Today's Plastics (24/3/2026)
“I think what stood out most is the deliberateness and intentionality over the years of pushing plastic into our lives,” she says. “If you look back to the 50s and 60s, when this model of disposability was being invented, there are speeches given at plastics industry conferences, saying: ‘We can make so much more money by selling a bottle that will be thrown out than selling a bottle that gets reused 20 or 40 times.’
Ironically, plastics were developed in the mid-19th century as a response to environmental concerns, such as elephants being hunted for ivory. Early plastics, such as parkesine and celluloid, were derived from plant-based cellulose, and in the first decades of the 20th century, more plastics, or polymers, followed, the results of experiments with chemicals derived from fossil-fuel processing, and including polystyrene, nylon and PVC. The world’s most common plastic, polyethylene, was created by British chemists in 1933.
“Plastic is supply-driven rather than demand-pulled,” says Gardiner. “Plastic has always had this unique ability to reverse the relationship between supply and demand.” The materials being used were by-products of oil and gas processing.
Products started appearing, from pens and cigarette lighters to nappies and cups, that used to be reusable. And disposability meant more profit.
One of the most effective, she says, is to shift the focus on to individuals. “[People in the plastics industry] are very happy for us to look at ourselves and at each other, and not look at them,” says Gardiner.
Recycling has value for materials such as cardboard, glass and cans – “even so, we should be using way less” – and for some plastics, such as PET drinks bottles. But for most plastic, it is inefficient and expensive, and releases harmful toxins. Meanwhile, the plastic degrades each time it’s recycled, simply delaying its eventual final resting place in landfill (or incineration).
The thing is, a world before plastic is within living memory, and returning to aspects of it is hardly like going back to the stone age. “You only have to look back to our grandparents’ time, or even our parents’ time.
We can use much less plastic without using no plastic, and that is unpicking another industry talking point – they will talk up the environmental benefits, that it’s part of solar panels, and it helps to make cars lighter so they’re more fuel-efficient, and do you want to live in a world with no hygienic syringes? It’s important to challenge that framing, because some of those things are true and we can keep the uses that are essential, but it doesn’t mean that we have to accept this tide of junk. We don’t have to look too far back into our collective memory to see ways that we could live that are less wasteful. It’s not impossible, because it existed.”