Why is there a differentiated set of words for fabrics or timber in our vernacular, but only about one for plastics?
Plastic is everywhere, in bottles, packaging and many other everyday objects. Yet, not all plastics are created equal. Plastics are a large family of different materials, each with its own properties, applications, and health and environmental impacts. The Society of the Plastics Industry therefore introduced a classification system, the Resin Identification Code, consisting of a number from 1 to 7 in a triangle of arrows, and can be found on most plastic products.
The image is part of the ongoing series “Living in the Age of Plastic”. With this project, I aim at compiling an overview of the plastic types pervasive in our daily lives. For this purpose, I stage plastic objects as Still Life arrangements, sorted by type of plastic. Each type is assigned a colour. A textual level provides background and consumer information. Meaning is created through the interplay of photographs, colours, symbols and texts. With this project, I want to create a visual world that expands our verbal notion of plastics. I hope to encourage viewers to be mindful of which types of plastic are part of their lives and to provide reliable information to support consumers in their purchase decisions.
Polypropylene is the second most commonly produced plastic, its versatility enabling it to be used in a huge range of applications. Polypropylene is similar to polyethylene, yet generally stiffer and more heat resistent, and thus often used for hot-fill liquids and foods. Altough in theory easily recyclable, this is very rarely done. The recycling process is severely impaired by impurities such as mixing with other resins or packaging residues. Chlorine is often added to the plastic, which escapes as toxic chlorine gas during incineration.