When you think about ‘plastic’, what comes to mind? The ballpoint pen you write with? The television you sit in front of? The sneakers on your feet? The floss you pull between your teeth? The packaging your food is wrapped in? For most of us, we don’t give much thought to ‘plastic’ at all, and seldom, if ever, consciously attribute its presence to our personal belongings. Yet, we have been living in the “Age of Plastic” for much of the recent history of our consumer culture. This ubiquitous andmysterious category of materials is consumed and relied upon for all manner of daily activities. Yet, in almost all of its variants and applications, plastic is rarely thought about until something goes wrong. “Useful, convenient, inexpensive, and so common as to be invisible”, the cultural historian JeffreyMeikle recounts in his work AmericanPlastic: ACultural History. “Plastic objects attracted notice only when they broke”. Plastic can attract your notice when a polypropylene shelf in your fridge has cracked, and it is more convenient and cheaper to replace it, rather than try to repair it. Alternatively, you might notice that someone has perforated the acetate window of a sandwich pack you were about to buy, so you choose an untampered one instead. Or it could be that you notice the polyurethane soles of your shoes have started to deteriorate, so you’re off to the shops to buy a new pair. Although, they make plastic apparent to us, these minor inconveniences are rarely overcome in environmentally sustainable ways. When inconvenienced by plastic, it has become normal to quickly replace the offending item and return our thoughts of plastic to the background. But the plastic objects that are replaced still exist, even when they have been “thrown away” and are no longer thought about. “Away” is a contentious concept, as plastic waste never truly goes away– it tends to stick around. We are forced to contend with the stubbornness of plastic in many corners of our local environment, whether the flotsam that becomes more commonplace in our canals and waterways; the broken appliances illegally dumped at the sides of country roads; or the rubbish that cascades down our streets when lifted fromour recycling boxes by strongwinds. In these instances, plastic can once again appear as a troublesomematerial, or what British anthropologist Mary Douglas might call ‘matter out of place’. But beyond its localised visibility, plastic is wreaking perhaps its most significant 16 | ‘‘ plastic is wreaking perhaps its most significant havoc away from our direct line of sight. Giant gyres of marine debris are accumulating in far-flung oceans and seas. ’’
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