely from discarded plastic bags, with around 2,000 needed for every chair.

The bags are collected by Sungai Watch, which is on a mission to eliminate ocean plastic pollution using its own system of floating barriers to capture the waste as it flows along Indonesia's rivers.

Since its inception three years ago, the organisation has installed 270 barriers and collected more than 1.8 million kilograms of plastic, resulting in a huge stockpile of material.

Plastic bags are the most frequently collected item and also the least sought after in terms of future value, which led the team to focus on creating a product collection using this readily available resource.

"Collecting and amassing plastic waste solves one part of the problem of plastic pollution, the second challenge is what to actually do with all of this plastic," said Kelly Bencheghib, who co-founded Sungai Watch with her brothers Sam and Gary.

"As we collected hundreds of thousands of kilograms of plastics, we started to look at plastic as an excellent source material for everyday products we all need and use, from furniture to small goods to even art," she added.

Sungai Design has created two variations of the Ombak lounge chair – with and without armrests – manufactured in Bali using processes that aim to minimise waste during production.

The plastic bags are thoroughly washed to remove any impurities before being shredded and heat-pressed to form hard, durable sheets.

Precision CNC cutting machinery is used to carve out the different components, which are carefully shaped to minimise material use and leave no offcuts.

The panels are connected by a concealed metal structure, resulting in a pure and visually lightweight form with a simple slatted construction.

Although the design is available in three distinct colourways – Granite Black, Ocean Blue and Concrete White – the upcycling process produces slight variations in the tone and texture of the material, meaning each chair has a unique quality.

Ombak means wave in Indonesian and the name references Sungai Design's commitment to cleaning up rivers and oceans.

In line with this aim, Sundai Design has pledged to minimise its carbon footprint and put in place processes to audit and track the sources of the plastic used in its products.

The company is planning to release other products using the same material and, as a social enterprises, will donate part of its revenue to Sungai Watch to further the project as it seeks to clean up rivers in Indonesia and beyond.

"There is so much potential with this material," added Sam Bencheghib. "When you choose a chair from our collection, you're not just selecting a piece of furniture; you're embracing the transformation from waste to a beautiful, functional piece of art that has found its place in your home."

Every year, Indonesia accounts for 1.3 million of the eight million tonnes of plastic that end up in our oceans, making it one of the world's worst marine polluters.

Other attempts at collecting this waste and finding new uses for it have come from design studio Space Available, which set up a circular design museum with a recycling station and facade made of 200,000 plastic bottles in Bali in 2022.

The studio also teamed up with DJ Peggy Gou turn rubbish collected from streets and waterways in Indonesia into a chair with an integrated vinyl shelf.

"The trash is just everywhere, in the streets and rivers," Space Available founder Daniel Mitchell told Dezeen.

"It's not the fault of the people, there's just very little structural support, waste collection or education," he added. "Households are left to dispose of their own waste and most ends up in rivers or being burned."

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Local studio Bolsón has refabricated low-density plastic used in banana production to create interior cladding and furniture for Mooni in Mexico City during the city's art week.

Called Banana Blue, the installation was made from low-density blue plastic used for protecting banana crops at a plantation in Jalisco owned by the family of the wife of Bolsón's founder, Noberto Miranda, as well as local urban waste.

Miranda gathered the plastic and used a heat gun and body pressure to turn the plastic into cladding for Mooni, an art gallery and boutique shop in the city's Condesa neighbourhood.

Miranda told Dezeen that the project seeks to both reuse the material that was often thrown away and to constitute a "manual" relationship with working with plastic, as seen in his use of body weight and hand fabrication to create the material.

Banana Blue was used for the cladding of the facade as well as parts of the shop's interior.

"Seeking to reassign meaning to this waste and propose a different relationship with this omnipresent but often misunderstood and discarded material, Bolsón transforms the useless into pieces of art and utilitarian objects of aesthetic value, with the prevalence of the color blue," said Mooni.

"Banana Blue is a dialogue between nature, art, and sustainability."

In addition to the cladding material, several small stools made from compressed plastic developed by Miranda were showcased alongside the fine art usually displayed in Mooni.

Miranda told Dezeen that plastic is usually created in labs, by specialists, and that's why the material looks so "alien".

However, he hopes that showing the aesthetic potential for the work in fine art environments can help shift perceptions around plastic as a purely industrial material.

According to Miranda, the stools were developed to be "hard and soft" at the same time, showcasing the material's flexibility.

Beyond the installation itself, the project also seeks to connect materials with the communities that use it, specifically the workers on the banana plantation in Jalisco.

"They don't know what to do with it [after it's used]," Miranda told Dezeen.

"We need to take care of the broken stuff we are surrounded with."

Miranda has been working with plastic for years, making consumer objects such as bags from the material.

Banana Blue is on show at Mooni from 8 to 14 February as part of Mexico City Art Week. For more international exhibitions, talks and fairs in architecture and design visit Dezeen Events Guide.

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The 5 Gyres research institute says bioplastics are "not a silver bullet solution" for plastic pollution, following a study that raises concerns about so-called biodegradable products.

In its Better Alternatives 3.0 report, the Californian non-profit found that while bioplastics degrade faster than their fossil-derived counterparts, some degrade much slower than others.

The study found that some bioplastic packaging did not decompose after being buried underground for more than a year, regardless of the climate and soil conditions.

Researchers at 5 Gyres tested the degradation of 22 types of single-use packaging, with each type tested in both soil and sea for a total of 64 weeks, on sites in Florida, California and Maine.

In all three locations, straws made from polylactic acid (PLA) – a bioplastic made from corn starch or sugar cane – decomposed in the ocean but remained largely intact when buried underground.

Other common types of bioplastic packaging showed little or no signs of degradation after 64 weeks in soil, with forks, bottles and tampon applicators among them.

Lisa Erdle, director of science and innovation at 5 Gyres, said the results prove that bioplastics are not a one-size-fits-all fix for plastic pollution, despite what their biodegradable labelling might lead people to assume.

"There is no silver bullet solution for the plastics crisis," she said. "Instead, we need targeted solutions that address each sector of plastic use in society, from textiles and tyres to agriculture and electronics."

However, Erdle suggested that bioplastics can "offer potential to mitigate harm in specific cases".

"There are opportunities for upstream innovations across all sectors," she explained. "And for some sectors, bioplastics offer an alternative to traditional plastics."

The study backs up this claim. Among the 22 object types tested were three made from polyethene, or PE, a thermoplastic derived from petroleum. Film, forks and straws made from PE failed to degrade at any test sites, either terrestrial or marine.

While the bioplastics all degraded faster, some types were significantly more successful than others.

While the PLA straws failed to degrade in soil, alternatives made from polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) – a bioplastic produced by bacteria – biodegraded either fully or partially at all test sites.

The results from different types of bioplastic film were equally varied.

PLA fragmented far slower than polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), another bioplastic produced by bacteria. Fragments of PLA remained at all test sites after 64 weeks, while the PHA was no longer detectable at the Florida marine site after just eight weeks.

The test objects also included paper straws, which were found to be similar to PHB in terms of degradation, and bamboo forks, which were the slowest to degrade of all the utensils.

According to Marcus Eriksen, co-founder and researcher at 5 Gyres, the results prove the need for greater transparency and clearer messaging in how disposable products are used and marketed.

He believes that terms such as "biodegradable" or "compostable" are not clear enough for manufacturers or consumers.

"Our research shows that real-world factors greatly impact what happens to a product if it ends up in the environment," Eriksen said.

"An item may be advertised as biodegradable or compostable, but under what conditions? We need greater transparency and truth in advertising about the things we buy."

With this in mind, many designers have focused instead on using bioplastic to make long-lasting products, with recent examples including furniture by German designer Basse Stittgen and textiles from Copenhagen-based Natural Material Studio.

All images are courtesy of The 5 Gyres Institute.

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Packaging designs aimed at boosting recycling rates and reducing the prevalence of single-use plastics are destined to fail unless they help to change people's behaviour, writes Matt Millington.

No one is particularly happy when they find out there's plastic waste on Mount Everest, or in the deep oceans, or in human blood. It's not controversial to say that we need to stop churning the stuff out and throwing it away.

One way for businesses to tackle single-use plastics is to design their packaging to be reusable, but so far efforts have not succeeded at scale.

For example, reusable McDonald's cups are only getting a 40 per cent return rate from customers in Germany, despite consumers paying a €2 deposit. When Starbucks trialled reusable cups in the closed environment of its Seattle HQ, where returning them is presumably straightforward, the return rate still didn't exceed 80 per cent.

We weren't exactly succumbing to dehydration on the streets before coffee shops designed takeaway cups

It's not that we don't care: research suggests consumer motivation towards environmentally positive behaviour is high. It's that as a society we have developed an expectation of convenience: to have what we want, when we want it, without any consequences.

This is entirely unreasonable – we weren't exactly succumbing to dehydration on the streets before coffee shops designed takeaway cups – but while it persists, consumers are very unlikely to switch to reusable alternatives if it puts them out. And without a high return-and-reuse rate, reusable packaging is usually worse for the environment, owing to the much higher quantities of plastic involved.

This is why we need to design for human behaviour if we're ever to get rid of single-use plastics. You cannot control what people will do with packaging once it leaves your premises, but you can influence them by factoring behavioural psychology into the design of the packaging itself.

The first step is understanding how consumers interact with the pack, throughout its lifecycle. Where are they and what are they doing when they open it? What's their headspace? How about when they're finished with it? There's a big difference between how someone interacts with a reusable plate after a meal in a cafeteria, and how they interact with the reusable salad bowl they're gobbling from on the lunchtime rush back to the office.

Then it's about understanding the levers you can pull to nudge people towards more planet-positive decisions. Behavioural psychology shows there are three factors that work together to drive behavioural change: increasing consumer motivation to recycle or reuse, raising their ability to do so, and providing a trigger to remind them.

Take plastic bags. While usage of single-use bags has dramatically decreased in the UK since legislation requiring retailers to charge for them came into force in 2015, reusable alternatives have had mixed success. According to a report by the Environmental Investigation Agency and Greenpeace, 57 "bags for life" were sold for each household in the country in 2019 – more than one a week.

It's possible to go too far in signalling that a pack isn't disposable

Online grocer Ocado uses recyclable bags instead, but it has had success in achieving returns because it pulls all three behavioural psychology levers. Consumers are happy to receive bonus reward points for each bag they give back (motivation).

The bags are straightforward to return and customers know not to throw them away because of their clear messaging and distinct off-grey colour, which follows from not using harmful bleaching agents (ability). And because the driver usually asks for old bags after delivery, they're unlikely to forget (trigger).

Ability is the key consideration. If you wanted to return the packaging from a takeaway burger meal, it would mean washing and then carrying around a bulky burger box, fries box and cup, and either making a special trip to the restaurant or waiting until you happen upon another branch.

New Zealand start-up FOLDPROJECT has done some interesting work here, trying to make boxes more portable. It's a simple idea: a machine-washable lunch kit that packs down to a flat sheet. The challenge is that because it is so minimal, its form and material make it look disposable.

One way to ensure a reusable design communicates its intended purpose is through material choice. For example, using explicitly post-consumer recycled plastic could be a visual shorthand to communicate a planet-positive intent, as could using longer-lasting materials like glass or stoneware.

Interestingly, it's possible to go too far in signalling that a pack isn't disposable. When McDonald's introduced reusable packaging in its restaurants in France, it found the packaging kept disappearing, only to reappear on eBay. It looked reusable and on-brand, but was too novel for some, defeating the object.

So long as we have bins on every street that lead directly to landfill, we are going to struggle

Businesses cannot just switch to reusable packaging – even when intelligently designed – and expect results. So long as we have bins on every street that lead directly to landfill we are going to struggle.

We therefore need to think beyond just designing the packaging to be sustainable, and think about how we design systems to be sustainable. In a circular economy that means service and experience design, packaging, industrial design, marketing, data, artificial intelligence and logistics all working hand-in-hand to keep the pack "in the loop". It will therefore need to be an ecosystem effort.

We're already seeing innovations that can help make reuse and return viable in the age of convenience. For example, when is a bin not a bin? When it's a Bjarke Ingels Group-designed TURN system – a remote, digitally connected, RFID-enabled, packaging-asset reclaim and sorting network, which rejects unwanted trash.

Similarly, we're seeing nudge messaging along the pack journey, and even packs that communicate their status themselves. Scottish start-up Insignia has designed colour-changing labels that reveal how long a pack has been exposed to the environment. Imagine taking this further, with reusable packaging telling you what to do with it, and offering prompts or rewards to encourage you.

Reusability hasn't hit scale yet, but we should be optimistic that it can, not least because we've been there before. Milk deliveries were once the norm, with bottles returned, not discarded.

There's no reason that we can't get back to this more sustainable approach across the board, without having to endure too much inconvenience. All that's required is a little ingenuity, and a lot of collaboration.

The photography is by Jas Min via Unsplash.

Matt Millington is a sustainable-design strategist at PA Consulting.

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British startup The Tyre Collective has begun to make products from the microplastic particles that come off car tyres as they drive on roads, producing results including jewellery, a lamp and a battery.

The group – which was awarded the UK national James Dyson Award in 2020 for its car-mounted tyre-wear capturing device – worked with a range of collaborators to create the objects, which were displayed at the Material Matters fair at this year's London Design Festival.

According to The Tyre Collective, over a million tonnes of synthetic rubber particulate is produced annually by tyres on Europe's roads, and this tyre wear is a major source of microplastic pollution on both land and sea.

"The air we breathe in London contains more tyre wear than exhaust pollution," said the Tyre Collective. "This problem is worsened with electric vehicles from the added battery weight and torque."

The group worked with designers Rafael El Baz and Qiang Li, studio Lowpoly and scientists from the Queen Mary University of London Materials for Sustainability Group to experiment with potential uses for the material.

Lowpoly, a Madrid-based company specialising in sustainable 3D-printing, created a series of objects by mixing the rubber with recycled PLA (polylactic acid), a type of plastic often used for filament in 3D printers.

Their pellet mix contained 20 per cent tyre particles to 80 per cent recycled PLA. From it, they fabricated objects including a vase, speaker, lamp and acoustic panel, all with a lustruous, faintly translucent dark grey finish. The material can be further recycled.

Li, who operates the jewellery brand MuseLi-Q, mixed the tyre-wear rubber with resin and recycled sterling silver to make a series of rings, with the particles suspended in the clear resin in a manner that the designer said reminds her of inclusions within gemstones.

She also made a sculptural brooch that is meant to represent a single tyre particle, with a vial of the material surrounded by stones that reflect the elements within it.

With London-based El Baz, who works primarily with waste, The Tyre Collective explored many different material compositions that could be made by mixing the rubber with materials such as resin and jesmonite.

El Baz used one of his favourite variations – a semi-translucent, rubber-flecked resin – to make the base for a mushroom table lamp.

Neither the rings nor the lamp are recyclable due to the mixing of rubber with resin.

Wanting to go beyond decorative design and look at functional applications, The Tyre Collective's final collaborator was the Queen Mary research group, led by green-energy lecturer Maria Crespo.

The researchers made a coin battery – a small, single-cell battery of the kind that might be used in a wristwatch – using the rubber. The rubber was carbonised and made into a slurry that was coated on a copper foil to make the battery, in combination with other components.

The collaborations were funded by the Terra Carta Design Lab, a competition launched last year by King Charles III and former Apple designer Jony Ive to support solutions for the climate crisis.

The Tyre Collective is concurrently still developing its tyre-wear capture device, which is designed to be mounted near the wheels of vehicles and uses static electricity to suck in the rubber particles emitted during driving.

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British designer Gareth Neal and Dutch studio The New Raw have used thrice-recycled plastic and a new 3D-printing method to create the objects in the Digitally Woven series, which are printed in loops rather than layers.

The designer and the studio displayed several of their creations — a pink chair called Loopy and three vessels with a look reminiscent of woven baskets — at the Material Matters fair during the London Design Festival.

Neal is known for making furniture that references or incorporates heritage crafts and usually works in wood, while The New Raw specialises in robotic manufacturing with plastic waste.

The collaborators paired up with the goal of exploring how traditional craft techniques such as willow work, knitting, crocheting and paper-cord weaving could inform a new style of 3D printing.

They hoped to develop a method that would allow for imperfections in the final product and therefore reduce the amount of waste due to misprints.

For Digitally Woven, Neal and The New Raw created objects using various patterns of interlocking loops, which gave the structures strength and enabled the makers to use three-times recycled plastic, a rarely used material.

Currently, when working with recycled polypropylene plastic filament in 3D printing, the mix of source materials in the waste stream and the number of times it has been recycled are factors that can make it more unstable.

However, Neal and The New Raw's technique is visibly different from typical 3D printing, where the filament is added in layers to build an object.

Here, the printing robot has extruded thicker cords of material, almost like icing from a piping bag, laying it down in a looped pattern in 3D space.

According to Neal, the print lines for the machine are based on ones drawn by hand, creating a nuanced look informed by natural movement and crafting tools.

"At the time of starting the project, The New Raw was printing in a very traditional style with layered prints that had come from putting 3D models through slicer tools," Neal told Dezeen.

"They asked me to look into how we could consider using their technology to capture craft techniques that they had started to explore to disguise the misprints," he added.

Their experimentation yielded a "massive amount" of samples and textures, said Neal.

"The open weave structures were a totally new breakthrough and are really quite special in that they create structurally strong, lightweight objects using half the normal material use," he continued.

