The exhibition begins with a reminder that we are not here by accident. Human wastefulness is not innate. Discarding culture is an inevitable step in the evolution of our society; it is a lifestyle choice. a 1960s advertisement touts the wonders of the new polystyrene cup.” New and very new! You just must enjoy the party “cup” …… Then throw it away.” It hangs next to a plastic tote from the 1980s with its advantages over paper printed on it. Little did we know that forty years later, the world would be consuming more than a million plastic bags per minute.
The generation of waste has long been a major driver of the economy. The example of the light bulb is a perfect representation of this. By the 1920s, light bulbs were already so long-lived that their replacement was so reduced that they were considered commercially unviable. So it was that General Electric, Philips and others formed the Phoebus cartel in 1924 to standardize the life expectancy of light bulbs to 1,000 hours – down from the previous 2,500 hours. Thus, the culture of planned obsolescence was born.
In one section of the exhibition, it was introduced that 7% of the world’s gold is now found in electronic products. What’s more, one ton of mined gold can produce 3 grams of gold, while recycling one ton of cell phones can produce 300 grams. Thus, landfills and garbage dumps are the new resource-rich mines.
The last part of the exhibition shows the possibility of reusing scrap, recycling plastics before processing them into 3D printed materials. Some of the products in the exhibition even go beyond the end-of-life step. From water-soluble electronic circuit boards made from natural fibers to “sea stone,” a concrete-like material made from crushed shells. The use of various organic materials is not wasteful and can be completely absorbed by nature.
The biggest impact of this exhibition is the awareness of green materials, these are not environmental in the traditional sense, but the use of new materials. From the recycling of garbage to the fact that the objects themselves will no longer be part of the garbage.