2019 Edition

TO RE OR NOT TO RE? “In the collective imagination, recycled plastic is poor, ugly and second rate. In a word, it is a waste, and so it should remain”. When we talk about plastic, whether it is recycled or not, we always run into the usual preconceptions and clichés: plastic is cheap, recycled one is ugly, is polluting, is harmful, releases harmful substances during use, etc. In short, plastic is becoming a sort of enemy of our life. At the same time, it is so present in our daily life that would never be able to live without it; Which begs the question: “To Recycle or not to recycle?”. The answer is equally straightforward: “Yes, recycle!”. But how? The “how” is the starting point of our project. Most of the recycled plastic comes from the plastic polymers products’ post-production, that is the waste of the production itself, mixed with “pure” plastic granules. The result is therefore a new product that can not be considered truly recycled. Instead, RE-POT (by Teraplast), the vase that is used for the project “TO RE OR NOT TO RE?” is produced by POST USE plastics that is found in the separate waste collection in rubbish bins. The complexity of the production process is first of all, finding the right raw materials and then, accurately selecting the plastic to be recycled. In these cases the production results are usually very dark colored objects, tending to black (the sum of all the plastics’ colors). With RE-POT instead, it’s been created and certified a process by the SGS, an institution recognised at European level, based on IPPR parameters (an Italian Institute for the Promotion of Recycled Plastics) a method which permits that the colors obtained, are the natural result of the plastics’ selection chosen to produce them. The green color is therefore obtained by recycling POST USE’s green plastic objects, as well as for brown, gray and white. It is not possible to obtain “artificial” colors such as red, blue, yellow or orange, because they would not be in a real post-use recycling perspective. In this way the RE- 3/5 POT vase is a 100% recycled and 100% recyclable, totally inserted in the life-cycle of a product in cradle to cradle vision that maintains the “natural” colors deriving from the garbage. A medium-sized RE-POT vase is made with 16 bottles of 1.5 liter PET water. Obviously the production process also had to undergo substantial changes, especially related to the molds for production through injection molding. TO RE OR NOT TO RE? therefore wants to raise awareness (especially) on the new generations, but not only, in the knowledge and consciousness of the use, disposal and reuse of the plastic. Plastic should not be demonized, it is not wrong a priori, but rather it is one of the most important energy resources of the future and this is the message we want to launch with this project. In order to do so, we thought of “humanising” the polymers of the first life through some masks that represent plastic containers. These containers, mimicking the William Shakespeare’s hamlet famous rhetorical phrase and pose: “Recycle or not recycle?”. In a historical moment like this, full of “plastic free”, “no plastic”, “plastic free world”, alternative plastics generated with any material, false-recycled plastics, eco-marketing, and so on…between real problems and fake news, the question is legitimate. The plastic itself poses this existential and r-existential question and wonders if it makes sense to reenter almost karmically in the wheel of existences or to extinguish itself forever, as if Hamlet had asked for it. In our project the answer is rhetoric, and it’s the first step to inform all the people, especially the new generations, on the real usage and recycle of the plastic, generating awareness and changing the point of view on plastic-terrorism and encouraging actions that lead to concrete solutions for a true ethical reuse of plastic. The aim of the TO RE OR NOT TO RE? project is to inform and educate within primary and secondary schools, through a dissemination program (visits to schools with experts, videos and performative activities) with the support of the local institutions, starting from our territory, Veneto region, to national level. The REPOT vase that wears the mask thus becomes the symbol of the cyclical life of plastic (the vase wears what was in the first life), but also represents a way to be accepted by the most, since the real recycled plastic is not still integrated into our daily life.