Linda Weintraub: Contemporary Art Educator - Stone Age. Iron Age. Plasticene Age.

"Polyethylene Pam" and “Plastic Fantastic Lover” were popular songs by two famous rock bands from the 1960s - the Beatles and the Jefferson Airplane. Both songs revealed plastic’s association with soulless superficiality. But this ‘bad rap’ reputation has been superceded by the ‘good rap’ attributes offered by its chameleon-like molecules that can be rearranged to form polyethylene, acrylic, silicone, urethane, Plexiglas, Lucite, nylon, and so forth. Plastics are light, durable, shatterproof, and unaffected by water. They offer excellent thermal and electrical insulation properties. In addition, they are relatively energy efficient to produce. For all these reasons plastics can be used for everything from throwaway bags to combat aircraft. Plastic’s popularity is evident in the fact that it accounts for 11.3%[i] of the total volume of trash, more than glass, metals, wood, or textiles. Because of its significance in our lives and its prevalence in our refuse, our era may become known as the Plasticene Age.

Plastics are polymers, which are long chains of similar molecules. Most are manufactured from petroleum products. This fact accounts for three major environmental concerns related to the use of plastics. One involves the depletion of nonrenewable natural resources. The other is the environmental impact associated with the extraction of oil, the refining process, and the subsequent manufacturing of plastics. The third is managing plastic waste.

Future archeologists studying the Plasticene Age are likely to discover a surplus of material artifacts. This is because no bacteria or fungi have jaws that are big enough to eat its long-chain molecules. Thus, despite the fact that they are made from the organic molecules that originated from early life forms, plastics are mostly immune to the biodegrading cycle that replenishes the earth’s supplies of nutrients. In addition, plastic’s amazing variety complicates conventional recycling programs. Different kinds of resins that demand different methods of reprocessing are utilized for peanut butter jars, milk jugs, shrink wrap, trash bags, drinking straws, and meat trays. This complicates automated sorting. To help deal with this problem, the plastics packaging industry has developed symbols to designate different kinds of resins. However, sorting is further complicated because many items are fabricated out of different sorts of plastics. Others combine plastic and non-plastic components. Recycling both kinds of items entails dismantling before reutilization can proceed.

[i] EPA Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling, and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2003 http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/pubs/msw05rpt.pdf (2003).