Plastic Clothes that Turn into Water
Fri, Nov 28, 2008
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Image: Patrick Dalton
*Written by Megha Mohan*
It could have been a story-line straight from a Sci-Fi or Bond movie: A world on the brink of environmental disaster, saved by the creation of a polymer, (or plastic, to you and me), that can be melted by water into a compound, which can be used to harvest seeds. That’s the science bit. The sexy bit is a touring fashion exhibition, called Wonderland, a project that marries couture with conscience.
Image: Alex Maguire
When Professor Helen Storey, from London College of Fashion, teamed up with Professor Tony Ryan, from Sheffield University, they gave birth to an innovative exhibition that combines science and fashion to create real solutions for a more sustainable world. High-end dresses, normally reserved for the catwalks, are hung from scaffolds and lowered slowly to giant goldfish bowls. As the plastic melts, creating remarkable underwater fireworks, the real message is a far more sober one: the transiency of fashion and the fragility of our earth.
Image: Alex Maguire
By creating plastic that can dissolve in water, Storey and Ryan may just have revolutionized the packing industry, highlighting the issues surrounding waste plastic.
“I can’t imagine using a bottle of shampoo and then washing the container away in a sink, then using the gel to feed my garden, but hopefully that’s where we’ll be in twenty years,” said an onlooker.
Let’s hope by then they’ll have worked out what happens when you’re caught in the rain. It could get very messy.
Source Wonderland
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“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else.”
November 28th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Nothing simply disappears. Is this just an anesthetic proposal based on what we don’t see does not exist? What does the plastic “dissolve” down to? Smaller plastic particles? Does this not pollute water? And how does this “plastic water” affect existing aquatic life? Is this even really a solution or is it just another way for us to accelerate the destruction of everything?
“…the transiency of fashion and the fragility of our earth” - HA, likely story.
December 7th, 2008 at 3:59 am
There’s always someone who wears the lable “Green Cruisader” in order to attack, undermine and mock others, yeah Scott?
Instead of asking a polite question on how the breakdown of complex polymers to simpler polymers could be a viable and sustainable option or avenue for the future and whether aquatic life could potentially be affected, he takes a small minded pot shot, typical of serial doom and gloom posters: “…the transiency of fashion and the fragility of our earth” - HA, likely story.”…Uh, makes sense to me!
December 19th, 2008 at 12:47 am
lots of things dissolve with/into water. they don’t disappear into nothing. pretty sure water is indeed something. not only that, but the article doesn’t even connote that it disappears into thin air. not only that, but the polymer-water-combination isn’t mean for the ocean and aquatic life. it specifically says you can use it for you plants. plus, i’m sure it’ll be tested before and is being tested now for how it affects its surroundings.
December 29th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
While i dont think that using this polymer as a garment would be best because you’d have to never wash it if you wanted multiple use; i do think that the polymer could be used to replace many other plastic items that we use everyday.
or instance, if they could put a dissolvable coating on plastic forks that takes, say 24 hrs to dissolve before water would touch the plastic, then we could use it for all our temporary eating utensils.
March 5th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Do I want to wear soluble plastic clothes? No. But I don’t think that’s what this exhibition is saying. It’s taking the idea of soluble clothes to illustrate the issue of the environmental effects of the materials we use everyday - particularly in packaging as this article highlights. Whether biodegradable plastics is the best route forwards is a debate on its own - see http://www.futurenergia.org/ww/en/pub/futurenergia/chats/bio_plastics.htm for a discussion of some of the concerns.