Many things we use daily are made out of plastic. The plastic free database can help us break free from it. Around 380 million metric tonnes of plastic are produced each year, with about half of this plastic designed as single-use products. These single-use plastics inevitably get thrown into landfills as many cannot be recycled or reused.
Many countries lack the infrastructure to prevent plastic pollution, including sanitary landfills, incineration facilities, recycling capacity, circular economy infrastructure, and proper management and disposal of waste systems. Therefore, our discarded plastic will end up in landfills, where it will take hundreds of years to decompose or in oceans, where it will break down into small particles which can contaminate the soil and waterways and enter the food chain.
A Plastic Free Database
Companies and designers are trying to avoid plastics and use more sustainable, repurposed and reusable materials. The environmental organization, A Plastic Planet, created a database called Plastic Free for architects and designers to help them find plastic-free building materials for their projects. The goal is to help designers and business leaders eliminate one trillion pieces of plastic waste from the global economy by 2025.
The service offers in-depth reports on over 100 plastic alternatives. Users can subscribe to the website and receive information about these alternatives’ properties, production and sourcing. The website also includes blogs that inspire collections, new materials and case studies about how the products are used. The plastic free database website alone features 125 case studies from 5 continents, giving examples of where alternative materials have been used, existing products and systems and editorials from people of the design world.
The plastic free database was based on over two years of research and development in collaboration with 40 scientists and industry leaders. Plastic Free database is designed to move away from plastics and to develop more sustainable alternatives for packaging, textiles and the built environment. The materials on the website are regenerative, toxin-free, and nutrient-rich. They promote the use of circular systems to reduce waste and reuse materials.
Plastic Free gets all its information about the materials and new solutions from experts and innovators who have created/are using these materials. The database promotes innovation and keeps subscribers up-to-date with recent trends and materials. Plastic Free can help inform architects about the latest building materials and the pros and cons of each new material.
One of the major benefits of the plastic fee database (other than the fact that it helps reduce the need for plastic) is that it gives information about the new materials and systems currently being used today and that designers can implement now. Subscribers also have access to exclusive events and networking opportunities.
From algae t-shirts to elephant grass, Plastic Free has 160 million global creatives to rethink packaging, textiles and products. Suppose major businesses and designers use this database to design new products and even adjust existing products. In that case, we can significantly move away from plastics and drastically reduce our dependence on them.