The designer said the project, which had been funded by a European Union grant, had involved a steep learning curve for him, as he had rarely used additive manufacturing and never worked with plastic.

"I learned so much," said Neal. "It has also reinforced how important the close relationship is between artists and manufacturers. If a manufacturer is open to experimentation, a designer or a maker really can introduce new approaches to traditional methods."

Neal is now working to expand and refine the range of Digitally Woven products. He says the Loopy chair can be made to order in any colour, using plastic from any waste stream.

Neal's previous work has included picnic furniture made with marquetry and a CNC-machined but 1780s-inspired chest of drawers that is in the collection of the V&A.

The New Raw's projects include the Ermis chair, a monobloc seat made from its own 3D-printing waste.

The photography is by James Champion.

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Danish toymaker Lego has abandoned its pilot programme to make recycled plastic bricks from discarded bottles after projections suggested that, adopted at scale, the material would ultimately have a higher carbon footprint.

The company introduced its first prototype bricks using recycled PET (rPET) in 2021 as part of the aim to have all of its products made from sustainable materials by the end of the decade.

But after two years of testing, Lego has now scrapped the project as calculations indicated that retooling its factories to process rPET – instead of the acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) used to form 80 per cent of its bricks – would ultimately generate more emissions over the product's lifecycle.

"It's like trying to make a bike out of wood rather than steel," Lego's head of sustainability Tom Brooks told the Financial Times, which broke the story.

"In order to scale production, the level of disruption to the manufacturing environment was such that we needed to change everything in our factories. After all that, the carbon footprint would have been higher. It was disappointing."

The rPET also requires large amounts of energy for processing and drying, Brooks explained, as well as additional chemicals so it can rival the durability of normal Lego blocks.

Instead of repurposing plastic bottles, Lego says it is now looking to find bio-based and recycled substitutes for the individual chemicals that make up ABS, as well as investigating alternative solutions.

"We remain fully committed to making Lego bricks from sustainable materials by 2032," a spokesperson for the company told Dezeen.

"We are currently testing and developing Lego bricks made from a range of alternative sustainable materials, including other recycled plastics and plastics made from alternative sources such as e-methanol."

The company is also exploring the potential of bioplastics, which has formed some of the flora found in Lego kits since 2018 as well as the company's recent Botanical Collection.

However, Lego CEO Niels Christiansen told the FT he believes no single material will be a silver bullet solution.

"We tested hundreds and hundreds of materials," he said. "It's just not been possible to find a material like that."

Instead, part of Lego's solution will be a focus on incremental emissions reductions as well as a takeback scheme, which the company is hoping to develop over the next few years so that unwanted bricks can be directly reused in new sets or recycled if they are no longer functional.

The news comes only a month after the company pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Previously, Lego had only committed to a 37 per cent emissions reduction by 2032 compared to 2019.

All images are courtesy of Lego.

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Plastic has a crucial role to play in the battle against climate change, according to Thomas Drustrup, managing director of the Danish trade association for plastics.

Speaking to Dezeen in Copenhagen, the Danish Plastics Federation CEO said that people need to understand that plastics can have a positive impact on the planet if used correctly.

"Plastic has an image problem," he told Dezeen. "Plastic is a great material, but we need to make sure it doesn't end up in nature."

"We need to make sure we use it in the right places," he added.

Drustrup points to plastic's role in the shift toward green energy as a key example.

He said the material is essential in the development of wind and solar power solutions, which can enable a move away from using fossil fuels for energy.

"When we look at most oil consumption, it's for heating, energy and transportation, which together accounts for around 80 to 90 per cent," he stated.

"We want to move in a sustainable direction with wind power and solar. To do that, we need plastics," he continued.

"You can't build an effective windmill without fibreglass wings, for example."

Use plastic "where it makes sense"

The Danish Plastics Federation, also known as Plastindustrien, represents 270 plastic-producing companies including toy brand Lego and medical manufacturer Coloplast.

Dezeen spoke to Drustrup during the UIA World Congress of Architects, a conference centred around how the building industry can combat climate change, increase biodiversity and promote social inclusion.

The Danish Plastics Federation's contribution was the Plastic Pavilion, one of 15 SDG Pavilions built in Copenhagen to demonstrate sustainable construction practices.

Designed by architects Terroir, the pavilion was built almost entirely out of plastic, and mostly recycled plastic. Inside, it showcased applications where the Danish Plastics Federation believes plastic is the most suitable material.

These include for the medical industry, construction and food packaging.

"We want to tell a story about where plastic does make sense," Drustrup said.

"If we design it right, we have a great material that can be reused and recycled. What we don't need is products that we just make for convenience or to just use plastic without thinking because it's cheap."

"There are a lot of possibilities"

The demountable Plastic Pavilion was framed by I-beams made from glass-reinforced plastic, also known as fibreglass. These sat on 3D-printed "feet" made from a mix of recycled plastic and wood, filled with stones that weighed them down.

"There are a lot of possibilities that we want to show architects," said Drustrup.

"Fibreglass is stronger than steel, much more lightweight, and much more flexible in its use, so it's easier to reuse."

Drustrup is sceptical about the potential of bioplastics to replace oil-based plastics, highlighting claims that bioplastics could potentially be worse for the environment than conventional plastics.

He believes that advocating for bioplastics can have a negative impact, as it encourages people to treat the material as disposable.

Instead, he is optimistic that advancements in chemical recycling will make it increasingly easier to recycle oil-based plastics, reducing the need to extract oil from the ground.

"I don't think it will be in my lifetime that we'll be making plastics fossil-free," he said, "but we are going to get there."

Pandemic proved need for plastic

Drustrup highlights the Covid-19 pandemic, when plastic enabled the production of billions of test kits worldwide, as a turning point in proving plastic's ongoing importance to society.

The claim comes in spite of the estimated 26,000 tonnes of plastic waste that ended up in the world's oceans as a result of the coronavirus response.

The problem, Drustrup argues, is not the material itself but the systems in place for dealing with it after use.

The Danish Plastics Federation recently published a strategy document titled Responsible Plastics Production, which outlines how the plastics industry can tackle the issue of plastic waste.

"We as a society need to pay attention to how we use our resources," he concluded.

"As someone said to me, plastic doesn't have feet, arms or wings. So if it ends up in nature, it's probably because we put it there. The challenge for us is to make sure that doesn't happen."

Plastic Pavilion was on show from 19 June to 14 July 2023. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Dezeen Showroom: designed by Italian designer Paolo Cappello for Miniforms, the Superpop tables have a colourful, terrazzo-like surface created from recycled plastic.

Superpop is designed to be sustainable, versatile, lightweight and fun, with a height and shape that makes the collection suitable for use as coffee tables, side tables or stools.

Cappello and Miniforms set out to prove that "green design hadn't to be boring" with the furniture, which is meant to bring a festive atmosphere and be easy to move from space to space.

The pieces are made by heating plastic that's been separated by colour and type at a low temperature of only 120 degrees, so it doesn't mix or change character and can be further recycled in the future in an ongoing loop.

"Superpop is a cutting-edge project that stands out for the attention behind its realisation, peppy colours and smart design, that goes beyond the standard conception of living furniture," said Cappello.

Superpop comes in a choice of two heights and four colours, dubbed Super Black, Super Blue, Super Red and Super White. It is suitable for use indoors and out.

Product: Superpop
Designer: Paolo Cappello
Brand: Miniforms
Contact: carolina@miniforms.com

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The Canadian government and social enterprise Challenge Works have announced the winners of their Afri-Plastics Challenge – an accelerator for companies across sub-Saharan Africa that are working to end plastic pollution.

The competition's £4.1 million prize fund was divided among nine winning projects, including a reusable diaper subscription from Rwanda and a Kenyan company making washing-up brushes from discarded coconut fibres.

"Eleven million tonnes of plastic waste enter the ocean each year," said Challenge Works' managing director Tris Dyson. "The winners of the Afri-Plastics Challenge are putting African innovation at the heart of solving this global problem."

Launched in July 2021, the accelerator program received more than a thousand entries that were whittled down to a shortlist of the 40 most promising projects, 60 per cent of which were female-led.

The finalists, alongside the 31 other shortlisted projects, had already received £4.8 million worth of seed funding, grants and support throughout the duration of the competition. Since  its launch they have reported a 113 per cent increase in the amount of plastic being collected and processed every month.

"We are awarding more than £4 million to businesses that are already doubling recycling rates thanks to the Afri-Plastics Challenge while providing new sources of income for families [and] pioneering companies," Dyson said.

The biggest cut of the prize fund at £1 million went to Green Industry Plast – an initiative setting up plastic donation bins across Togo and training young drop-outs and women in sorting and recycling the waste to make building materials.

Once the plastic is melted, it is mixed with sand and cast into moulds to create bricks and paving stones for the local community.

"The Ecopave concept is an innovation designed to win over the minds of everyday people and persuade them to make more sustainable choices in the materials they use and the way they dispose of plastic," said the company's CEO Gado Bemah.

Another £750,000 was awarded to Kenyan company Chemolex, which has developed a bioplastic made from invasive water hyacinths that are blanketing Lake Victoria.

The Biopactic material provides an alternative to fossil-based plastics while creating an economic incentive for removing the invasive species wreaking havoc on the local ecosystem.

Fellow Kenyan company EcoCoCo, which took home £250,000, took a different approach and instead focused on finding a plastic-free replacement for traditional scrubbing brushes and scouring pads.

Competitively priced and biodegradable, the resulting pieces are made using waste coconut husks for bristles and handles made using wood offcuts from local timber yards and carpenters.

"Plastic dish scrubs and sponges are commonplace in homes in Africa and are some of the most wasteful products in our kitchens," explained project lead Ingabo Schneidder.

"When in use, they shed tiny fibres, a type of microplastic, which can't be filtered out by water treatment plants and end up in the water system. And then there's the waste factor because they are replaced often and are not recyclable."

Another winning project was Toto Safi from Rwanda, an affordable women-run subscription service that delivers and cleans reusable nappies.

The aim is to cut down on the 7,000 disposable diapers an average baby needs before they are potty trained and ultimately save not just waste but also cost.

"Many mothers in Rwanda just don't have the money to keep up with the number of disposable diapers they need, forcing them to cut back on basic essentials," CEO Faith Wacera explained. "For some mothers, it can mean the choice between diapers and food."

Other winning projects include Mega Gas, Ukwenza VR and Baus Taka Enterprise from Kenya, Chanja Datti from Nigeria and Catharina Natang from Cameroon.

Plastic pollution is at the top of the global agenda at the moment as the second round of negotiations for the UN's Global Plastics Treaty took place in Paris last week.

Delegates from 180 nations and various other stakeholders were involved in the discussions to determine what the first-ever international treaty to regulate plastic production and pollution should include.

But ahead of the negotiations, a number of NGOs and scientists accused the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) of excluding communities and waste pickers from developing countries, which are most affected by plastic pollution.

Meanwhile, Greenpeace lobbied for the treaty to focus on capping and phasing down plastic production instead of treating recycling as a silver bullet solution, in a report outlining how recycled polymers often contain more toxic chemicals than virgin plastic.

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The process of recycling can actually make plastics more hazardous to human health, according to a recent Greenpeace report that calls on the United Nations to rule it out as a scalable fix for plastic pollution.

Released ahead of the second round of negotiations for the UN's Global Plastics Treaty, which will begin on Monday, the report compiles the findings of several peer-reviewed studies from across the globe.

These suggest that recycled plastics often contain higher concentrations of toxic chemicals such as flame retardants, benzene and other carcinogens than virgin plastic. Recycled plastics also contain "numerous endocrine disruptors that can cause changes to the body's natural hormone levels", according to the Greenpeace report.

Plastic recycling a "toxic endeavour"

Chemicals in recycled plastics have been linked to cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity and other health issues, the report says. These can affect not just the end-user of the recycled product, but also frontline communities and workers involved in the process.

Combined with the fact that less than nine per cent of plastic waste is recycled globally, Greenpeace argues these findings suggest that the UN's Global Plastics Treaty should focus on capping and phasing down plastic production, instead of treating recycling as a silver bullet solution.

"The science clearly shows that plastic recycling is a toxic endeavour with threats to our health and the environment all along the recycling stream," said Therese Karlsson, a science advisor with the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN) who worked on the report.

"Simply put, plastic poisons the circular economy and our bodies, and pollutes air, water, and food," she added. "Real solutions to the plastics crisis will require global controls on chemicals in plastics and significant reductions in plastic production."

Chemicals compound through recycling

Virgin plastic already contains more than 3,200 chemicals that are known to be hazardous to human health, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which can be transferred over into the recycled product.

On top of that, plastic waste can be contaminated with other toxins in the waste stream, the report says; for example when it comes into contact with containers for pesticides and cleaning solvents.

The recycling process itself can also create new hazardous chemicals such as benzene and brominated dioxins, according to Greenpeace, as the plastics are heated and their different hazardous chemicals combined.

"There are a lot of chemicals within plastic and every time you recycle them, you compound them up," Sian Sutherland, co-founder of environmental organisation A Plastic Planet, told Dezeen.

"So it is no coincidence that recycled plastic was until recently not allowed to be used to be in contact with food."

Designers conflicted about role of plastics

Last year saw 193 countries agree to draw up a legally binding UN treaty to end plastic pollution by 2024, known as the Global Plastics Treaty. And now, UNEP is hosting the second round of negotiations in Paris starting next week.

The role of recycling in solving the world's plastic pollution crisis is highly contested among designers.

Some, including designer Richard Hutten and Belgian curator Jan Boelen, argue that big brands are using recycling as a smokescreen to create an illusion of change while continuing to produce more and more virgin plastics.

Others, among them the CEO of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation Andrew Morlet, argue that durable, recyclable plastics can form part of a circular economy.

The photo is courtesy of Pixabay.

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Spanish design studio Nagami has completed a shop interior for sustainable clothing brand Ecoalf near Madrid that is almost entirely 3D printed from recycled plastic.

Walls, shelves and display tables inside the store in the Las Rozas Village designer outlet are made from 3.3 tonnes of repurposed plastic waste, sourced mainly from hospitals and used to create transluscent surfaces that resemble melting glaciers.

Additive manufacturing specialist Nagami created the plastic panels using a robotic arm equipped with a custom-built extruder that can print complex 3D forms, with the aim of uniting design and technology to raise awareness about the climate crisis.

"We wanted to highlight the melting of the polar glaciers due to climate change," Nagami co-founder Manuel Jiménez García told Dezeen. "So the walls are meant to represent a glacier that is cracking."

"The 3D-sculpted texture is a reference to the way the wind and snow erode the ice over time," he added. "The idea was to recreate the sensation you might have when walking inside a glacier."

The Ecoalf store is the first fully 3D-printed interior completed by Nagami. And García believes it may be the first in the world to be fully 3D-printed using recycled plastic.

The project was completed with a very short lead time of just three months from design to installation.

According to García, the undulating forms that cover almost all of the store's internal surfaces pushed the robotic printing technology to its limit.

"The machines needed to literally dance to create all of these different angles," the designer explained. "Traditional 3D printing uses layers. But we can change the angle of the robot to make the kinds of curved and wavy forms you see in this project."

The walls are divided into panels and joined using connectors that form part of the printed structure. This meant that the tolerances needed to be very precise so that the components can slot together neatly.

On the floor, natural stone tiles feature veins reminiscent of cracking ice to enhance the feeling of walking on a glacier.

All of the components used for the interior can be disassembled and reused or recycled for future projects. The plastic itself is almost infinitely recyclable, losing just one per cent of its structural performance with each new use, Nagami claims.

Both companies share an interest in sustainable manufacturing, with Ecoalf creating clothing, footwear and accessories using recycled materials including plastic bottles, discarded fishing nets, used tyres and post-industrial wool and cotton.

Similarly, Nagami works with recycled plastic to create furniture, sculptures, interiors and architectural elements as part of a closed-loop production process.

The studio's previous projects include several window displays for Dior, as well as a mobile toilet cubicle called The Throne and a collection of 3D-printed chairs by designers including Ross Lovegrove and Zaha Hadid Architects.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Nagami also made use of its quick-fire production process to 3D print face shields for medical staff.

"We see 3D printing as one of the most sustainable forms of production," García explained. "You don't have to produce stock, it doesn't create any fumes and it's very versatile so you can create things on demand."

"In the future as we expand we want to have production sites around the world making things locally and reducing our carbon footprint even further."

All photography is by Alfonso-Quiroga unless otherwise stated.

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In our latest competition, Dezeen has teamed up with PlasticFree to give 100 readers a chance to attend Incredible Future NOW – an interdisciplinary forum of talks focusing on the climate crisis in New York City.

Our Incredible Future Now takes place at Parsons School of Design in New York City on 2 February 2023 and follows the launch of PlasticFree's database of plastic alternatives earlier this month.

Building on this launch, the event will include a series of fast-paced talks from creatives across multiple disciplines who seek to move from words, pledges and pacts to actual change.

Confirmed speakers include global head of brand experience and design at hygiene, health and nutrition company Reckitt Benckiser Group Jos Harrison, chief innovation officer at fashion brand Pangaia Amanda Parkes, co-founder of design studio Birsel + Seck Ayse Birsel, founder of consumer packaging media brand The Dieline Andrew Gibbs, founder of climate innovation hub The Slow Factory Celine Semaan, CEO of agricultural consultancy FAI Farms Oistein Thorsen and founder and CEO of plant-based textile company Natural Fiber Welding Luke Haverhals.

