On the daybreak of the plastic age, it was an affordable substitute. The phrase “plasticky” isn’t a praise.
Over time, the plastics trade developed new finishes, colours and most of all, cultural impression, and further (wasted) plastic packaging was seen first as handy, then as an indication of standing.
I simply received a stunning digital recorder within the mail. The thoughtfully-designed and well-constructed machine weighs 6 ounces. The field it got here in, however, is troublesome to open and laborious to re-use. It weighs 11 ounces.
The plastic on this field, and in so many different over-wrought packages, won’t ever go away. It can’t be recycled. It is going to both find yourself burned or within the ocean or a landfill, the place it can stay for greater than one million years.
Gratuitous used to imply, “freely bestowed.” By overinvesting in one thing that’s not required, a marketer demonstrates confidence, standing and energy. However now, gratuitous means inefficient, grating and wasteful.
Entrepreneurs search to inform a narrative of higher. However higher modifications. Higher is likely to be extra handy, cheaper, effectively designed, greater utility, extra unique, mainstream, or just enjoyable. However higher is not related to wasteful.
There are a number of questions the place the reply is ‘plastic.’ However we’re all discovering that it comes at an actual price. As a substitute of elevating the standing of the businesses that use it in advertising, it’s now a lazy, shameful shortcut.
With surprisingly little effort, we are able to elevate the bar on higher.
