Rethinking Plastics in Product Design: A Guide to Sustainable Transitions for the Environmental Emergency...

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Geoff Isaac (University of Technology Sydney, Australia)

Rethinking Plastics in Product Design

A Guide to Sustainable Transitions for the Environmental Emergency

Geoff Isaac (University of Technology Sydney, Australia)

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English

Bloomsbury Visual Arts
01 May 2025

Product design; Environmentally-friendly architecture & design; Sustainability

This book addresses the urgent need to reduce our use of virgin fossil plastics. It provides a framework for designers and manufacturers to re-evaluate their use of plastics and promotes the use of alternative materials with lower environmental impacts.

Lightweight, strong and cheap plastics are often the obvious choice when designing consumer durables, but their use is resulting in devastating health and environmental consequences. Recycled plastics and bioplastics are often suitable replacements; however, mechanical and aesthetic differences mean working with these materials is often challenging and expensive. In this book, Geoff Isaac outlines strategies for developing more environmentally friendly design solutions and provides practical guidance for designers who seek to use plastics more sustainably.

Chapters include case studies selected from sixty chairs made from renewable plastics, as chairs are often developed to showcase the potential of new materials and their suitability for applications across other consumer products. The book also features interviews with a range of industry representatives and international designers including Philippe Starck, Barber Osgerby, Konstantin Grcic, Bertjan Pot and Karim Rashid to illustrate recent designs using renewable plastics. This book provides an empowering blueprint for designers to make environmentally responsible decisions in today’s business landscape

By: Geoff Isaac (University of Technology Sydney Australia)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 232mm, Width: 154mm, Spine: 22mm
Weight: 740g
ISBN: 9781350449121
ISBN 10: 1350449121
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 01 May 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction 1. Plastics, How We Got in this Mess 2. Plasticoptimismus and Bust 3. Just Say No to Virgin Fossil Plastics 4. Identifying Environmentally Responsible Products 5. The Agency of Design 6. The Time for Change is Now 7. Specifying Renewable Carbon-Based Plastics 8. Transition, How? Conclusion Appendix Bibliography Notes

Geoff Isaac is a casual academic at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia, where he completed his PhD on the history of the plastic chair and designing for the environmental emergency. He has written papers for journals such as Plastiquarian, Journal of Applied Psychology and Fusion Journal, and his book, Featherston, on the life and work of the industrial designer Grant Featherston, was published in 2017.