Talks will also also be delivered by co-founder and CEO of plant-based clothing company UNLESS Collective, Eric Liedtke, founding partner and creative director of creative studio Made Thought Ben Parker, co-founder of creative agency PENGARNA Tom Arden and co-founder of PlasticFree and A Plastic Planet Sian Sutherland.

The event aims to bring together leading creative professionals to interrogate the question: "Why are we still talking about the problem when we have so many answers?"

It aims to ignite, inspire and re-channel creative vigour into designing entirely new systems and ideas to tackle the problems of the climate crisis.

To claim your place, sign up here. The first 100 Dezeen readers to register will receive a ticket.

Our Incredible Future Now takes place from 2 to 4 pm on 2 February 2023 at the Tishman Auditorium, Parsons School of Design, 66 5th Avenue, New York City, NY 1001, USA. See Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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This competition is a partnership between Dezeen and PlasticFree. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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The sale of single-use plastic tableware and certain takeaway containers will be prohibited in England starting this autumn, the UK government has announced.

The ban, introduced by environment secretary Thérèse Coffey last weekend, will target single-use plastic plates, trays, bowls, cutlery and certain polystyrene-foam cups and food containers, as well as balloon sticks.

Once the regulation comes into effect in October 2023, these items will no longer be offered by retailers, food vendors or takeaway restaurants, the government said.

The aim is to cut down on the 2.7 billion pieces of single-use cutlery and 721 million plates used in England every year – only 10 per cent of which is recycled.

"We all know the absolutely devastating impacts that plastic can have on our environment and wildlife," Coffey explained.

"Plastic pollution takes hundreds of years to break down and inflicts serious damage to our oceans, rivers and land," the government added.

"It is also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, from the production and manufacture of the plastic itself to the way it is disposed."

Ban dismissed as a "nowhere near enough" 

The ban will not include pre-packaged food items sold in supermarkets and shops, as the government said these are set to be included as part of an Extended Producer Responsibility Scheme aimed at encouraging plastics manufacturers to meet higher recycling targets.

England follows in the footsteps of Scotland and Wales, who prohibited the sale of single-use plastic plates and cutlery last year, and lags more than a year behind the European Union, which enacted similar legislation in July 2021.

This has led campaigners including Steve Hynd, policy manager at environmental non-profit City to Sea, to critique the ban as doing "nowhere near enough to tackle the plastic crisis we face".

"We are really just playing catch up with some minimum standards," he told Dezeen. "Many of our neighbouring countries have gone further and faster. France, for example, has banned all single-use from being served in restaurants and bars."

"Wales is including single-use plastic bags in its ban," he added. "If we were really world leaders we would have implemented this ban years ago and it would sit as part of a much wider plan to reduce single-use plastics as a whole."

England's ban on single-use plastics has so far only included straws, stirrers and cotton buds, as well as the microbeads found in cosmetics.

The country has also enacted a 10-pence charge for single-use plastic bags in shops, which according to Coffey has cut sales of the carriers by over 97 per cent in the main supermarkets.

England failed to set reuse and reduction targets

Going forward, the government said it is "carefully considering" measures to target other commonly littered items such as wet wipes, cigarette filters and sachets – either via mandatory labelling or a full-out ban.

"The plastic sachet, the ultimate symbol of our grab-and-go, convenience-addicted lifestyle, should be the next target in DEFRA's sights," Sian Sutherland of environmental organisation A Plastic Planet told Dezeen.

"Twelve months ago, our government committed to such a ban. Let's make this a true world-first for the UK instead of just following Europe's faster footsteps."

England is also planning to enact a deposit return scheme for drinks containers to encourage recycling, which has been in use in Germany and several other European countries for a number of years.

The country backed the creation of a "historic" UN treaty, which is set to be drafted by the end of 2024 and will regulate plastic production and pollution on an international scale for the first time. However, England has so far failed to set its own plastic reuse and reduction targets.

In lieu of more stringent regulation, designers and material researchers have started developing their own plastic alternatives over the last few years, ranging from mealworm polystyrene cups to clingfilm made from waste potato peels.

More than 100 examples of these materials were recently compiled into an online database, which hopes to help architects and designers source plastic-free materials for their projects.

The top image by Heiko Prigge shows the Spoon Archaeology exhibition at the 2021 London Design Biennale.

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Environmental organisation A Plastic Planet has launched an online platform to help architects and designers source plastic-free materials for their projects and avoid the "minefield of misinformation" around more sustainable alternatives.

Called PlasticFree, the subscription-based service provides users with in-depth reports on more than 100 plastic alternatives, offering key insights into their properties, production and sourcing.

Part material library, part design tool, the platform also highlights case studies on how these materials are already being turned into products across five different continents and allows users to collate them into Pinterest-style mood boards for their projects.

The ultimate aim, according to A Plastic Planet, is to "help designers and business leaders eradicate one trillion pieces of plastic waste from the global economy by 2025".

"No designer on the planet wants to make branded trash," the organisation's co-founder Sian Sutherland told Dezeen. "They did not go to design school and care about everything that they produce every single day for it to end up in a bin."

"But I don't think designers have been trained for what is expected of them today," she added. "So we wanted to create an absolutely authoritative, unbiased, material-agnostic platform that designers can use to learn about materials and their systems."

PlasticFree is the result of more than two years of research and development in collaboration with a 40-strong council of scientists, business leaders and industry figureheads including Stirling Prize-winner David Chipperfield, designer Tom Dixon and curator Aric Chen.

In a bid to offer a reliable, trustworthy source of information, each material was carefully vetted by an "army" of scientific advisors based on an extensive data collection form and A Plastic Planet's Plastic Free Standard, Sutherland explained.

"Designers want to be part of the solution but there is a minefield of misinformation out there," she said. "It's taken us two years to do all the research on these materials, to drill down and ask all the questions so that our audience doesn't need to ask them."

All this information is condensed into individual reports, summarising each material's key traits, its stage of development and sustainable credentials such as water savings.

Each profile also includes a list of key questions that designers will have to consider if they want to work with the material, such as whether it will be on the market in time or whether it needs to be integrated into a reusable product to offer emissions reductions.

"It's about how we can empower designers by telling them what questions they should ask of a materials manufacturer," Sutherland said.

"How can you push back against that brief that says: just use a recycled polymer or a bioplastic? How can you challenge a lifecycle analysis? Because I sit on those calls and I hear the complete bullshit that is spewed out all the time."

Designed by London studio Made Thought, the PlasticFree database focuses on the sectors that currently use the most plastic – namely packaging and textiles, with buildings and construction set to be added later this year.

It features raw materials such as bamboo and cork, alongside more specific innovations such as Great Wrap's potato-based cling film and Living Ink's algae ink.

Some of these materials – like bioplastics and recycled plastics – are merely "transitional" and, according to Sutherland, represent "a foot on a better path" rather than a viable solution to plastic pollution.

The real promise, she argues, lies in fossil-free "nutrient-based" materials such as Notpla's edible seaweed packaging or Mirum plant leather, which are able to go back to the earth as nutrients.

"That is going to be the future of materials," Sutherland said, "for everything from the houses we live in and the fabric we wear, to the products we buy and the packaging in which they're sold."

PlasticFree's Stories section also houses more educational content on everything from clothing dyes to the "forever chemicals" in our plastics, in the hopes of pushing the wider systems-level changes that need to go along with this material transition.

"Above all, our focus is on system change, not just better materials," Sutherland said.

"How can we have permanent packaging? How can we make things that are durable, that feel beautiful in your hand, that make you feel even fonder of them as they age? How can we get off this ever-moving conveyor belt of new?"

Sutherland founded A Plastic Planet together with Frederikke Magnussen in 2017, with the aim of inspiring the world to "turn off the plastic tap".

Since then, the organisation has rallied both industry and policymakers behind its cause, creating the "world's first" plastic-free supermarket aisle as well as working with the UN to realise a historic global treaty to end plastic waste.

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Los Angeles streetwear brand Rose In Good Faith has collaborated with sex toy manufacturer Doc Johnson to create a pair of shoes using plastic recycled from sex toys.

Apart from its cork insole, the whole shoe was produced using a combination of plastic sourced from unused and damaged adult toys and non-bleached Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate (EVA) foam.

Rose in Good Faith founder David Teitelbaum came up with the idea to create a shoe made from sex toys after visiting Doc Johnson, one of the largest sex toy companies in the US.

Teitelbaum believes the shoes which are called Plastic Soul could reduce waste from unwanted polymers and help clean up the footwear industry.

"I had the idea when touring the impressive Doc Johnson facility and seeing a few toys that didn't make it past quality assurance, get grounded down through a machine," Teitelbaum told Dezeen.

"The little rough cubes from the broken toys sparked a memory of EVA pellets and from there the idea was born," he continued.

"We wanted to remove the taboo and start the conversation around sexual wellness and health, while also making an incredible shoe that removed excess thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) that would have been thrown away or destroyed."

Only 16 per cent of plastic waste is recycled to make new plastics, while 40 per cent is sent to landfill, 25 per cent to incineration and 19 per cent is dumped.

Two years in the making, Plastic Soul is the first shoe from the brand. Plastic from sex toys that were damaged during the manufacturing process was ground down into millimetre-sized cubes of TPE, a polymer blend with an elasticity similar to rubber that is both durable and springy.

TPE is also sometimes referred to as thermoplastic rubber.

"Such a small amount of damages occur in Doc Johnson's supply chain, but when they do, we have a grinding machine that pulverizes the defective toys and collects the broken cubes in bins," Teitelbaum explained.

Once it has been ground down into cubes, the material is mixed with EVA foam, a highly buoyant, flexible and rubber-like plastic. EVA is often used to form the cushioning midsole of trainers or Crocs as its spongy qualities help to absorb impact shock.

This mixture is then injection moulded into the entire Plastic Soul shape and coloured in a creamy white.

Although Teitelbaum believes Plastic Souls could be a solution to plastic waste, the EVA foam used in its base is made from petroleum and would survive in landfills for up to 1,000 years. This means Rose In Good Faith's shoes don't directly reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in waste.

The shoes, which cost $130 (£111) have a raised arch in the footbed that has been engineered to support the wearer's foot by moulding to their foot shape over a few hours of wear.

In comparison to flat shoes, shoes with a raised arch support the wearer's foot by lessening any abnormal stress on the knees and hips when compared to flat shoes, according to the brand.

Plastic Souls also boast a recycled cork insole with a cotton liner.

While comparisons between Crocs and Kanye West's popular Yeezy sandals are inevitable, Teitelbaum cited the architecture of The Broad art museum by architecture studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro as his main reference point for the design.

"The initial design came from the angular, sharp architecture of The Broad in Downtown Los Angeles," he said. "From there, we added details of a chunky climbing boot seen around the sole and generous toe box and the low ankle details of a runner."

"Growing up I loved 0-lift sprinting shoes, which hugged the feet with a tall ankle tab for ease and looked fast with a very low profile," Teitelbaum added.

"We added those runner details and blended in the angular dimensionality of The Broad to finish off the design."

Scientists have warned that, unless drastic global changes are introduced soon, the amount of plastic waste infiltrating the natural landscape will exceed 12 billion tons by 2050 with vast quantities of it ending up in landfill or in the oceans.

In response, a swathe of designers have attempted to minimise the environmental impact of the footwear industry on the environment and reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in landfill each year.

German designer Emilie Burfeind developed a sneaker that has a mycelium sole and a knitted upper made from canine hair while Canadian brand Native Shoes designed a trainer that is entirely made from a piece of algae-enriched EVA.

The photography is by Ian Buosi.

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Dezeen Showroom: textured recycled plastic is used to create the minimalist Juno 02 chair, which design brand Studio Irvine has created for Italian brand Arper.

Juno 02 is an evolution of the open-back Juno chair, which Studio Irvine designed for Arper in 2012. The redesign was carried out "for a more sustainable future".

The updated chair is made from 70 per cent post-industrial recycled plastic, and its form has been refined to reduce the quantity of materials to produce it.

"The idea was not to develop a whole new product, but to improve on a design that’s already successful by using a new material that’s more sustainable," said Studio Irvine designer Marialaura Rossiello Irvine.

Juno 02 is available in six different colours and is intended for use in both residential and commercial spaces, as well as both indoor and outdoor settings.

According to Studio Irvine, the new colours are "designed to be integrated into softer environments" and include a rusty red, grey and sage green.

Product: Juno 02
Designer: Studio Irvine
Brand: Arper
Contact: info@arper.com

The photography is by Salva Lopez.

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California-based industrial designer Reiten Cheng has developed a recycling machine that can be 3D printed using open-source instructions and used to turn PET bottles into filament for additive manufacturing.

Polyformer was designed to make it cheaper and easier for independent makers to create products from repurposed waste materials instead of relying on virgin plastic.

The design is open source, meaning that a step-by-step manual detailing its construction is freely available online so that it may be used and adapted by others.

The L-shaped gadget is made from 3D-printed parts combined with a few off-the-shelf components found in traditional 3D printers.

"The entire machine was printed using recycled PET bottles, which gives a nice translucent look to it," Cheng said.

Polyformer is equipped with a slicing tool with stacked bearings that can cut plastic bottles into long, continuous ribbons.

Users can feed these ribbons into a so-called hot end, which heats, melts and feeds the thermoplastic through a brass nozzle to create a filament with a diameter of 1.75 millimetres.

The end of this filament can then be mounted onto a motorised red spool, which will pull the rest of the ribbon through the hot end and wind up the filament as it is created. Once the spool is full, it can be taken off to be mounted and used in a 3D printer.

Polyformer has a modular design that allows users to easily swap out parts and modify the machine to their liking.

Since making the project public last month, Cheng said there are now around 130 people in Polyformer's community on social media platform Discord, who have machines under construction.

Some users have proposed adding grinders so that the machine can recycle different kinds of plastic waste, while others have suggested recycling cassette tapes and fabrics.

Polyformer follows on from a number of other open-source projects, such as VoronDesign's 3D-printed 3D printer and the Recreator3D pultrusion kit.

Together, Cheng says these kinds of machines could eventually help to forge a decentralised system of manufacturing and recycling.

"I am imagining a future where products can be manufactured at home or in a community centre and be recycled into things at the end of their life that can be used again to manufacture new products right on-site," Cheng told Dezeen.

"The technology might not be there yet but I believe it's not far from possible if we keep developing and implementing it as a community."

Last year, a number of architects including Bjarke Ingels collaborated on an open-source project to make 3D-printed coronavirus face shields for hospital workers.

Ingels argued that the pandemic has revealed "the shortcomings of the traditional supply chain" and that decentralised local manufacturing could replace global supply chains.

The photography is by James Chou.

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Charlotte Böhning and Mary Lempres of Doppelgänger have developed a bioplastic version of polystyrene foam that is made from the exoskeleton of mealworms and breaks down in soil in a couple of weeks.

The material, called Chitofoam, is shock-absorbent, water-resistant and can be formed into cups, foam peanuts and other packaging, much like its fossil-based counterpart.

Design duo Doppelgänger created the bioplastic to offer a backyard-compostable alternative to traditional expanded polystyrene (EPS).

Regular EPS, of which Styrofoam is the most well-known brand, is difficult and uneconomical to recycle, meaning it ends up occupying around 30 per cent of the space in our landfills.

"At the end of its short life, polystyrene is not accepted by recycling centres and is undesired by landfills," Lempres told Dezeen. "It is a problematic plastic with no second life that affects future generations, our environment and our future earth."

While polystyrene is made from petroleum-based styrene, which the World Health Organisation has deemed a "probable carcinogen," Chitofoam is derived from a biopolymer called chitin, which mealworms use to build their strong yet pliable exoskeleton.

Doppelgänger says the bioplastic foam could be made from any mealworm – the larval form of the mealworm beetle – or other insect or crustacean with a chitin-rich shell,  such as lobsters and beetles.

Böhning and Lempres made their version from the mealworms living in their own homemade biodigester, which the industrial design students developed to dispose of the polystyrene modelling foam and packaging used in their studio.

This harnesses mealworms' natural ability to digest and break down polystyrene using their gut bacteria, which was documented by researchers from Stanford University.

"It started off quite simply as a tank with 1,000 mealworms in which we put our waste foam, a material that is unfortunately abundant in design school," Böhning said. "It has gradually grown to include tiered-drawers and many more worms."

"The mealworms can help divert polystyrene waste from landfills and natural environments," she continued. "They can safely and efficiently digest the polystyrene foam with no ill effects on their own health."

With Chitofoam, Doppelgänger aims to show that the little bugs could be used not just to degrade existing polystyrene waste but also to create a bioplastic alternative to it.

Once the mealworms have reached the end of their life, the designers collect them from the biodigester and extract the chitin from their exoskeletons by treating them with an alkaline solution, in a process known as deacetylation.

This powdered chitin derivative called chitosan is then dissolved in citric acid, mixed with a waste-derived biopolymer that the studio is keeping under wraps until its patent application has been granted.

Vigorous shaking ultimately gives the mixture its characteristic foamy consistency, which Doppelgänger says is more flexible and elastic than traditional expanded polystyrene while having natural antifungal and antimicrobial properties.

Chitofoam can be cast or injection-moulded into shape, much like Styrofoam, but Böhning and Lempres are currently still testing whether the material has the same thermal insulation properties that would allow it to be used to store hot foods and drinks.

As Chitofoam is a thermoplastic it can be melted down and reformed into new products, or placed in soil where it decomposes in two to three weeks.

