1) PROJECT NAME: Plastic Basket
2) What are you making and why?
I’m going to make a grocery bag that people could carry around when they want to go grocery shopping out of plastic bags I found on the streets of New York and from my suitemates and neighbors. I really want to do something with plastic because I am a strong advocate against the plastic of any kind. And ever since I’ve been in New York I realized that the people in the grocery store don’t ask if you want a bag or not and if you say yes they automatically put two bags on top of each other instead of one. So, just by doing one grocery trip a person uses 2000 years of plastic to decompose. This is something I really want to change and have an impact on.
3) In what ways will this object/design be useful to you over 50 years of change?
Plastic is, unfortunately, a very hard material to decompose. For instance, it takes 450 years for one plastic bottle, 1000 years for one plastic bag, 400 years for a toothbrush and 50 years for a plastic cup to decompose. I thought since all this plastic, especially the amount of time it takes for a plastic bag to decompose, is present in the world I could at least make another use of it that could last for more than 50 years. Upcycling plastic could lead to objects that are pretty resilient, even if they are not environmentally friendly, they are still present in the world and making another product out of it that people could actually use rather than toss it away after twenty minutes is very useful. My object is also particularly useful to Anthropocene and the Great Acceleration because one of the biggest challenges our age faces is plastic and its effect on water, land, and air. Using some of this plastic instead of new ones can really help us face these challenges and look at them in a whole new way.
4) How will it be resilient (used in more than one way etc. and/or encourage social resiliency through its usage)?
Plastic is a very resilient material, unfortunately, it is bad for the environment for it to be so resilient but for this product, it is the whole meaning that is created out of plastic. The material I will use to attach the bits of plastic together (the handle of the bag and the bottom part of it) will also be resilient and repairable and that material will be found while experimenting with the product.
5) What specific event(s) of environmental change will it help you adapt to or address?
Currently, there is a new ban in New York City about the use of plastic. It is that people will now have to bring their own bags to the grocery stores because the stores will not provide the people with plastic bags anymore. So, thinking of this new adaptation I thought making a grocery bag for myself that I could use for groceries out of plastic bags I used to have from grocery stores could have a lot of meaning.
6) What materials will you use, given what you have learned this semester about changing resources and material availability?
Most of my materials will consist of plastic bags that litter the streets and also used plastic bags I find from people around me. This way I won’t have to buy a new material that isn’t sustainable but rather use the negative material around me. In order to attach and mold the bags into a grocery bag, I will iron them together and melt them. So overall the only material I will really use is used plastic bags.
7) How does your object offer function and aesthetics over time? How does it fulfill the Long Life Design Criteria to the best of your ability
The aesthetics of it is all about the story behind it, using the plastic bags the grocery stores offer and creating a more sustainable and resilient grocery bag. It will contain colorful patches of the plastic bag and will look very modern and contemporary. As for the function of it, since people of New York now have to carry a grocery bag with them, it will be a very good alternative that also rejects the use of plastic bags in an ironic way.
Resiliency/Repair Story:
Systems Map:
Documentation:
