The consequences of our love affair with plastic

Every generation since plastic’s discovery and widespread use has embraced the products and the technology it has enabled.

When did we start this ridiculous love affair with plastic?

If we go back, not far, there is a time when plastic took over as the substance of choice, in manufacturing, storage, building and wrapping. It was cheap, easy and we no longer had to worry about depleting our forests to supply the wood, paper, cardboard and cellophane that plastic replaced.

Plastic also replaced glass, metal and much more. We even have plastic flowers with colours that take ages to fade. And Tupperware parties!

Remember blackboards in school and the chalk we used to write on them? Replaced with plastic-coated white boards and plastic marker pens.

Milk bottles? Motor vehicle interiors and accessories, and even parts of the car body? Bread wrapping? Bottles, jars and tubes?

When were wooden reels of real cotton replaced by plastic reels of synthetic thread? Even our bank notes succumbed to the perceived cost efficiency and durability of plastic.

Cotton, wool and other natural fibres once comprised our clothing, manchester and carpets. Now they’re too often of synthetic fibres.

This is not a tribute to a golden age pre-plastic, but a concern for ages to come.

Now that we have discovered that plastic is not the wonder material it promised to be, but a curse on the planet and its inhabitants, what do we do?

First, we have to find or rediscover natural materials to replace all those things made of plastic. That could take a while, because many of those things could only have been invented in the plastic age. Plastic has made them possible.

Then, having found serviceable natural replacements, how long before the factories of the world convert to the new (old) materials and the entire planet actually cares what things are made of?

Then, in that far-off future where the world has developed an ecological conscience, what do we do with all the plastic we have produced?

Yes, you can make art works and recycle plastic to create other things but, no matter what you do with it, the plastic waste remains. It’s not going anywhere: it’s merely changing its outer form, and the worry of its disposal is simply postponed.

Blaming someone, be it an industry or an entire generation, is not a solution or even a good idea. Every generation since plastic’s discovery and widespread use has embraced the products and the technology it has enabled.

Now is the time to come together, to use the knowledge of all those generations combined to find a way to make it right. The time for convenience has passed: real innovation and understanding of consequences begins with those of us alive now and will no doubt extend to those yet to be born.

The problem created by the need for comfort and immediacy must be solved with a new mindset. The problem is ours, no matter who created it or why it happened. And since it is our problem, it is our responsibility to make amends.

Plastic waste is a huge error that needs to be corrected. Let’s get started.

Age of offence

I am offended. Someone said or did something racist, sexist, ageist, or something else ending in -ist, and I took umbrage. It offended my sensibilities and made me feel angry, uncomfortable, insecure, frightened . . . pick one or more.

There is a problem with the way other people think and act, because they don’t think and act as I do, therefore they must be wrong and I must accuse them of whatever it is that makes them different. We are not supposed to be different: we must all think the same way so no one will ever be angry, confused, scared, insecure, uncomfortable, offended.

We must all recognise the errors of our forebears, condemn them for those errors and selfrighteously know we are the people we wish they had been.

And, by the way, it’s all about me.

If someone behaves in a way I find offensive, it is not enough that I confront them with it and demand an apology or whatever reparation I consider appropriate; I must go public, so everyone knows I have been made to feel . . . pick one or more of the previous list, or add some interesting ones of your own. The offending party must be punished by open opinion and sanctimonious public statements from those who can do no wrong.

Whatever happens, there can be no laughter, because laughing is offensive and shows an attitude at odds with public opinion. Laughter implies a target, because a joke needs a subject and that subject has every right to be offended and loudly proclaim it.

It’s simple – act, think, talk like everyone else and everything will be all right, unless those you act, think and talk like are offensive to those who act, think and talk differently, and then there will be trouble.

I don’t see a problem with this, do you? If you do, I apologise in advance and promise to make atonement, unless you find that offensive, in which case I will be offended and . . .