Doppelgänger says the material has a "high biocompatibility and very low toxicity". But some experts have raised concerns about whether the acidity of bioplastics could throw off the ph balance of soil and water.

Chitofoam is one of six projects shortlisted for this year's Lexus Design Award, with the winner set to be decided later this spring.

Until then, Doppelgänger is working to further progress the project with the help of a £19,000 budget and guidance from a group of four mentors including designer Sabine Marcelis and Yosuke Hayano of Beijing architecture firm MAD.

The studio's plan is to develop a food product from the protein-rich, plastic-eating mealworms, which would then be packaged in the mealworm bioplastic.

"Mealworm farming has been highlighted in recent years as an environmentally sustainable solution to malnutrition, particularly in developing rural economies," the studio said.

"Growing edible mealworms is affordable, low-resource and space-efficient. The resultant food source is twice as protein-efficient as beef with zero methane emissions."

In this way, the designers say the mealworms could eventually help to tackle two sustainable development goals at the same time, providing food security and fighting pollution.

Early studies have shown that mealworms that have digested polystyrene can still be used to feed other animals, but more research is necessary on whether they could safely be eaten by humans and whether they could be used to break down plastics at a mass scale.

As the mealworms digest the polystyrene, around half of the fossil carbon that was stored in the plastic is also emitted into the atmosphere as CO2, which could contribute to global warming.

The chitin found in their exoskeletons has been much more widely studied and already turned into a range of different materials including a leather alternative and a bioplastic film.

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World leaders from 175 countries have agreed to draw up a legally binding UN treaty that will regulate plastic production and pollution on an international scale for the first time.

Passed at the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya, using a recycled plastic gavel, the resolution will see nations hash out a set of universal rules and targets to end plastic waste "from source to sea" – much like the Paris Agreement did for carbon emissions.

"This is the most significant environmental multilateral deal since the Paris accord," said Inger Andersen, director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

"It is an insurance policy for this generation and future ones, so they may live with plastic and not be doomed by it."

"I can't believe it's actually happened," the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's communications manager for plastic Iulia Strat told Dezeen.

"In the midst of all the grimness that we're seeing in the world, it's really such great news."

Treaty will cover whole lifecycle of plastics

To date, the world has generated more than seven billion tonnes of plastic waste. Of this, only nine per cent has been recycled.

Another 12 per cent has been incinerated, releasing the fossil fuels it contains into the atmosphere and contributing to global warming.

But the vast majority, around 79 per cent of all the plastic ever produced, is currently piling up in landfills and polluting the environment, harming marine life and breaking down into microplastics that have found their way into everything from Arctic ice to the placenta of unborn babies.

And this problem is only set to get worse as plastic pollution is on course to triple by 2040.

How exactly the UNEP treaty, which the organisation says marks a "historic day in the campaign to beat plastic pollution," will tackle these issues is set to be nailed down by a dedicated Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee over the next two years. The aim is to produce a draft by the end of 2024.

But the resolution agreed at the UN Environment Assembly already mandates that the final agreement will need to regulate not just waste collection and recycling, but also the design and production of plastics in order to minimise the pollution caused at every stage of the lifecycle.

This whole-life approach was supported by a number of companies including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé and Unilever, which surveys have regularly found to be the world's worst plastic polluters.

But major chemical and plastics manufacturers lobbied against the resolution and advocated instead for an alternative proposal from the government of Japan, which would have focused solely on tackling plastic waste in oceans without restricting production.

"Receiving the recognition that this problem needs to be addressed across the whole plastics value chain is a victory for groups and communities who have been confronting the plastic industry's transgressions and false narratives for years," said Von Hernandez, global coordinator of the Break Free From Plastic initiative.

"I'm personally so happy to see that we don't just have a treaty that focuses downstream," Ellen MacArthur Foundation's Strat agreed.

"After all these years of work, the fact that we're seeing specific attention given to product and packaging design and how we can design out waste from the beginning is really massive."

"Plastic pollution doesn't care about borders"

For the first time, the resolution also formally recognises the crucial role that waste pickers play in the plastics economy through the collection, sorting and recycling of waste.

"To be honest, that they're even included in the conversation is a big step," Strat said. "It means they will have a voice at the table with the other stakeholders, with the policymakers and the businesses."

The only other global treaty introduced to tackle plastic pollution to date focused solely on limiting the amount of waste that can be dumped on developing countries.

A number of nations including the UK, Kenya and India, as well as the EU, have already started individually regulating single-use plastic items. But Strat says a new, global treaty will ensure "everyone sings from the same hymn sheet".

"Plastic pollution doesn't care about borders," she said. "So you can be a perfect country with a perfect plan to tackle plastic pollution but still be open the waste from another country because it's all connected."

The top image by Heiko Prigge shows the Spoon Archaeology exhibition at the 2021 London Design Biennale.

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology chemical engineers have invented a new type of plastic that is twice as strong as steel and could one day be used as a building material.

Dubbed 2DPA-1, the material is light and mouldable like plastic but has a strength and resistance that the researchers behind the project liken to steel and bulletproof glass.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) engineers envision 2DPA-1 being used in the near future as a coating to enhance the durability of objects, and eventually as a structural material.

"We don't usually think of plastics as being something that you could use to support a building, but with this material, you can enable new things," said MIT chemical engineering professor Michael Strano. "It has very unusual properties."

Two-dimensional molecular structure gives polymer super-strength

2DPA-1 is a polymer, a category of substance that encompasses all kinds of plastics. But whereas all other polymers grow in one-dimensional chains, with new molecules being added onto their ends, 2DPA-1 grows in two dimensions, forming a sheet called a polyaramide.

"Instead of making a spaghetti-like molecule, we can make a sheet-like molecular plane, where we get molecules to hook themselves together in two dimensions," Strano said.

It's this two-dimensional quality that gives 2DPA-1 its strength, by eliminating the gaps that exist between polymer chains in other plastics.

Its yield strength, or the force it takes to break it, is twice that of steel, although it has only about one-sixth of the material density, making it light.

The researchers also compared it to bulletproof glass, saying it has four to six times the elastic modulus, which refers to the amount of force it takes to deform it.

The engineers synthesised 2DPA-1 using a new polymerisation process that happens spontaneously in the right chemical solution. They have published their findings in a paper in the journal Nature.

Impermeability adds to usefulness of material

The most immediate commercial application for 2DPA-1, according to the researchers, is as an ultrathin barrier coating that could be applied to cars, phones or other objects to make them stronger and more durable.

Because of the material's closed molecular structure compared to other plastics, it is impermeable to water and gases, so it offers an extremely high degree of protection from oxidation, rust or rot.

"This kind of barrier coating could be used to protect metal in cars and other vehicles, or steel structures," said Strano.

However, the future applications for 2DPA-1 extend further, as the molecular sheets can theoretically be stacked to make a building material, or used as nanotubes or nanofibres in a composite material like carbon fibre.

As well as being strong, it has the same appealing properties as other plastics, in that it is light and takes little energy to produce, compared to materials such as steel and glass.

The researchers told Dezeen that they could see it being used as a structural reinforcement material in building and as a separation membrane.

Material can be easily manufactured in large quantities 

Another promising quality of 2DPA-1 is that it can be easily made in large quantities.

This means that unlike with some recent wonder materials, such as graphene, it should be easy to scale up manufacturing outside of the laboratory.

The MIT researchers made their 2DPA-1 in beakers, but to make the plastic in large quantities, they say you would simply need to increase the amount of starting materials.

Similar to other plastics, 2DPA-1 is manufactured at room temperature, so it doesn't require vast amounts of heat.

The engineers also theorise that it should be recyclable. If it is used as fibres, it should be able to be re-spun or pulped as with Kevlar fibres, and in other forms it may be able to be chemically recycled as with nylon.

Currently, 79 per cent of plastic is dumped in landfills or in the environment once discarded, where it will remain for thousands of years.

There are numerous different types of plastic currently in existence, as explained in our Dezeen guide to plastic in 2021, as well as a growing number of plastic alternatives.

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Danish brand Sinful has created a range of three sex toys using ocean plastic collected in Southeast Asia.

The Ohhcean collection comprises a wand and two vibrators — all made entirely from ocean-bound plastic. A thin layer of silicone covers the products to make them waterproof and pleasurable.

"The question was how to take something that already exists and put it to new use?" Mathilde Mackowski, co-owner of Sinful told Dezeen.

"The answer for us, at this moment, was ocean-bound plastic – we want to focus on different ways to approach production and think in new ways concerning material," she said.

The brand worked with Tide, a Swiss manufacturing company that turns waste plastic into products, to create the Ohhcean range.

In collaboration with local fishermen, Tide sources thermoplastic polyethene terephthalate (PET) plastic from shorelines around oceans, streams and lakes in Thailand.

For Ohhcean, the company collected plastic bottle lids that were then washed and shredded into small pieces before being processed using renewable energy.

The resulting sex toys – a magic wand, vibrator and body massager – are available in a variety of hues, from sea green to royal blue.

As well as being made from natural materials, the sex toys have an organic look, with curved shapes and a smooth feel. They are all fully rechargeable and the vibrators come with seven different vibration patterns.

"The ocean has been our inspiration from day one so naturally, we've been influenced by soft shapes," explained Mackowski. "The organic meeting of the waves when they clash and the curves of a drop."

Mackowski embarked on creating the range after noticing that there was nothing available on the market that was made fully from recycled plastic.

"The ocean plastics emergency has never been so widely reported, and rethinking plastic production within the sex toy industry had to arrive sooner or later," she said.

"We just weren't ready to wait for anyone else to get moving," she added.

Eventually, Mackowski hopes that the same material will be used to expand the range, but she believes that it will take time for recycled plastics to be as easily accessible as those typically used for sex toys.

"Reducing the impact of my products on the planet became an obsession, but it also proved to be a long and complex journey met with many challenges, but consideration for the environment was first and foremost," she said.

"The products from Ohhcean by Sinful had to be nothing short of a luxurious sex toy but this is just the beginning," she added.

Plastic has long been used to produce sex toys, but the material's environmental impact has led some consumers to opt for less damaging options across products of all kinds.

In response, designers including Shahar Livne have turned to ocean plastic to create fossil-like jewellery for Balenciaga, and brands such as Adidas have used the recycled material for a range of apparel.

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Discarded plastic medical equipment from hospitals across Europe was melted into a filament and 3D-printed to create the mobile toilet cubicle The Throne, designed by Spanish studio Nagami for the To.org foundation.

The portable toilet was produced over the course of three days and comprises three parts – a teardrop-shaped body, a dramatic, double-curved sliding door and a collection bucket for solid waste.

These are combined with an off-the-shelf separation toilet seat, which diverts the urine while the solids are composted so they can be put to use locally as a fertiliser.

The first prototype, which is currently being trialled on a building site in the Swiss Alps, was produced by an advanced seven-axis robotic printer in Nagami's studio in Avila.

But the hope is that ultimately, this process for 3D-printing complex structures with recycled plastic could be adopted using more readily available, local technology.

As 91 per cent of all plastic waste produced to date is still waiting to be recycled, To.org founder Nachson Mimran said this abundant material could help to create accessible and affordable sanitation and shelter where they are needed most.

"Plastic waste is a very low cost, inexhaustible resource," Mimran told Dezeen.

"The Throne is a proof of concept for it can be used to create large structures that are both aesthetically pleasing and immensely useful," he added.

"But the cost of production needs to drop before this can be a viable solution for building structures in places like refugee settlements and urban slums."

The Throne project is an evolution of the Bottle Brick Toilets that To.org set up in the slums of Kampala, Uganda, in 2018, which used bricks made from plastic bottles as their structure to simultaneously tackle the lack of management systems for both human and plastic waste.

Nagami, which specialises in 3D-printed furniture, decided to build on this idea for The Throne by sourcing a filament made from recycled plastic medical trays by Dutch company ReFlow.

This is combined with a number of mechanical elements such as metal rails, which are inserted into the frame as it is being printed to accommodate the sliding door.

To prevent the accumulation of dirt and bacteria, Nagami had to avoid the use of 3D printing for the actual toilet seat, as the process creates distinctive grooves rather than a smooth, hygienic finish.

So the team decided to incorporate an off-the-shelf compost toilet instead.

"We wanted to demonstrate that large-scale 3D printing can offer much more than ornamental pieces and single material elements," said Nagami CEO Manuel Jiménez García.

"Indeed, it allows for the integration of other pieces, materials and textures, opening the door for the creation of objects, which combine different features that are commonly hard to achieve through 3D printing."

To.org, which was founded by brother Nachson and Arieh Mimran in 2013, is a hybrid between a charitable foundation and a venture capital fund that invests in ethical businesses and funds philanthropic projects.

Although additive manufacturing is increasingly being used to create homes and entire neighbourhoods, similar large-scale work using recycled plastic filaments is still in its infancy.

Elsewhere, designers are already using the material to 3D-print chairs, electric tricycles and even podiums for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The photography is by Dmitry Kostyukov.

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Rotterdam studio The New Raw has recycled misprints and prototypes from its previous experiments in additive manufacturing to 3D print a limited edition chair called Ermis.

The mono-material, monobloc seat was born from the desire to find a new purpose for The New Raw's own scrap materials by turning them into durable "zero-waste" objects.

"The New Raw does a lot of research by design, which by nature is very wasteful," said founders Panos Sakkas and Foteini Setaki.

"Failures and their critical evaluation is an integral part of our method."

"Nevertheless at the end, we often leave a lot of material that needs to be managed properly," the duo continued.

"Finding a way to reuse this material and reduce the volume of waste coming from the research and development of the studio became the starting point to create this limited series."

The graphic chair, which has been shortlisted in the seating design category of this year's Dezeen Awards, is made using only one material – recycled polypropylene.

Sakkas and Setaki forewent all the adhesives, resins and additional finishings used in traditional furniture manufacturing, allowing the design to be fully and easily recycled at the end of its life.

Since the final product is made from plastic that has already been recycled, this creates what the studio describes as "an infinite loop of plastic waste", assuming that the material does not degrade in quality over time.

The process begins with the designers shredding their 3D-printing waste into granules that are between three to five millimetres in size.

This is fed directly into the studio's advanced 3D printer, which melts the material to create a recycled plastic filament that is then applied layer by layer to form the chair.

Beyond minimising waste, this process also gives the design its distinctive texture and pastel-coloured gradient, which varies slightly from chair to chair.

Sakkas and Setaki compare the tactile effect of the 3D-printed layers to the rings of a tree or the veins of marble.

"When the recycled plastic enters the 3D-printing process, it turns into a different material with distinctive properties," they explained.

"The orientation and proportions of the 3D-printed lines define the behaviour of the material and provide its distinctive ornaments. These lines are the bits and atoms of the Ermis chair."

The Ermis Chair won the public vote for seating design of the year at the 2021 Dezeen Awards.

Other public vote winners include an ambient solar light by Marjan van Aubel and Yiannis Ghikas' Soda tables, which are crafted from blown glass.

The photography is by Michèle Margot.

The post The New Raw 3D prints "zero-waste" Ermis chair from studio's own offcuts appeared first on Dezeen.

Thinking of using plastic in your project? Our latest Dezeen guide includes more than 11 types of plastic commonly used in architecture, design and interiors, with links to hundreds of projects for inspiration.

Plastics are among the most versatile materials in existence. Defined by their plasticity, they have long carbon chains called polymers at their backbone and can be moulded, extruded or cast into any desired shape from films to textile fibres.

They can be divided into thermosetting plastics, which never soften once moulded, and thermoplastics, which can be melted and reshaped, making them more suited to recycling.

Plastics "are a co-product of fossil fuels"

Although certain plastics – such as rubber, which is derived from the rubber plant – occur naturally, most modern plastics are synthetic and more than 99 per cent are derived from fossil fuels.

This helps to make plastics more affordable than most other materials and sees them used to create millions of tonnes of single-use items every year.

"Part of why plastics are so cheap is that they are a co-product of fossil fuels," explained designer Charlotte McCurdy, who has created a bioplastic made from algae.

"Petroleum or natural gas is pumped out of the ground and at the refinery, it is broken up into different lengths of molecule and catalytically cracked into useful monomers."

79 per cent of all plastic is dumped in landfills

This refining process yields not just fuels such as gasoline and kerosene but also chemical byproducts such as ethylene and propylene, which are the most important feedstocks used to create plastics.

Once discarded, 79 per cent of all plastic is dumped in landfills or in the environment, where it will remain for thousands of years. Although this contributes to pollution, it also helps to sequester the carbon contained in the materials and prevents it from entering the atmosphere.

But when incinerated, as 12 per cent of all plastic waste is, this carbon is emitted as carbon dioxide.

Taken together, plastic production and incineration were responsible for more than 850 million metric tons of greenhouse-gas emissions in 2019.

However, with growing efforts to decarbonise the economy, non-fossil alternatives are being developed in a bid to meet the ever-increasing demand for plastics in a more sustainable way.

Read on to find out more about the most popular types of plastic and their possible substitutes.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)

PET is a strong yet lightweight thermoplastic, originally developed in the 1940s by combining fossil fuel-derived ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid.

The resulting polymer can be blow-moulded to form single-use bottles, stretched into a film for food packaging or spun into fibres to create polyester fabric, which accounts for more than half the world's synthetic fibres.

Designers often make use of PET for its translucent finish, with Marjan van Aubel turning it into solar panels that resemble stained glass windows while Beyond Space created a cavernous interior in an Amsterdam office using a kilometre's worth of semi-sheer polyester.

