DESIGN AND FUTURE : PLASTIC BAGS / LIVING WITH RUBBISH

Reaching a quantity of over one million bags being consumed per minute an estimated amount of 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed world wide each year. (1) British supermarket checkouts distribute about 10 billion plastic bags each year. It can take up to 2000 years for a plastic bag to break down and in London alone, 1.6 million of these bags end up in landfill sites unable to decompose, polluting our environment . (2)
Plastic bags break down by photodegrading, producing toxic waste contaminating soil and waterways and entering food webs when animals accidentally ingest.
Using the plastic bag as an example ,the desperate need of our population to steer itself towards a more environmental friendly society can be clearly outlined. Consumption, carelessness or rather ignorance is also portrayed. It is therefore inevitable, that our ethics change, that we as designers also shift towards more environmentally aware, sustainable and rational concepts. Arts and designs must be used to re orientate the views and habits of the public, to improve the relationship between science and society.

„ It is fundamentally a cultural problem that requires reorientating human development and the built environment; artists have an important role to play not only in creating new cultural contexts, but also changing the way that science is done“ (3)

„ Planet Organic“ supermarkets give us a taste of the direction towards which we need to filter our responsibilities. In November 2007, in thier refusal to use plastic bags ,they produced a bag made from GM free cornstarch which is entirely compostable and biodegradable, breaking down in only six months (2). Corn crop absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere while it grows and then releases it as it breaks down preventing the excretion adn litter of toxic residues. This carbon neutral solution to the plastic carrier bag is evidence that with will power, science and art the crucial steps forward needed to change our style of living can be aided . Designing new sustainable products is drastic help to our future and above all a possible eye opener for society , addressing the heart of crucial issues.

(1) http://www.reusablebags.com/facts.php?id
(2) http://www.planetorganic.com/media_centre/press_releases/54_-ditch-the-plastic-planet-organic-pioneers-again
(3) Roger Malina. „Lovely Weather: Asking What the Arts Can Do fot the Sciences,“ in Ecomedia (Edith Russ Site ofr Media Art, 2007)

(4) picture: http://www.greencottonblog.com/category/plastic-bags/