Plasticity: 100 Years of Making Plastics
Preview by Lizzie Guilfoyle
SINCE 1907, when Leo Baekeland invented Bakelite, the first truly man-made material, plastics have become part of all our lives – but at what cost? It’s one of the questions the Science Museum attempts to answer in an exhibition entitled Plasticity: 100 Years of Making Plastics.
Over the years, plastics have been used to help solve our problems and give shape to our desires – in our lives, our homes, even in our bodies. In fact, they’re now taken very much for granted.
But plastic waste is now a grave concern, as indeed, is the raw material used to make it in the first place – oil. Nevertheless, scientists are still inventing plastics and imagining where we could take them next ….
One of the items on display is a chandelier constructed from 347 recycled Bic Cristal pens and 347 paperclips, one of only 30 made by Spanish design company enPieza as a tribute to a classic plastic design.
Visitors can also see a coffin made from woodflour filled phenol formaldehyde resin, made in 1938 and believed to be the largest phenolic moulding made in the UK; and, from the late 1960s, a single impression mould that was used in the injection moulding of a Tupperware “Mix-n-stor” container.
And looking ahead, there’s the Futuro House designed by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen, as well as the Japanese designed i-Unit concept car that uses plant-based materials instead of oil-based plastics and metals.
Plasticity: 100 Years of Making Plastics runs until January 1, 2009.
Admission: Free.