PET is also the most widely recycled plastic, at which point it is called rPET and can be used to create everything from backpacks (above) to Emeco's Navy chair.

See projects featuring PET ›

High-density polyethylene (HDPE)

HDPE is a variation of polyethylene, the most common type of plastic in use today. While its low-density equivalent LDPE is used to make plastic bags, HDPE is sturdier and more rigid, lending itself to everything from milk jugs to packaging for cleaning products and toiletries.

The material is also used to create plastic bottle caps and even when brands such as Evian claim they've created bottles from "100 per cent recycled plastic", their lid is generally made from virgin HDPE to guarantee durability.

However, the material can ultimately be recycled after use, with architecture firm Bulot+Collins using the waste plastic to form 1,400 thermochromic tiles for a floating diving platform while Space Available and techno DJ Peggy Gou turned 20 kilograms of HDPE collected from Bali's beaches into a chair.

See projects featuring HDPE ›

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)

Derived from chlorine and ethylene, PVC makes up about 20 per cent of all plastic produced. Due to its strength and durability, the material is commonly used to create pipes, gutters and window frames, which designers have variously recycled into flower vases and cladding (above).

With the addition of a phthalate plasticiser, PVC can be turned into flexible vinyl and used to form flooring, shower curtains and imitation leather. Swiss studio Bureau A made use of the material's pliability to create an inflatable nightclub while Formafantasma played with its translucency in a "deconstructed" stage design for fashion label Sportmax.

Due to additives like phthalate, vinyl is among the least recyclable plastics and has been linked to a number of health concerns. But latex made from the sap of the rubber tree can offer a renewable, plant-based alternative.

See projects featuring PVC ›

Polypropylene (PP)

Polypropylene is derived from propylene gas, a byproduct of the gasoline refining process, and is commonly used to form more rigid, hardwearing items such as Tupperware, kid's toys and outdoor furniture.

Designers began experimenting with the material in the 1950s to create monobloc chairs, injection moulded and formed from a single piece of material. Among the most notable designs are Verner Panton's Panton chair, the Air-Chair by Jasper Morrison and more recently the recycled polypropylene Bell Chair by Konstantin Grcic for Magis, which is manufactured in less than a minute.

The thermoplastic can also be spun into fibres to create surgical masks, which South Korean designer Haneul Kim has recycled to create a series of stackable stools, or used as a 3D-printing filament as in the performance sports tiles on Yinka Ilori's Bank Street Park basketball court.

See projects featuring PP ›

Polycarbonate

Polycarbonate is a thermoplastic with carbonate groups in its chemical structure, making the material exceptionally resistant to impacts and temperature changes.

Often used to create bulletproof windows, it can be engineered to be almost as clear as glass while being lighter and up to 250 times stronger.

Polycarbonate sheets are popular among architects and interiors designers for their ability to maximise natural light while maintaining privacy, as well as improving a building's thermal insulation.

Francesc Rifé Studio used the sheeting to divide an old textile factory into offices for the team behind Michelin-starred restaurant El Bulli while La Shed Architecture clad an entire barn (above) in the translucent material to give cows "a better quality of life".

See projects featuring polycarbonate ›

Polyurethane (PU)

Polyurethanes are a diverse class of plastic polymers derived from isocyanic acid. Most commonly, PU takes the form of a flexible foam used for mattresses and upholstery while a more rigid variety is turned into trainer soles for brands from Adidas to Allbirds.

As a coating, lacquer or varnish, it can waterproof fabrics and protect wooden furniture as well as helping leather alternatives such as Piñatex withstand wear and tear.

Design studio Layer made use of PU's adhesive qualities to create a heat-sealing tape that bonds textiles without the need for stitches. And spun into fibres, it forms the main ingredient in spandex, which is used to make sportswear as well as more boundary-pushing items such as fabric-cast concrete moulds and wearables that can be stuck to the body like plasters (above).

Polyurethanes are not easily recycled and can contain potentially carcinogenic compounds that irritate the skin and respiratory system.

See projects featuring PU ›

Fibreglass

Also known as glass-reinforced plastic or GRP, fibreglass is made by taking thin glass filaments, either loose or woven into cloth, and encasing them within a petrochemical resin.

The composite material is lighter and stronger than steel while being cheaper and more flexible than carbon fibre. As a result, fibreglass is used to create products where performance is key, including skis as well as the rotor blades of helicopters and wind turbines.

Architects have made use of the material to create tall, lightweight structures such as BIG's 2016 Serpentine Pavilion (above), which was formed from 1,900 translucent blocks, and a tubular installation designed by Neri Oxman and erected by a swarm of autonomous robots.

See projects featuring fibreglass ›

Polystyrene

In its original form, polystyrene is a hard, solid resin used to make disposable cutlery. But when solid beads of the plastic are exposed to hot steam, they puff up like popcorn to create expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam, mostly known by its brand name Styrofoam.

The rigid, closed-cell foam is 98 per cent air and has a low thermal conductivity, making EPS a widely used packaging for fragile items as well as for hot foods and drinks.

Once discarded, designers have been able to repurpose this packaging into sculptural chairs and beckoning cats, as well as melting it to create moulds. In architecture, it can be used for insulation or more experimental applications as in ADX's Soil House (above), which features walls of loose soil fixed in place with a foam spray.

See projects featuring polystyrene ›

Acrylic

Acrylic is a catchall term used to describe a range of different resins derived from acrylic acid. These can be suspended in water to create paint or spun into fibres that can be used to make clothing or as precursors for carbon fibre.

When cast into sheets, the thermoplastic is known as plexiglass and used as a low-cost, shatter-resistant alternative for glass due to its exceptional optical clarity. This application was pioneered during the second world war when it was used to form fighter jet windows and submarine periscopes.

More recently, English architecture firm HAL used giant plexiglass panels to form a 35-metre-high swimming pool bridge connecting two buildings in London (above) while designer Christophe Gernigon turned the material into suspended hoods for socially distanced dining.

Furniture made from acrylic can reflect light or disappear into its surroundings, as demonstrated by the see-through counter that Yota Kakuda created for Bake Kitasenju brasserie and Say Architects' ghostly interior for the Lika Lab boutique in Hangzhou.

See projects featuring acrylic ›

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, much like polystyrene, is a hard thermoplastic derived from a clear, liquid petrochemical called styrene. In ABS, this is combined with butadiene rubber to create a stronger, more durable material that can withstand compression better than concrete and has been injection moulded to form billions of hardwearing Lego bricks since 1963.

Due to its low melting point and the fact that it can be easily painted and glued, the plastic is also one of the most common additive manufacturing filaments and was used to form the world's first 3D-printed gun.

Extruded ABS pipes are more resilient than their PVC counterparts, making them suitable for constructing sewer systems and being repurposed into a corrugated seating collection by designer Phan Thao Dang (above).

See projects featuring ABS ›

Nylon

As the first fully man-made fibre, created in a US lab in the 1930s, nylon spawned an era of innovation in synthetic fabrics.

Although initially synonymous with stockings, the term nylon has since expanded to include a whole family of plastics composed of polyamides. These can be found in toothbrush bristles, films for food packaging and moulded components in cars and electronics.

However, the material's primary application remains in fibres, with SO-IL using nylon webbing to form a colourful hammock around 130 trees and Studio Drift crafting it into a kinetic sculpture for the Dutch National Touring Opera (above).

In recent years, a number of fashion brands including Prada have moved from virgin to regenerated nylon, also known under the brand name Econyl, in a bid to mitigate the material's environmental impact. Rayon can offer an alternative that is based on plant-based cellulose fibres rather than fossil fuels.

See projects featuring nylon ›

Plastic alternatives

With growing concerns around pollution and efforts to create a circular economy not reliant on fossil fuels, architects and designers are increasingly looking to substitute virgin and petroleum-based plastics for more sustainable alternatives.

This includes recycled plastic, which presents a huge source of untapped potential as only nine per cent of the 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic waste produced across the world have so far been turned into new products.

The material can be sourced from recycling plants or companies such as The Ocean Cleanup and Parley for the Oceans, which are fishing marine plastic from our oceans and waterways before teaming up with brands to turn it into sunglasses, trainers and more.

Bioplastics that use natural materials rather than crude oil as feedstocks present another possible alternative. Polylactic acid (PLA), the most common type of bioplastic, is generally made from corn starch or sugar cane while others are derived from algae or chitin.

Many are designed to be compostable or biodegradable under specific conditions to reduce the amount of plastic waste in the environment, although some experts have raised concerns that this could ultimately lead to soil and water acidification.

The post The Dezeen guide to plastic in architecture, design and interiors appeared first on Dezeen.

The winners at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics will be crowned on podiums designed by Japanese artist Asao Tokolo, which were made from 24.5 tonnes of discarded household plastics.

Over the course of nine months, the Japanese public donated the equivalent of 400,000 bottles of laundry detergent via more than 2,000 collection boxes that were installed in department stores and schools across Japan.

Recycled and turned into filaments, they were used to 3D print all 98 podiums that will be used during the Games.

The initiative forms part of a wider effort to involve everyday people in the event's sustainability plan, which has also seen citizens donate old electronic devices so they could be turned into the Tokyo 2020 Olympic medals.

"The podiums were created with the purpose of showing the world the different ways in which a sustainable society can be realised, and engaged the whole population of Japan in the podium production process in a historic Games' first," the organisers explained.

Each podium is constructed of a number of small cube-shaped modules that were connected to form the traditional three pedestals.

Alternatively, they can also be turned into a flattened, accessible platform for the Paralympics while a socially distanced version is currently being designed to align with Japan's recently-declared state of emergency.

Based on the same chequerboard pattern that Tokolo previously developed for the Tokyo 2020 logos, the cube modules are 3D-printed with the help of a team led by Hiroya Tanaka, the founder of Japan's first Fab Lab.

"We collaboratively transformed 2D pattern to 3D geometry," Tanaka told Dezeen.

With the help of additive manufacturing, the team was able to use the pattern as the very structure of the pedestals, rather than simply superimposing it on the outside.

"Most podiums employ wrapping for their design," Tokolo explained. "But instead of covering the platform with some decorative print, our podium is based on the philosophy of cubes, which form the structure itself."

The modules are rendered in the same deep blue colour as the Tokyo 2020 logo, nodding to Japan's historical production of indigo dye.

According to Tokolo, infusing the 3D printing filament with pigments resulted in a more vibrant and intense colour than would have been possible through regular prints or paints.

"The podium looks different depending on the amount of light shed on it, so we're looking forward to seeing how it will look near a swimming pool where light reflects against the water," he said.

Much like the Tokyo 2020 Olympic torch, designed by Tokujin Yoshioka, the Olympic rings on the front of the podiums are rendered in recycled aluminium that was originally used to form temporary housing for those displaced by 2011's Great East Japan earthquake.

In addition to making use of waste materials to create iconic Olympic props, the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee has set goals to reuse or recycle 65 per cent of all waste generated through the operation of the Games and 99 per cent of all items procured for the games.

The pedestals will ultimately be turned back into shampoo and detergent bottles by consumer goods company Procter & Gamble, which is an Olympic sponsor.

The consumer goods conglomerate was named the seventh-worst plastic polluter in the world last year as part of an annual audit by the Break Free From Plastic initiative.

All 24.5 tonnes of plastic packaging that was used to make the podiums amount to less than 0.004 per cent of the 714,000 tonnes the company produces every year.

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Toy brand Lego has created its first prototype bricks using recycled PET plastic from discarded bottles.

Created as part of the Danish company's drive to make all of its products from sustainable materials by 2030, the brick prototypes were created from recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET), a common thermoplastic used for products such as bottles and clothing.

The prototype, which has been developed over the past three years, was made from used plastic bottles acquired from suppliers in the United States.

A one-litre plastic bottle supplies enough raw material for around 10 2x4 Lego bricks.

Lego trialled over 250 formulations of the recycled plastic to create a brick that complies with the company's quality, safety and play requirements.

Its "clutch power" – the ability to snap onto other pieces of Lego – means that it is compatible with Lego's standard bricks.

Lego now plans to rigorously test and develop the prototype brick before assessing whether to move the rPET into production.

Tests will determine whether the patent-pending material formulation is strong and durable enough for Lego bricks.

"We need to work on how we colour the material consistently and look into the different shapes it can be moulded into," Lego told Dezeen. "Then we will be in a position to assess whether to move into pilot or trial production."

"Any new materials we use must live up to the high quality and safety standards as those we apply to our existing products – this includes the product durability," the brand said.

Founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen, Lego has become one of the world's leading toy brands. This is in part thanks to the iconic brick's durability.

Since 1963, the majority of the billions of Lego bricks produced each year have been made from a plastic called acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS).

Finding a material as durable as the traditional ABS bricks has proved to be difficult for the toymaker.

"For us, the challenge comes from needing materials that can be moulded to the accuracy of a hair width to ensure bricks produced today fit with those made over 60 years ago, while being durable and safe enough to be handled by children day-in, day-out," said Lego.

"Lego bricks are designed to be safe and durable enough to be passed from generation to generation rather than being thrown away. Despite this, we are committed to making our products from more sustainable materials in the future," it continued.

"To do so, we need to invent entirely new materials, as existing sustainable materials do not meet our safety and quality requirements."

The bricks were created as part of the toy company's wider strategy to make all core Lego products from sustainable materials by 2030. Its sustainability goals include developing bricks from bioplastic and generating little or no waste. Last year, the company announced it will begin removing single-use plastic from its boxes.

Lego defines a sustainable material as something that is "responsibly produced, using renewable or recycled resources, generating little or no waste, use sustainable chemistry and be fully recyclable at the end of its life."

In 2018, the company launched sustainable bricks made from sugar cane. Earlier this year it released a set of flowers to help people "switch off and relax" at home, which included parts made from the bioplastic components.

"We're committed to playing our part in building a sustainable future for generations of children," said Lego.

"We want our products to have a positive impact on the planet, not just with the play they inspire, but also with the materials we use."

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Berlin startup Made of Air has developed a bioplastic made of forest and farm waste that sequesters carbon and can be used for everything from furniture to building facades.

The recyclable material is 90 per cent carbon and stores around two tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) for every tonne of plastic.

By 2050, Made of Air hopes to be storing up to a gigatonne of CO2e a year in the material, which is also called Made of Air.

Company aims to "help reverse climate change"

"While we are a materials company, really in our heart we are a climate company and that's the reason for our existence," the company's chief commercial officer Neema Shams told Dezeen. "We're aiming to help reverse climate change."

Since the material stores more CO2 from the atmosphere than it emits throughout its lifecycle, Made of Air is a carbon-negative material, Shams said.

"We see carbon-negative as what biodegradable was 10 years ago," he explained. "Back then, no one knew what it was, no one knew why it mattered. And now it's pretty ubiquitous."

Made of Air was founded in 2016 by architects Allison ​Dring and Daniel ​Schwaag, who previously collaborated to create a pollutant-absorbing cladding called Prosolve370e.

The new company has identified five sectors where its bioplastic can be used. These are building facades, furniture, interiors, transport and urban infrastructure.

The material has recently been used to create a pair of limited-edition sunglasses in collaboration with H&M.

The company is also in talks with a US furniture maker about creating a "carbon-negative chair" and with automotive manufacturers about creating car parts.

In April, the thermoplastic was installed on a building for the first time. An Audi dealership in Munich was clad in seven tonnes of hexagonal panels the company calls HexChar.

The material is made of biochar

According to Shams, a lifecycle analysis has shown that the dealership's cladding stores 14 tonnes of carbon.

Over the next year, the company is ramping up its production capacity by 100 times to sequester 2,000 tonnes of CO2e each year.

Made of Air is a non-toxic bioplastic made from biochar. This charcoal-like material is almost pure carbon and is made by burning biomass such as forestry offcuts and secondary agricultural materials without oxygen.

Biochar has been produced for centuries and is increasingly being used as a fertiliser as well as a way of sequestering carbon in the soil.

Made of Air mixes biochar with a binder made from sugar cane to create a material that can be melted and moulded like a regular thermoplastic.

"We have a proprietary process that takes the biochar, puts it through a series of steps and combines it with bioplastics to create granules," Shams said.

The granules can then be used in traditional plastic-forming processes such as injection moulding and can be processed using the same machinery as regular plastic.

To make its biochar, Made of Air sources waste from forestry and agriculture businesses based in the countryside around Berlin.

The biomass is then placed in a special furnace, where it is baked in a controlled, oxygen-free environment as part of a process called pyrolysis.

Without the presence of oxygen, the carbon in the biomass cannot form carbon dioxide during combustion, meaning there are no greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, the carbon remains and forms biochar.

The porous, carbon-rich material is highly effective at storing carbon. Unlike decaying biomass, which quickly releases its carbon back into the atmosphere, biochar remains stable for hundreds or even thousands of years.

"With biochar, if you just left it on the ground and came back a thousand years later, it would look exactly the same," Shams said. "Only if you were to burn it would that carbon be re-released."

Made of Air is one of a number of companies that view atmospheric carbon as an untapped resource.

Swiss company Climeworks, for example, is building direct air capture machines to create carbon it can sell, while Seattle start-up Nori is building an online marketplace that incentivises people to capture and trade atmospheric carbon. The process by which this captured carbon is then turned into useful products is called carbon capture and utilisation (CCU).

"What if everything we're surrounded with was removing emissions instead of releasing them?" said Shams. "Climate change is really a material problem in that there's too much carbon in the atmosphere. So how come we can't turn that into our biggest resource?"

