Sci&Tech Editor Daniella Southin reviews the exhibition Waste Age at the Design Museum, giving us an overview of the many things she learned
When historians write books recounting the last 70 or so years, many will be titled, unsurprisingly ‘The Waste Age,’ an accurate description of the past few generations of wasteful individuals, companies and countries all contributing to this earth sized landfill. In an aptly named exhibition – Waste Age – curator Gemma Curtis explores how this nightmare has become a reality, through an informative whistle-stop tour of the development of disposables, reduction in reusables and creation of plastics. But while there is a lot to be criticised about our wasteful habits, Curtis too celebrates the new and innovative ideas that use waste as a resource. It is an exhibition of two halves showing a society of two minds – the wasteful and the resourceful.
It is an exhibition of two halves showing a society of two minds – the wasteful and the resourceful
The exhibition begins with a visual merging of humanity’s waste and the environment – ‘plastoglomerates.’ Also known as ‘plastic pebbles,’ these rock-like substances are a mixture of plastic and marine minerals such as sand or seaweed that combine when they are burnt or melted by the sun.
Whether as small as a coin or as big as a tightly balled fist, ‘plastic pebbles’ are an effective way of beginning the educational journey around the exhibition by exposing visitors to a symbolic but also very real example of how our waste is eternally linked to the natural environment, a microcosm of the exhibition as a whole – showcasing how our waste does not simply disappear once it leaves our immediate vicinity, but eventually returns to the environment.
This supposed disappearance of our waste is exposed in the exhibition through a digital visualisation that maps where it goes once it leaves our front gardens in black bags. Beginning in the small space of Great Britain, the video progresses from the first few hours to the final couple of weeks of travel that our waste endures, eventually ending up far beyond our own island and often in landfills abroad.
Our waste does not simply disappear once it leaves our immediate vicinity, but eventually returns to the environment
It illuminates what most of the public do not know – that the government alleviates itself of responsibility by removing it from our own waste system. Instead of increasing our recycling or reducing our consumption, governments instead ship our problems elsewhere so the mantra ‘out of sight, out of mind’ becomes our national anthem.
Our inability to manage our own waste is rightly criticised by the various suggestions of alternatives, whether it be the digital illustrations of linear, recycling and circular economies or examples of those already putting into practice recycling systems far more effective than our own. Particularly impressive is the village of Kimikatsu, Japan where they have achieved ‘80% recycling, in contrast to a national rate of 20%.’
By tackling the issue first at home with individuals separating their recycling into ‘more than 45 categories’ praise must be given to the community for their success. While I instantly questioned the ineffectiveness of Britain’s recycling system in comparison to this almost zero-waste village, I also questioned why I am yet to make the easy phone call to apply for a recycling bin for my own house, ashamed that I am currently sending plastic bottles and scrap paper to landfill. I felt guilty, and so I should.
I also questioned why I am yet to make the easy phone call to apply for a recycling bin for my own house
As the plastic wrapper of a breakfast bar crumpled at the bottom of my handbag, a similar feeling of guilt was induced when I discovered the answer to the exhibition’s question ‘Why do we love plastics?’
The answer came in a 1955 advert featuring a typical post-war nuclear family celebrating as they throw an abundance of plastic cutlery, cups, containers and more into the air. Captioned ‘Throwaway Living: Disposable Items Cut Down Household Chores,’ the advert demonstrates our preference for wasteful disposables – ease.
Whether it is using plastic cutlery at a party or grabbing a plastic wrapped meal deal on the way to work, single use products make our lives easier, cutting down household chores such as washing up and making lunch. Through a curtain of plastic bottles, a pile of plastic bags, and a stack of babies’ nappies, the ease of throwaway culture is made apparent, the laziness of the modern lifestyles obvious.
However, while the use of disposable products is often blamed on the consumer for not refusing a plastic straw or bringing a reusable water bottle, the exhibition shifts the blame onto companies and manufacturers by revealing how products can be built to break. By giving products a limited lifespan, companies guarantee consumers buy again, often ensuring that parts are irreplaceable and entire products must be bought new.
With manufacturing is the 3rd largest contributor to climate change, greed is too polluting our atmosphere
Although the exhibition acknowledges that this creates jobs in factories and somewhat aids the economy, it also exposes how company greed is filling our landfills as fast as plastic bags. With manufacturing is the 3rd largest contributor to climate change, greed is too polluting our atmosphere.
The exhibition though, does not focus solely on companies and designers for whom the environment exists beyond their realm of profit. Instead, it also celebrates those who are actively working to make their products more sustainable and benefit society and the environment while doing so.
Stella McCartney takes centre stage as one of these designers with examples of clothing made from recycled polyester and NUCYCL – ‘a material made using the threads from old garments.’ With collaborations with brands like Adidas, her designs are not only sustainable but at the height of street style, they are alluring and fashionable for consumers.
As innovative and sustainable as these designs are, for all the exhibition’s questions, it fails to explore what happens to these materials as they are worn and washed. The University of Plymouth explains that plastic based materials such as polyester release microplastics into waterways when going through the wash. The lack of questioning or solutions in the exhibition is disappointing, contradicting the earlier exploration of plastics and the ocean, including the jar of plastics collected from the ocean following a shipping container spill.
As innovative and sustainable as these designs are […] it fails to explore what happens to these materials as they are worn and washed
Similar contradictions are made regarding the fashion industry. Early in the exhibition, consumer boredom is blamed for the vast quantity of textile waste polluting the planet. However, by displaying supposedly sustainable fashion garments, the exhibition fails to discourage continued production and consumption of fashion, instead favouring the creation of pieces that use recycled materials.
While it is an improvement on clothing that uses raw, virgin materials, it still creates waste in the eventual discarding of the sooner or later out of style designs – the sustainable becoming the wasteful – a paradoxical contradiction that encourages consumption.
In the latter half of the exhibition, however, truly sustainable ideas are explored such as companies that use wasted plastics as a resource to make bricks used in construction. Also exhibited are a company creating burgers by ‘fertilize[ing] and feed[ing] future food sources’ with London’s food waste, and chairs made with a ‘plastic extruding gun’ filled with ‘low-grade HDPE’ – high density polyethylene.
No longer waste but a resource for further production and development as we learn how to stop taking advantage of the environment
These products and innovations are a real eye opener to how our waste can be reused – no longer waste but a resource for further production and development as we learn how to stop taking advantage of the environment. It truly is a celebration of the small companies, the individuals and communities working to create better.
The exhibition is thus, a vital experience for all. Whether you are ignorant of the waste crisis or on a zero-waste journey of your own, there is something to learn about how we got here, someone to be inspired by who is solving the problem and a realisation to be had that ‘pollution is nothing but resources we’re not harvesting’.
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