Even when you always try to bring a reusable bag or a basket with you to the shops, the disposable plastic bag is a product that is hard to avoid. I researched the lifecycle of these bags and decided it could be made much longer.
The mass-produced plastic shopping bag is a cheap and disposable product, meant to be used no more than a few times before it starts tearing and becomes useless. Of course plastic can be recycled, which is good in principle because it is not exhausting natural resources, but the process of recycling itself isn't very environmentally friendly. Recycling plastic takes lots of energy, heat, chemicals, causes harmful emissions and the recycled material is always of a poorer quality than the virgin material. Better would be to extend the use of a product for as long as possible before recycling, but these plastic bags were made for short-term use and need to be discarded quickly.
The mass-produced plastic shopping bag is a cheap and disposable product, meant to be used no more than a few times before it starts tearing and becomes useless. Of course plastic can be recycled, which is good in principle because it is not exhausting natural resources, but the process of recycling itself isn't very environmentally friendly. Recycling plastic takes lots of energy, heat, chemicals, causes harmful emissions and the recycled material is always of a poorer quality than the virgin material. Better would be to extend the use of a product for as long as possible before recycling, but these plastic bags were made for short-term use and need to be discarded quickly.
|
My goal was to alter plastic shopping bags in a way that would extend the lifecycle of the material, to improve its negative qualities and preserve its positive qualities.
This lead to 'Precious Waste', a textile made entirely out of used plastic shopping bags that were spun into yarns and then woven. The resulting fabric forms a big contrast with the cheap, mass-produced bags it is made of. The plastic shopping bag is transformed by pure hand work into a beautiful and strong material that's suitable for making new bags with a much longer life-span, or a wide range of other purposes. No chemicals, no heat or even electricity needed. When this textile is eventually worn out it can still be recycled in the conventional way, because it is not mixed with any other material, and can then be made into a new product once again. |
|
|
|
|