Made of Air's biochar plastic is cheaper than regular bioplastics but still more expensive than petroleum-based materials.

Material prices don't reflect "cost to the planet"

Ultimately, Shams believes that government intervention in the form of a carbon tax is needed in order to help products made from captured CO2 replace fossil plastics.

"In the wider capitalist system that we live in, everything needs to be cheap and widely available," he said. "The price of materials doesn't take into account their cost to the planet or to people."

"I think putting a value on the emissions associated with their production and their damage to the environment will be the most useful catalysts not only for us but for the wider sustainable materials space."

Carbon revolution

This article is part of Dezeen's carbon revolution series, which explores how this miracle material could be removed from the atmosphere and put to use on earth. Read all the content at: www.dezeen.com/carbon.

The sky photograph used in the carbon revolution graphic is by Taylor van Riper via Unsplash.

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German designers Kai Linke and Peter Eckart have created an exhibition for the London Design Biennale in which disposable plastic cutlery is displayed as archaeological artefacts.

Informed by the European Union's ban on single-use plastic cutlery, Spoon Archaeology aims to respond to the biennale's theme, Can we design a better world?

The German installation is one of 29 exhibitions by different countries and regions at the London Design Biennale. It was curated by the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden director Thomas A Geisler and is a collection of utensils that the designers collected over a time period of 20 years.

Spoon Archaeology was organised and designed as a study that presents single-use plastic as if displayed in "a natural history museum," where the items have become artefacts.

"Presented in frames, where normally dead insects are presented in natural history exhibition, the cutlery becomes artefacts of a culture, which has to change in a basic way – not only by changing plastic materials to so-called 'eco-friendly' materials," Kai Linke and Peter Eckart told Dezeen.

"The collection started by chance and separately between Kai and Peter. It grew over nearly 20 years. First as curiosity, later as representative for design and design process."

The Spoon Archaeology cutlery is displayed in light wood cases placed in the centre of the room. Within the cases, the objects are organised and grouped by colour shade and by function.

"The cutlery is a complete expression, a representation of our economical driven culture, which probably comes to an end regarding the prohibition of take-away products like cutlery, plates, cups and so on – but also in regard of changing awareness," said the designers.

Exhibited alongside the display cases with the plastic cutlery are three films. One, Fingers and Food, demonstrates people using their hands to eat and suggests how cultures could adopt alternatives to cutlery.

Another, Beyond Spoon, shows a hyper-spoon generated through AI. The last film, Banana Leaf, was made by designers Charles and Ray Eames and shows people of different social groups, from peasants to priests, eating their meals off banana leaves.

The installation hopes to address issues of sustainability and the implications of throwaway and single-use products.

Elsewhere at the Biennale, Es Devlin filled Somerset House's courtyard with 400 trees, while Ini Archibong spoke to Dezeen about his The Pavilion of the African Diaspora.

Photography is by Heiko Prigge.

Spoon Archaeology will be on display at Somerset House as part of the London Design Biennale, which takes place from 1 to 27 June 2021. See Dezeen Events Guide for all the latest information you need to know to attend the event, as well as a list of other architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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New York artist Hugo McCloud has created a series of artworks that contain no paint or glue, only thousands of small plastic pieces cut from single-use bags and melted together to form a motif.

The series, called Burdened, is on view at Sean Kelly Gallery in Hudson Yards, New York until 27 February and spans 31 original pieces created by McCloud while quarantining in his Mexico studio.

To create the collages, which mainly depict scenes of labour, McCloud first traces them onto a wood panel before filling them in with the multicoloured plastic scraps.

These are individually cut from plastic bags and layered on top of each other, much like individual brush strokes, before being fused together with an iron.

"Due to the nature of the material and its thinness, you can always see underneath, so one colour applied on top of another creates a third colour," McCloud told Dezeen.

"There has to be a lot of forethought and planning before starting. The plastic is fused onto the panel with an iron, there is no removal or covering up, you must know what you're trying to achieve. With paint, there is more freedom for chance and emotions. I do miss some of that but working with the plastic is very meditative, with an understood direction."

The bags come from recycling yards and waste management companies, or else the artist picks them up off the street himself or reuses ones that were given to him while shopping.

Often, their branding remains visible in the final art piece, acting as a reminder of the material's former life and reinforcing its familiarity.

Based on photographs found on the internet, the collages depict the movement of people and goods around the world, from workers transporting wares on their backs and bikes to refugees attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea by boat.

In this way, the Burdened series is not just a commentary on the environmental impact of single-use plastic but also an exploration of how this ubiquitous material transcends class and geography.

"Traveling in India, I saw multi-colour plastic sacks everywhere and started to understand their downcycle, from the companies that purchased and used them to distribute their products, down to the trash pickers in Dharavi slums," the artist explained.

"The idea that these plastic bags would always be around – never biodegrade – interested me, and made me curious about the hands and lives of the many people they would pass through."

The exhibition also includes a mini-series of collages showing flower arrangements, which McCloud made to offer the show's visitors and himself a moment of respite from the dispiriting news cycles and monotony of lockdown.

McCloud, who has a background in industrial design, is known for creating "paintings" from unusual, often three-dimensional materials like bitumen or aluminium sheeting.

To mark New York City's ban on plastic bags, local artist Robin Frohardt created a grocery store installation last March that was stocked with produce like tomatoes and berries, all formed from discarded single-use carriers he had collected from the city's streets.

Dutch food design studio Sweet Sneak has previously explored pollution and its environmental impact through a photo series, in which common foods and drinks such as beer and sushi were topped with styrofoam bubbles and wrapped in plastic bags.

Installation view photographs are by Jason Wyche.

Burdened is on view at Sean Kelly Gallery until 27 February 2021. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Designers and environmentalists have slammed Coca-Cola's efforts to tackle plastic pollution as "greenwashing" and "a huge step backwards in sustainability".

The soft-drink brand's target of a 20 per cent reduction in its use of virgin plastic in the US "simply don't go far enough," said sustainable design writer Katie Treggiden.

The Coca-Cola Company today pledged to introduce recycled plastic bottles for some of its products in a move it said would reduce its annual greenhouse-gas emissions by 20,000 metric tons.

"This is the equivalent of taking 2,120 cars off the road for one year," said the brand.

But the initiative by the company, which is cited as the world's worst plastic polluter, was widely condemned.

"It's great to see Coca-Cola taking action on plastic, but while the brand is producing an eye-popping 3,400 plastic bottles a second, these measures simply don't go far enough," said Treggiden, author of Wasted: When Trash Becomes Treasure.

"Coca-Cola is trying to greenwash its business," said designer Richard Hutten, who has spoken out about plastic pollution in the past.

"They state that plastic is one of the largest environmental concerns and that they will reduce the use of new plastic by more than 20 per cent," he continued.

"That sounds nice but their part in plastic pollution will not be reduced at all and they will still remain the largest plastic polluter."

"Coca Cola will need to do a lot more than this to change their status as the world's top plastic polluter," added Emma Priestland, corporate campaigns coordinator for Break Free From Plastic, an initiative that organises an annual audit of plastic pollution.

"For three years in a row, thousands of volunteers have collected more Coca-Cola-branded waste from more places than any other brand during the annual Brand Audit cleanups."

This month, Coca-Cola will start using bottles made of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) in selected US states across a range of its brands.

This includes new "sip-sized" 13.2-ounce bottles, which are a little larger than a can, as well as an rPET version of the more traditional 20-ounce bottles.

It is a first step in the company's mission to use at least 50 per cent recycled material in its bottles and cans by 2030. By comparison, rival beverage brand Evian has promised to use 100 per cent recycled plastic across all of its products by 2025.

According to Coca-Cola, this latest initiative will cut its use of virgin plastic by 20 per cent in North America compared to 2018.

But Priestland warned the move could actually make pollution worse.

"Coke's introduction of a new small-sized bottle is a huge step backwards in sustainability, especially if this will be replacing cans which can be recycled endlessly," she told Dezeen.

"Selling products in smaller-sized formats generally means more pieces of plastic created and sent out into the world. Each item of plastic causes environmental damage, regardless of how much plastic that item contains."

"It also places an enormous burden on waste collection and recycling systems to have lots of small bits of plastic."

Break Free From Plastic has found The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo and Nestlé to be the companies creating the most plastic pollution.

Break Free From Plastic's latest pollution audit, published in December, involved 15,000 volunteers in 55 countries. Of the 346,494 pieces of plastic collected from the environment, 13,834 were from Coca-Cola products.

This was more than the combined number of items from Pepsi and Nestlé, who were the second- and third-worst offenders.

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Technology company Razer has developed a conceptual design for a clear plastic face mask with lights and a built-in sound system to improve social interaction during the pandemic.

Called Project Hazel, the mask would be transparent in order to allow the wearer to use gestures such as smiling while speaking.

Razer unveiled the design at CES 2021, which is normally held in Las Vegas but was held online this year due to coronavirus.

The clear material used around the mouth of the Project Hazel mask would also allow people who are hard of hearing to lip read during a conversation.

Built-in lights would turn on automatically in low light conditions, to keep this function working in the dark, and the lights could also be customised to display different colours and effects for fun.

Medical staff have noted that standard face masks can pose difficulties for patients and carers with hearing loss who rely on lip-reading. They can also make communication harder and more anxiety-inducing for people with autism or learning difficulties.

Masks can also muffle people's speech, but raising your voice projects more potentially-infectious droplets into the air around you.

To combat this, Razer's Project Hazel would have a system of microphones and amplifiers that would transmit the wearer's voice, so their speech would be audible while maintaining safe social distancing.

The company said they have already applied for a patent for this Razer VoiceAmp Technology.

"Razer acknowledges the uncertainty in the road ahead, and so it was our duty to help protect our community members and prepare them from invisible threats," said Razer co-founder and CEO Min-Liang Tan.

"The Project Hazel smart mask concept is intended to be functional, yet comfortable and useful for interacting with the world while maintaining a sociable aesthetic."

Project Hazel would also include ventilator pods to regulate airflow and filter airborne particles, which Razer said could give the masks "N95 medical-grade respirator protection".

These detachable pods could be sanitised by being placed inside the mask's wireless charging box, which would have disinfecting UV lights.

A layer of silicon and adjustable ear loops would keep the mask flush to the wearer's skin, creating an effective seal.

The transparent part of the mask would be made from recycled plastic. Razer said that part of the motivation for making a tech-enabled reusable mask would be reducing the amount of environmental waste caused by disposable versions.

South Korean designer Haneul Kim drew attention to this problem recently with his project Stack and Stack, which turns discarded single-use face-masks into furniture.

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London designer Tom Robinson used 100 per cent recycled plastic from e-waste to produce his Evolve Chair, which aims to give the manmade material a more natural feel.

The black chair is constructed from recycled plastic sheets made by Netherlands-based The Good Plastics Company from e-waste, such as discarded laptops and computers.

Its colour comes from the black plastic of the electronics, which is crushed and granulated before being formed into plastic panels. The designer believes this process gives the material a look and feel that isn't usually associated with plastic.

"This new reprocessed panel resembles something closer to a porous wood or stone, rather than something artificial," said Robinson.

He wanted to highlight this aspect of the material, which he initially came across during early workshop tests. These revealed that the deeper into the panels he milled, using a CNC machine, the darker the semi-porous layers got, creating a more organic effect.

"Evolve's design was born from a need to present recycled plastics in a way that people could actually want to have it in their homes – whether it be in a flat or farmhouse kitchen," Robinson told Dezeen.

"Plastic by its very nature is considered industrial, machine-made and artificial – it feels quite fitting and important to show 'recycled' plastics as something that can appear more natural, crafted and synonymous with the interior landscapes of today."

The resulting chair has a minimalist, geometric shape with softly rounded corners that seems to nod to the shape of the laptops, computers and keyboards.

"From a design standpoint the chair's logical and minimal appearance is a result of a very pragmatic approach to material and form – a strong and enduring base structure with functional, graphic details that have been cut away to reveal some surprisingly beautiful textures," Robinson said.

"The chairs proportions and useful details, such as the handles and angled leg fronts – to avoid scuffs and wear – were developed through 1:1 scale models using scrap material," he added.

The base of the piece consists of four panels – a seat, two legs and a central beam – which is turned into a chair by adding the seat back. This can be removed to use the chair as a stool.

Robinson and his team cut the plastic panels in his London workshop using a table saw before they are hand-routed or CNC-milled, and then assembled with dry-fit Festool Domino Connectors.

"At the end of its life you can recycle the plastic components and re-use the metal connectors," Robinson said.

Robinson envisioned the product as a scalable, adaptable piece of furniture, and designed it to be flatpacked in order for it to have a smaller footprint when transported. It is the first edition in a series planned to change the perception of waste materials.

"I would always favour natural materials in any walk of life – but given the 'casual' 6.3 billion metric tons of waste plastic we have produced on Earth; it felt imperative to find a logical way to use this resilient material resource and save the harvesting of virgin material," Robinson said.

In 2019, 54 million metric tons of electronic waste was produced globally, and the number is projected to increase to 74 million metric tons by 2030.

As The Good Plastics Company's panels are made from a single type of plastic, they can also continue to be recycled.

In December 2020, The Good Plastics Company's founder William Chizhovsky joined Dezeen for a live talk hosted by the Material Lab on the challenges of making sustainability mainstream.

Robinson is also a designer at Viewport Studio whose Essential Furniture collection, made from discarded timber, won furniture design of the year at Dezeen Awards 2020 and also won the public vote in its category.

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Fashion designer Virgil Abloh has created a water bottle for Evian that is made almost entirely from recycled plastic and visualises this history through a distinctive hammered texture.

The 500 millilitre bottle can be fully recycled at the end of its life and is designed to act as a kind of mission statement, giving form to the brand's commitment to become circular by 2025.

"I wanted to create a shape that was as iconic as the Evian brand, whilst representing how the product has been reinvented using old bottles," said Abloh.

"My new hammer motif reflects how this new design has been reconstructed from waste materials, which in itself was a whole new challenge and a new step in my partnership with Evian."

The release marks the first time that Evian has launched a bottle made entirely of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) in the United States. By 2025, the brand aims to use exclusively recycled plastic across its entire portfolio, save for lids and labels.

Last year, the mineral water brand already released rPET versions of its three most popular formats – the 500 millilitre, 750 millilitre and 1.5 litre bottles – in countries across Europe.

But all of these bottles, including Abloh's latest design, still feature a label and cap made of virgin high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and oriented polypropylene (OPP), which Evian claims is necessary to preserve "water purity and quality for consumers".

In a bid to eliminate all non-essential packaging from its products, the company has also released a "fully circular" label-free bottle but this design was only rolled out in the French hospitality sector.

Abloh, who was named Evian's creative advisor for sustainable innovation design in 2018, has previously created a series of reusable glass bottles for the mineral water brand, which sold out instantly.

As part of his role, the designer is involved in the re-design of Evian products as well as acting as a youth whisperer, communicating "the importance of innovation in design and sustainability" to his loyal fanbase.

"As champions of youth culture, Virgil and Evian generate awareness of the circular economy and collectively inspire new generations to enact positive sustainable change," a spokesperson for the brand told Dezeen.

Most recently, he launched a $1 million scholarship fund for fashion design students of black, African American or African descent, to which Evian contributed alongside Abloh-fronted brands Off-White and Louis Vuitton.

Together with Evian, he also held a sustainable design competition in 2020, looking for innovative solutions for some of the most pressing environmental issues of our time.

The winner, Royal College of Art graduate Danielle Elsener, took home a $50,000 grant for her zero-waste pattern cutting system, which eliminates the 15 per cent of material that goes to waste in the production of an average garment.

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South Korean designer Donghoon Sohn has pressed plastic slabs together like slices of bread for his latest furniture series, allowing primary coloured, recycled binder to bleed from the cracks as if it was melted cheese.

The collection's name, BSP, pays homage to the classic BLT sandwich and stands for byproduct, solvent and plastic.

Although its Cubist chair, bench and side table consist largely of pure white, virgin plastic blocks, these are held together by acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS plastic) offcuts, which are recycled into a technicolour glue that spills out from the seams.

"ABS is a popular material for 3D printing and CNC milling because it is easy to dye and process," Sohn told Dezeen.

"Inevitably, a lot of plastic waste is created in the process, which is hard to recycle because it is too tiny, like dust. But these flakes or small parts from failed prints are easy to dissolve in a little amount of solvent due to how large their surface area is relative to their volume."

According to Sohn, the pieces only take about five minutes to dissolve in ethanol, before they can be mixed with different coloured powders.

From here, the ethanol can easily be evaporated in order to once again solidify the material while pressing it between the slabs.

"Imagine you are grabbing a sandwich with your hand, this is almost the same situation," Sohn said. "While the melted plastic solidifies, I apply a virgin plastic plate from each side to create the look of melted cheese."

The resulting, handcrafted furniture pieces embrace spontaneity and happy accidents, even though they were made from mass-produced materials.

Sohn refrained from using any resin or glue in the production process in order to allow the pieces to once again be recycled when they reach the end of their life. Or, in a post-plastic world, he hopes they might become relics of a bygone era.

"In the future plastic may be no longer in use due to environmental issues, so then my work will be limited edition," he joked.

The designer set up his own Atelier Sohn in 2015, on which he worked throughout his graduate studies at Swiss design school ÉCAL. Before that, Sohn clocked six years as a product designer for South Korean electronics company Samsung.

Rather than covering up recycled plastic or attempting to make it look and perform like virgin plastic, a number of designers have created furniture that hopes to exploit its unique characteristics to create a distinct visual language.

Sydney studio DesignByThem allowed the multicoloured plastic pieces that make up its Confetti collection to remain visible and form a playful, speckled texture, while Plasticiet stretched the material like taffy to create a series of pearlescent seats and storage units.

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For the third consecutive year, an audit by environmental initiative Break Free From Plastic has found The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo and Nestlé to be the companies creating the most plastic pollution.

The annual survey saw 15,000 volunteers in 55 countries collect 346,494 pieces of plastic from their surrounding environment.

The brand most heavily responsible for this pollution was Coca-Cola, totalling 13,834 pieces across 51 countries, which is more than Pepsi and Nestlé combined.

Meanwhile, in the top five for the second year in a row are Unilever and Mondelēz International, which between them own household names like Dove, Magnum, Cadbury and Oreo.

Companies are failing to make meaningful changes

An accompanying report, authored by activists from Break Free From Plastic and Greenpeace among others, argued that the audit data shows how large multinationals are hiding behind "clever marketing tactics and lofty 'sustainability' goals" while failing to make the meaningful changes to back them up.

"The world's top polluting corporations claim to be working hard to solve plastic pollution, but instead they are continuing to pump out harmful single-use plastic packaging," said Emma Priestland, Break Free From Plastic's global corporate campaigns coordinator.

"We need to stop plastic production, phase out single-use and implement robust, standardised reuse systems. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Nestlé should be leading the way in finding real solutions."

Seven of the ten worst polluters, including the top three, are signatories of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's New Plastics Economy Global Commitment.

This requires companies to eliminate all unnecessary plastic, innovate to create more sustainable substitutes, and reuse or recycle all plastic items within a circular system.

But the foundation reported that its signatories only reduced their use of virgin plastic by 0.1 per cent from 2018 to 2019, while Coca-Cola actually increased the amount of plastic it uses.

Emphasis on recyclable and compostable packaging is greenwashing

Instead of reducing their production, the Break Free From Plastic report argues that the companies have largely chosen to advertise their targets to make 100 per cent of their packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.

This is equated to "greenwashing", solely designed to justify the corporations' "excessive production of single-use plastic".

"Only nine per cent of all the plastic ever made has been recycled, yet the companies that produce this plastic continue to hail recycling as the ultimate solution to combating the plastic pollution crisis," the report reads.

"However, most single-use plastic simply can't be recycled or it's just not economical to do so, especially when the cost of virgin plastic is very low."

The report also accused companies of using terms like bioplastic or compostable plastic to make consumers feel better about their choices, while exploiting their ignorance about the fact these pieces will only degrade in certain pressure and temperature controlled settings – if they do at all.

"The only way to truly solve the plastic pollution crisis is to stop making so much plastic," the report concluded.

Environmental campaigners continue to be divided about the role that petroleum-based plastic can play in moving towards a truly circular economy, in which waste and pollution is entirely eliminated.

Andrew Morlet, the CEO of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, has advocated for keeping plastic "in the economy and out of the natural system" through a continual process of chemical recycling.

But Dutch designer Richard Hutten has called this idea "bullshit", with both him and Parley for the Oceans founder Cyrill Gutsch arguing that the material is fundamentally incompatible with sustainable production and consumption practices.

Image is courtesy of Nick Fewings.

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Seoul-based brand Supublic has developed a series of more sustainable cleaning supplies that save on single-use plastic by replacing liquid products with dissolvable tablets.

Supublic's 1N9 Modern Cleaner project has been shortlisted for this year's Dezeen awards in the sustainable design category.

The studio developed a series of tablets made with a concentration of non-toxic cleaning agents that users can dissolve in water to create 430 millilitres of solution. The name 1N9 is an appreciation of the ratio of 10 per cent detergent to 90 per cent water.

After making the initial purchase of three reusable bottles, consumers can order refill tablets in packs.

1N9 Modern Cleaner tablets can then be mixed with water in the same containers, saving them from buying more single-use plastic bottles in the future when the product runs out.

The tablets come in three different versions – the blue tablet is a multi-purpose cleaner, while the yellow is designed for the bathroom and the orange for the kitchen.

These each come with their own colour-coded and labelled 1N9 Modern Cleaner bottle, which is also recyclable, to enable to user to see what bottle to put which tablet in when it comes to refilling them.

Each colour also features different natural ingredients and scents, with the blue containing orange and lavender, the yellow including coconut and mint, and the orange containing lemon and thyme.

Supublic's founders began the 1N9 Modern Cleaner project after realising the number of chemicals, such as sodium lauryl sulfate and triclosan, are in standard cleaning products.

These chemicals – alongside the one billion cleaning bottles that are thrown out each year – can be harmful to the environment, so the brand developed a natural sanitising solution as an alternative.

"We want to do better. That means asking ourselves, every day, how we can improve," said Supublic.

"Whether it's mindlessly tossing out an empty cleaning bottle or glossing over the ingredients list, small daily actions can shape the future of our planet," added the brand.

"By uncovering how we can be better to ourselves and to the earth, we are one step closer to a healthier and plastic-free world."

Another project shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2020, is Spruce's refillable cleaning product system. The pastel-hued bottles made from aluminium can be purchased once and reused endlessly using dehydrated refills.

Also shortlisted for Dezeen Awards 2020 is the Bio Iridescent Sequin by Elissa Brunato, which is made from cellulose extracted from trees as an eco-friendly alternative to plastic sequins.

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Plastic can help create more energy-efficient products that reduce the need for fossil fuels, according to Håkan Nordin, head of sustainability at flooring company Bolon.

Nordin called for a re-evaluation of plastic, which he described as "a very resource-efficient material that you can use for lots of things".

"I think that plastic is a part of the solution," said Nordin, a former climate activist who co-founded the Swedish branch of Greenpeace.

Plastic can be used "without climate impact"

"We are not moving away from plastic. We can make it circular and we can make it without climate impact."

Nordin spoke to Dezeen in a live interview last week, in which he unveiled Bolon's strategy to reduce waste and climate impact by 50 per cent by 2028.

The Swedish company, which makes woven vinyl flooring, has already switched to using renewable energy at its manufacturing plant and recycles waste plastic back into its products.

Bolon's production "has zero climate impact"

"All our production has zero climate impact, which we are proud of," said Nordin in the talk, held to mark Bolon's involvement in the Embassy of Rethinking Plastic at Dutch Design Week last week.

"Our goal is now to offer supreme products that are a part of circular material flow, safe for humans and nature with zero climate impact"

Nordin said that 90 per cent of the world's fossil fuels are currently burned to produce energy, a process that is the main driver of climate change.

Of the remaining fossil resources that are not burned, half is turned into plastic, with the remainder used to produce chemicals.

Plastic is "resource-efficient"

Two-thirds of all plastics are used to make disposable products and packaging, Nordin said, while around a fifth is used to make what he described as "construction plastic".

This is used to make "long-lived products that you use for years. It's in computers, cars and buildings."

Construction plastic can help reduce the amount of fossil fuels that are burned, Nordin argued.

Plastic "reduces climate change"

"It's light, strong, easy to form," he explained. "It's resource-efficient. And it actually reduces climate change," when compared to heavier materials that require more energy during manufacturing.

Steel, for example, needs to be heated to around 1,000 degrees Celsius before it can be forged, whereas lightweight thermoplastics can be moulded at around 200 degrees.

"In a modern car there are about 200 kilogrammes of construction plastic, which makes the car lighter," he added. "And when the car is lighter, it needs less petrol."

Plastic controversial in the design world

Other examples Nordin gave include wind farms, which are more efficient when turbines have plastic blades; and electronic products, which contain large amounts of plastic.

The use of plastic is a contentious issue in the design world, with some figures believing its use should be phased out entirely to prevent pollution.

Industrial designer Richard Hutten clashed with Andrew Morlet, CEO of circular-economy advocate the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, at the Dezeen Day conference last year when Morlet described plastic as an "amazing material" that could be endlessly reused with the help of new recycling techniques.

However, Hutten described the claim as "bullshit" and described plastic as "the cancer of our planet."

In an interview with Dezeen earlier this year, Parley for the Oceans founder Cyrill Gutsch said that plastic was incompatible with the circular economy and new materials needed to be developed instead.

But turning oil, gas and coal into plastic and using the material according to circular principles is ultimately better for the environment than burning fossil fuels, Nordin argued.

"The problem comes when we set fire to oil and gas," he said. "If we don't set fire to oil and gas, we don't have any climate change."

Doubts over bioplastics

Nordin was doubtful about the potential of bioplastics, which currently make up one per cent of all plastics, to replace fossil-based plastics.

Produced from specially grown crops, bioplastics require large amounts of land and so could compete with agriculture, timber plantations and the need to retain natural landscapes to retain biodiversity and absorb carbon from the atmosphere, Nordin said.

"There'll be competition when it comes to what we grow and how we use [the land]," he said. "And we have a perfect resource [for plastic] that is oil."

"If we use the oil in a circular material flow, I think it's very efficient to use it and we don't have competition with forests and crops."

He was also cautious about biodegradable and compostable plastics since these cannot be recycled and need to be carefully separated from regular plastics.

"If you mix them you're going to be in a tricky situation," he said, instead calling for "more circularity of the atoms" via chemical recycling, which breaks down the long molecular chains in polymers so they can be used again.

Chemical recycling could reduce plastic waste

This emerging technology, which could eventually replace expensive mechanical recycling, would help put plastics on a par with metals such as copper and aluminium, which are commonly melted down and resold at affordable prices.

"You can't say that I want to buy recycled copper," he said. "You buy copper and there's a portion of it that is recycled."

After completing a degree in organic chemistry, Nordin joined Greenpeace in 1982 and later founded Miljökompassen, one of the first environmental consultancies in Sweden, in 1990.

"Good things" are happening

He advised the Swedish government and brands such as H&M and IKEA on their sustainability strategies before joining Bolon two years ago.

Nordin, who started his career as an environmental activist protesting against many of the companies he now consults with, said that large corporations are increasingly taking environmental issues seriously, integrating sustainability into their businesses rather than treating it as a peripheral activity.

"I see lots of things happening," he said. "Good things."

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Bolon's head of sustainability Håkan Nordin discussed ways of using plastic more sustainably in this live conversation produced by Dezeen for the Swedish flooring brand.

Nordin, who is also a founding member of Greenpeace Sweden, spoke to Dezeen's founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs about Bolon's stance on plastic and its vision for a more sustainable future.

Founded in 1949 by textile designer Nils-Erik Eklund, Bolon produces flooring products made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which commonly known as vinyl.

Nordin's career within the field of climate action spans more than 30 years.

In 1982, after graduating from Umeå University with a bachelor's degree in Organic Chemistry, Håkan helped to establish the Swedish arm of non-governmental environmental organisation Greenpeace.

In 1990, he founded Miljökompassen – one of the first environmental consultant companies in Sweden.

Håkan has also served in various roles and committees for the Swedish government and advised brands such as H&M and IKEA on how to improve their sustainability strategies.

The discussion, which was produced by Dezeen for Bolon, forms part of Rethinking Plastic – a two-year programme of talks, workshops, exhibitions and excursions running from September 2020 until December 2022, which aims to readdress our relationship with plastic.

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Plastic will have to break down into organic matter and carbon dioxide in the open air within two years to be classed as biodegradable under a new UK standard being introduced by the British Standards Institute.

Ninety per cent of the organic carbon contained in plastic needs to be converted into carbon dioxide within 730 days to meet the new BSI standard, which has been introduced following confusion over the meaning of biodegradability.

The PAS 9017 standard covers polyolefins, a family of thermoplastics that includes polyethylene and polypropylene, which are responsible for half of all plastic pollution in the environment.

Polyolefins are widely used to make carrier bags, fruit and vegetable packaging and drink bottles.

"Tackling the global challenge of plastic waste requires imagination and innovation," said Scott Steedman, director of standards at BSI.

"New ideas need agreed, publicly available, independent standards to enable the delivery of trusted solutions by industry," he added, describing the new standard as "the first stakeholder consensus on how to measure the biodegradability of polyolefins which will accelerate the verification of technologies for plastic biodegradation."

Standard will only apply to land-based plastic pollution

PAS 9017, titled Biodegradation of polyolefins in an open-air terrestrial environment, involves testing plastic to prove it can break down into a harmless wax in the open air.

The standard only applies to land-based plastic pollution which, according to the BSI, makes up three-quarters of fugitive plastic.

It does not cover plastic in the sea, where researchers have found that supposedly biodegradable plastic bags remain usable after three years.

"The test sample shall be deemed valid if 90 per cent or greater of the organic carbon in the wax is converted to carbon dioxide by the end of the test period when compared to the positive control or in the absolute," said the BSI.

"The total maximum time for the testing period shall be 730 days."

Standard created to stop manufacturers misleading the public

Last year, amid concerns that manufacturers were misleading the public when using terms such as "biodegradable", "bioplastic" and "compostable", the UK government called for experts to help it develop standards for plastics.

The word "biodegradable" implies that a material will break down harmlessly in the environment, although it can take hundreds of years for some plastics to do so.

Bioplastic, which is plastic made from materials derived from living plants or animals, is not inherently biodegradable. Compostable plastic will only break down harmlessly if placed in a special composter.

PAS 9017 was developed with a steering group of plastics experts and sponsored by Polymateria, a British company that has developed an additive that allows fossil-fuel plastics to biodegrade.

New process designed to allow plastics to biodegrade

The additive allows thermoplastics, which are highly resistant to degradation, to break down after a given shelf live when exposed to air, light and water without producing potentially harmful microplastics.

The process does however convert much of the plastic into carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas.

"Our technology is designed to have multiple triggers to ensure the activation rather than just one," Polymateria said.

"Thus time, UV light, temperature, humidity and air will all play a role in different stages to engage with the technology to chemical transform the plastic into a biocompatible material."

"Independent third-party laboratory testing has shown we achieve 100 per cent biodegradation on a rigid plastic container in 336 days and film material in 226 days in real-world conditions, leaving zero microplastics behind or causing any environmental harm in the process," Polymateria CEO Niall Dunne told Dezeen.

With plastic production expected to double by 2050, many designers are exploring alternatives to fossil-based plastics.

Priestman Goode recently created reusable fast food packaging from cocoa bean shells, while Bottega Veneta designed a biodegradable boot made from sugarcane and coffee.

This year's James Dyson Award in the UK was won by a design that captures microplastic emissions from car tyres, which are one of the biggest sources of plastic pollution.

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Mineral water brand Evian has unveiled its first bottle made of recycled plastic as part of its plan to become a circular brand by 2025.

The recyclable 400 millilitre bottle is made of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) and features an embossed logo instead of a label.

However, the pink cap is made from virgin high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and oriented polypropylene (OPP), which Evian says can be recycled.

"It took almost two years for us to develop this innovation," said Evian vice president Shweta Harit.

"Having overcome industry-wide restrictions in technology and production, this is the first time that Evian has been able to implement a fully circular bottle design."

However, for now, the changes only affect the 400 mililitre bottle. The brand's other bottles are made from approximately 40 per cent recycled plastic.

The rest of Evian's bottles will be made entirely of recycled plastic by 2025, in line with its promise to adopt the principles of the circular economy across its business.

"This is a move that will see the brand adopt a circular approach to its plastic usage, where plastic is kept within the economy and out of nature, meaning that their bottles will be made from 100 per cent recycled plastic," Harit said.

Through its parent company Danone, Evian has worked with circular-economy advocate The Ellen MacArthur Foundation to define its circular strategy.

It is also working with recycling technology company Loop Industries, which has developed advanced ways of turning used PET plastic into recycled bottles.

In addition, Evian is working with recycling services company Veolia to increase the collection and recycling rates of waste plastic bottles.

"Evian will keep identifying and supporting recycling solutions to ensure bottles are recycled properly, reducing dependency on newly created plastic while generating a reliable supply of recycled plastic," Harit said.

"Evian is determined to leverage its global voice to drive consumer behaviour change around plastic waste and recycling."

In April this year, the brand was certified as carbon neutral by the Carbon Trust through initiatives including a renewable energy scheme at its bottling plant and a project to plant 130 million trees.

Last year Evian trialled a collapsible water dispenser made from recycled plastic, called Renew, in an attempt to reduce its plastic packaging.

Designed for the home, the bubble-like appliance can store up to five litres of Evian mineral water, and contracts when water is consumed.

The circular economy involves eliminating waste and pollution and nurturing, rather than exploiting, the natural world. Other brands embracing circularity include IKEA, which has committed to becoming fully circular by 2030.

However, the notion of using plastic in the circular economy is controversial. Last year, designer Richard Hutten clashed with the CEO of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation at the Dezeen Day conference, declaring that recycling plastic is "bullshit" and calling for the material to be eliminated.

Last month Parley for the Oceans founder Cyrill Gutsch told Dezeen that the circular economy "will never work" with existing materials such as plastic and that new, non-polluting materials need to be developed instead.

Recycling is "just a bandage and a translation from an old technology to a new one," Gutsch said. "It is nothing else than a step in between."

Evian's new recycled water bottle is currently available in selected hotels and eateries in France and will be available in additional countries including UAE, Mexico, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore from September 2020.

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Zero is a concept for an incentive-based food-delivery system by PriestmanGoode that could encourage consumers to use and return bioplastic containers to takeaway restaurants.

To discourage the use of single-use plastic for fast food boxes and bags, Zero would encourage consumers to change throwaway habits by offering an attractive alternative that could be reused again and again.

If produced for widespread use, the containers and bag would be made from sustainable materials such as cocoa bean shells, mycelium and pineapple husk.

Zero's boxes would have a bento-style stacking system, ridding of the need for individual lids by placing each container on top of the other, with the base of one acting as the lid for another.

PriestmanGoode's design would work on a customer-rewards basis, where buyers would pay a small fee for the packaging when ordering the food, which would be reimbursed on their next delivery when the containers are returned to the delivery service provider.

Designed to be transferable between restaurants, the packaging would then be washed by the next food provider before being used again.

The firm wanted to redesign food delivery in a bid to lessen the environmental impact of so-called "convenience culture".

This involved repositioning takeaway packaging as a desirable object that consumers would want to buy.

According to a 2019 report published by Azoth Analytics, the online food delivery and takeaway market is worth around £42.6 billion ($53.5 billion) per year globally.

This figure is now expected to be higher as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, due to restaurants signing up to delivery platforms like Deliveroo and UberEats since lockdown measures were enforced.

The studio started the project before the global coronavirus outbreak, but it has only become more relevant as restaurants turn to takeaway to serve customers in a socially distanced way.

"[Redesigning food delivery] has become even more important now, as there has been a rise in at-home dining," said associate director of strategy at PriestmanGoode Jo Rowan.

"It presents an opportunity for design to create something that can contribute to a sense of occasion, that is beautiful, practical and sustainable," she added. "As a society, we have to move away from a culture of disposables, and focus on principles of the circular economy."

The circular economy is where materials are kept in circulation instead of being extracted, used and thrown away.

PriestmanGoode researched various food-safe materials that could replace the plastic containers currently used for takeaway meals and deliveries and tested them for qualities such as heat-proof, lightweight, recyclability and insulation.

The team collaborated with a series of designers to work with more sustainable materials, including Paula Nerlich, who developed a bioplastic made from by-products of the cacao industry to make up the body of the containers.

The material is partly made from cocoa bean shells, which is a by-product of industrial chocolate production, separated from the bean during the roasting process.

Design studio Ty Syml envisioned using mycelium for insulation in the takeaway delivery bag, while Piñatex – a leather alternative made from cellulose fibres extracted from pineapple leaves – would be used for the bag lid.

A plant-based neoprene-type rubber called Lexcell, developed by Yulex, would be used for the food container and bag handles.

The bag's outer would be comprised of the biodegradable Nuatan material by Crafting Plastics, made from corn-starch, sugar and waste cooking oil, which can withstand high temperatures.

Designer Margarita Talep has also been selected to work with the company to create algae-based materials that would replace the clingfilm currently used to prevent spillages.

The bento box-style design of multiple sections included in one vessel, as opposed to individual containers, also halves the amount of packaging needed by removing lids.

"We know that adding value has an impact on behaviour," said Rowan. "In the UK, plastic bag consumption in supermarkets went down 90 per cent since the introduction of the 5p – and subsequently 10p – tax in 2015."

"Provided with the right incentives, we know that consumers are willing and able to quickly modify their behaviours to more sustainable patterns," she continued.

"Introducing a reward-based system, whereby consumers would be given incentives, such as discounts, for returning takeaway packaging into the system, we know would have a positive impact."

The concept was designed as part of Wallpaper* magazine's Re-Made project and will be displayed at Salone del Mobile in 2021 as part of an exhibition dedicated to the publication's project.

Best known for its transport design, PriestmanGoode recently released a concept for a high-performance balloon and pressurised capsule that would take space tourists on a journey to the stratosphere.

It also redesigned its Island Bay train seating to make it easier for London commuters to social distance in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

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VDF products fair: Spanish architect Patricia Urquiola created the Nuez chairs from recyclable plastic as part of a collection for furniture makers Andreu World.

Patricia Urquiola, who was a judge for Dezeen Awards 2019, designed the shape of the chairs by folding a piece of paper to model the join where the seat meets the backrest.

A quilted pattern in the injection-moulded thermoplastic shell lends the collection a tactile quality. Both the shell and the upholstery are available in a range of colours.

"The technical development of such a complex and rich geometry has meant an important technological challenge both of the material and of the injection process," said Andreu World.

"Nuez has been manufactured through production processes that minimise impact and environmental footprint, reducing and optimizing their production to also avoid waste generated at an environmental level."

The materials chosen for the Nuez range were selected for their durability, and its manufacturing process has been certified by BIFMA's sustainability initiative LEVEL®.

"All its components and parts can be easily separated for correct recycling at the end of their useful life," Andreu World said of the Nuez range.

As well as the chairs, which are available with a selection of different legs, the Nuez collection also includes a series of tables in different sizes with splayed ash wood legs.

Product: Nuez chairs
Designer: Patricia Urquiola
Brand: Andreu World
Contact address: c.salavert@andreuworld.com

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Hungarian design brand Sekhina has made a series of light switches and plug sockets from concrete as an aesthetically pleasing alternative to plastic.

Billed as the first of their kind, Sekhina founder Gábor Kasza made the concrete covers for switches and sockets after not being able to find any similar products made from the material.

"Concrete switches and sockets had to exist already – or so we thought initially; it seemed such an obvious idea, but we couldn't find them anywhere," said Kasza.

"We thought they would look and feel fantastic, so we created them," he added. "You can now find the very first completely concrete cover of switches and sockets, made from only silicates – more sustainable and more beautiful."

Initially drawn to the "fair-faced" complexion of concrete surfaces and objects, Kasza began developing the covers as part of his exploration of the material. He wanted to try to find a way to make light switches and sockets something that people don't want to conceal.

"A piece of plastic on the wall can be bizarre, sometimes quite terrible," he explained. "Interior designers very often try to hide switches and sockets as they blunt the general aesthetics of their work, but they're functional useful objects."

"If we have to search for a long time to find them and posture freaky poses to use them – that's not too comfortable. The answer is concrete."

According to the designer, concrete is an appropriate material for switches and sockets due to its electrical insulating and non-flammable properties. Each piece has a unique design, featuring various bubbles and marks on its surface as a result of the moulding process.

The designs are currently prototypes and Kasza hopes he can get backing from investors to eventually mass-produce them.

Alongside the concrete switches, the designer has also created a series of polished terrazzo-style surfaces in various shades including pale pink, green and blue.

Designed to be as environmentally friendly as possible, the formula concrete switches and sockets are made from 25 per cent cement and are free from synthetic resins and contaminants.

"We know that the plastic materials of switches and sockets make up a very low percentage of global plastic pollution, but we think that all of the tiny steps to create a more sustainable future are remarkable," said the designer.

"We are very proud that we can offer a better alternative, although we know that concrete can harm the environment as well," he continued. "We do not use artificial resin nor pollutant additives – we call it a 'stone to stone' product."

To further neutralise its carbon footprint, Sekhina will be planting trees in cooperation with a chosen environmental organisation, as well as seeking advice from environment-protection specialists before starting mass-production.

According to Kasza, the objects we touch in our day-to-day lives have a physical effect on our bodies and minds. He compares the use of concrete for switches to using a glass instead of a plastic cup.

"How many times a day do you touch light switches?" he questioned.

"If you feel it is better to wear a natural silk scarf than a nylon one and you can feel the difference between the perfume of flowers compared to a cheap toilet fragrance, then surely you will appreciate our products."

Concrete has been used to make other household objects such as bookends and doorstops, created by London designer Liliana Ovalle, as well as a collection of bathroom furniture by Marco Merendi and Diego Vencato.

New York-based Bower Studios also experimented with concrete to create a chair-top that is designed to look like it is melting over a metallic base, forming folds on the floor.

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The coronavirus pandemic is increasing demand for plastic and delaying the drive towards sustainable alternatives, say designers.

Nienke Hoogvliet, a designer who explores sustainable materials, said people now "focus only on safety and the environment is forgotten," while Parley for the Oceans founder Cyrill Gutsch said people "went back to old patterns" of plastic use during the pandemic.

"There was a moment of wastefulness," Gutsch said during a live interview with Dezeen.

"I'm worried about the increased amount of virgin plastic being used," agreed industrial designer Dave Hakkens, whose Precious Plastics initiative encourages recycling. "It seems that most people prioritise the pandemic and put the environment second."

Disposable face masks litter the streets

Plastic is used to make personal protective equipment (PPE) such as disposable masks and gloves to help with infection control, while restaurants are using disposable cups and cutlery as they reopen as takeaway-only.

"There's a global trend that single-use plastics are increasing again," Hoogvliet told Dezeen. "The amount of discarded face masks I have seen in the streets already is daunting."

"That's why I was so happy to see Adidas release a reusable face cover. Why won't governments oblige people to wear reusable face masks?"

Hoogvliet, who founded her own studio in 2013, has used algae to make rugs, turned reclaimed toilet paper into tableware, and developed a bioplastic from wastewater.

Balance "is extremely difficult to achieve"

While protecting public health is vital, Hoogvliet argued that damaging the environment will cause more global health crises further down the line. "I think it's great that plastic materials can offer help in this pandemic," she said.

"But on the other hand, I am deeply worried. The balance between health, economics and environmental impact is extremely difficult to achieve, but also extremely important. There still is too much talk and not enough action."

Bans on single-use plastic bags have been lifted in some US states and reusable bags banned over fears about transmission. Greenpeace has accused the plastics industry of "exploiting anxiety" after its trade body lobbied the US department of health to roll back bans on single-use plastics, calling them a "public safety risk".

People "put environment second"

In the UK, a planned ban on disposable plastic objects such as stirrers and cotton buds has been delayed due to the pandemic.

"I'm worried about the increased amount of virgin plastic being used," Hakkens told Dezeen. Precious Plastics, the open-source recycling project Hakkens founded in 2013, helps people build their own machines to turn plastic waste into new objects.

Historically low oil prices, caused by the pandemic halting transport and industry, are also making single-use plastic items cheaper to produce. The falling cost to produce virgin plastic could lead to a drop in demand for recycled plastic.

Coronavirus "came in like a bomb," Hakkens said, leading to an understandable explosion of single-use plastic consumption, but he fears that the environment will suffer in the long term.

"Some plastics are easy to recycle but some of the commercial masks are impossible to recycle and will all go to burn. It's the same with the increased amount of gloves and food delivery packaging." he told Dezeen.

Material "wasted" during pandemic

However, Hakkens is heartened by the DIY recycling community's response to the pandemic, as Precious Plastics mobilised to make recycled PPE.

"On the upside [the pandemic] definitely seems to spark the imagination in people's minds that rapid change is possible," said Hakkens. "Hopefully we can keep using that force to work on our other environmental issues as a collective once this is settled."

Gutsch, a designer and product developer, founded Parley for the Oceans in 2012 to foster creative collaborations to protect the marine environment.

"We definitely wasted a lot of material in the last two months, and we went back to old patterns," Gutsch told Dezeen. "What it did, though, is it changed us."

Even environmental boons such as the grounding of flights will only be temporary, but it has opened a window for long term behavioural change, Gutsch said in an interview with Dezeen last week as part of Virtual Design Festival.

Governments must invest in alternatives now

The pandemic has also highlighted the weaknesses of supply chains and the difficulty of producing new products, he warned. The only way to truly stop plastic pollution, Gutsch believes, is to invest in non-toxic biofabricated alternatives using living materials such as algae and bacteria.

"I think biofabrication will replace pretty much everything in the next 10 years," he said. The Parley Institute for Material Science is already working on supporting the development of alternative materials.

These new products will need major investment to be able to compete on a scale with plastic. So now is not the time for environmental projects to lose momentum, argued Hoogvliet.

"Worldwide governments should be pushing for new alternatives and regulations, not passively let happen whatever happens," she said.

"It's a perfect moment for new innovations since many companies are facing difficulties with their normal productions, this is the time to research and change. With government support, this could accelerate even more or easier, but unfortunately, I don't see that happening yet."

The main image is by Jasmin Sessler from Pixabay.

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The founders of Belgium's Studio Plastique explain how their research-based projects and material investigations aim to position design as "a tool for a world that is in transition" in this interview as part of our VDF x Alcova collaboration.

The studio's Theresa Bastek and Archibald Godts said they hope to address both our "impulsive attitude towards objects" as well as the increasing issue of "social and economic fluctuation" through a similar method of design exploration.

"We need to investigate these complex issues as if they were supply chains, mostly invisible, and only revealing themselves when they break down during emergencies," they said.

The studio, which was established by the Design Academy Eindhoven graduates in 2017, is known for research-heavy investigations into the material origins and wider technological infrastructure of our everyday lives.

To encourage a more circular use of materials, the studio has previously extracted silica – a compound found in sand and often used to create kitchen appliances – from discarded machines and repurposed it to form a series of glass tableware.

Another project saw the duo explore the material possibilities of the flax plant beyond just linen fabric and linseed oil, in order to encourage the revival of local, Western European production, which has largely been outsourced abroad.

As part of this year's Milan design week presentation by design platform Alcova, Studio Plastique was set to curate an exhibition of work from Brussels designers that are rethinking what the discipline is and what it can achieve.

With the furniture fair suspended due to the ongoing pandemic, Bastek and Godts joined the Alcova team for an interview about their work and how it has been affected by the current situation.

VDF x Alcova
Exhibitor: Studio Plastique
Website: studioplastique.be
Email: info@studioplastique.be

Alcova: How do you define your studio model?

Studio Plastique: We have a research-based design practice. We look mostly into existing production systems, from material cycles to the broader complex mechanisms created by human activities, local or global.

Rather than the traditional relation between design and industry, we see design as an interaction and investigation where answers are formulated more as an empathic and vernacular conversation rather than magic solutions. We look for unexplored territories where we feel society is heading, where design is needed but not yet delivered by the industry and try to bridge that gap by dragging industry actors in those directions.

Alcova: Your own work touches on many issues that have suddenly become urgent, from 5G and supply chains to education and the integration of elderly people into society. What is the starting point for your projects?

Studio Plastique: Over the past three years, we have gradually moved from self-initiated research to commissions and collaborations with companies and institutions of different sizes. We investigate our reality in terms of the gaps – material or immaterial – that we want to tackle.

On one hand, there is a manmade material condition, which features an extreme dissonance between our impulsive attitude towards objects and the resulting ecological impacts. That could lead to an investigation of sustainable material cycles, but also more abstract questions like new models of ownership of objects.

On the other hand, there is an immaterial condition, an acceleration of information, of social and economic fluctuation, which people can sense intuitively but are unable to explain or even "see". That immateriality tends to make us suspicious of new technologies even if they are crucial to our everyday lives. In our project Flight Mode, we addressed the "invisible pollution" of electromagnetic radiation as a problem for design – not to be solved rationally or stylistically, but to ameliorate people's fears and instincts towards control, to explore their openness to change.

Some of our projects involve both conditions. For example, our research into education looked at the contemporary legacy of schooling standards shaped by the Industrial Revolution. What are the best practices we can learn from educational experiments around the world, in order to prepare today’s children to be members of the future society we want to create? What education and climate change have in common is our general response of neutrality, a position that we can no longer maintain.

We need to investigate these complex issues as if they were supply chains – mostly invisible, and only revealing themselves when they break down during emergencies. We have to understand the complete global infrastructure before we can situate our investigations, no matter how small or local. If we want to change the status quo as designers, we must address the present crisis in the context of broader underlying issues: we need to collaborate with specialists and be empathic to social needs in applying new tools at our disposal.

Alcova: Has your process been affected by the pandemic?

Studio Plastique: Our process has not changed much, but our long-term work will be very affected if the current restrictions are in place for an extended period of time, as field study is an important part of our research into how things are processed.

For now, we have had more time to read and listen and connect to others over online channels – if anything, people seem to be more open to sharing ideas and connecting to our research.

At the same time, we are interested in the external effects of the current crisis on the outlooks of businesses and individuals. Is a commitment to ecological issues now seen as more of a luxury or a matter of even greater urgency?

During this period, we all had to adjust to conditions outside of our comfort zone, and perhaps that will make us more aware of the need to keep informed and more receptive to structural changes in our lives, which could be for health as much as for environmental purposes.

Alcova: What were you preparing to show at Alcova during the Salone del Mobile, and how have your plans changed?

Studio Plastique: In this case, we have been working not as designers ourselves but as curators on an exhibition of local designers from Brussels, looking for creative practices that are defining new tools and finding new applications for design.  Our goal is to show design as a tool for a world that is in transition, starting a discourse that is oriented at a broader public, that will break open the common understanding of what designers do and what tools they use.

We want to highlight examples like Rotor, who have worked for years to recuperate architectural materials from demolished buildings, renew them through scientific methods, and bring them to market through digital retail. Such processes can be very abstract for a general audience, and that’s what we want to highlight.

Due to Covid-19, the exhibition has been delayed but will happen at a later stage. For the moment, we are contemplating what online exhibitions could mean, but they are not yet our main priority in terms of outreach. We believe space and physical sensations – even smells – are crucial elements in showing people what design can be.

Virtual Design Festival is the world's first online design festival, taking place on Dezeen from 15 April to 10 July 2020.

Alcova is a Milan-based platform established by Italian practices Space Caviar and Studio Vedèt, which champions independent design through a programme of exhibitions. The team consists of Valentina Ciuffi, Joseph Grima, Martina Muzi, Tamar Shafrir and Marco De Amicis.

The VDF x Alcova collaboration presents interviews with eight studios that were set to be featured at the platform's Milan design week presentation this year.

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