Toxic Legacies / Filtering the Truth
The concept of recycling has gained immense popularity as a sustainable approach to waste pollution and is embraced as a potential solution to our escalating environmental crisis. However, not all recycling practices – especially when it comes to plastic – are necessarily environmentally friendly. In many cases, claims to recyclability are merely greenwashing, a marketing strategy used by companies to position themselves as environ- mentally conscious without implementing actual changes in their production practices. My master project aims to investigate the greenwashing behind recycling and how the concept of recycling can tend to justify the production of waste in a consumer-based system.
The concept of recycling has gained immense popularity as a sustainable approach to waste pollution and is embraced as a potential solution to our escalating environmental crisis. However, not all recycling practices – especially when it comes to plastic – are necessarily environmentally friendly. In many cases, claims to recyclability are merely greenwashing, a marketing strategy used by companies to position themselves as environ- mentally conscious without implementing actual changes in their production practices.
My master project aims to investigate the greenwashing behind recycling and how the concept of recycling can tend to justify the production of waste in a consumer-based system.
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Practical methods
As stated before, separating the cigarette butt in to its individual
components, leaves me with the following elements;
the filter, tobacco, ash and the paper holding these elements
together. The last element is incorporated in the filter itself;
a thermoactive dye that by reacting to a change in ph-scale,
causes the filter to turn darker when exposed to heat.
I started by separating the cigarette into its individual components
which left me with four initial elements; After separating
the cigarette butt into its individual components, I used
three methods of manipulation. The first I categorised as filling,
which involved using various binders such as resin, wax,
gelatine, plaster and glycerine as a base which then bound the
individual elements of the discarded cigarette butt together.
The second method involved reforming the cigarette itself,
using techniques such as paper making, felting, pressing with
heat and melting with acetone to create a transformation of the
material. For the last method, I explored using the cigarettes
components to extract colour and apply this to other materials.
This involved dyeing textiles and yarn, using traditional ways to
create pigments for canvases as well as screen-printing. These
methods allowed me to create unique and unexpected colour
palettes and patterns.
As far as object development goes, it took me a while to figure
out which direction exactly I wanted to go into. I had developed
all these methods that I now wanted to apply and preferably as
many as possible to a final piece – the question was to what
exactly. I started by using what I found the easiest method –
binding with wax – in combination with various moulds to form
sheets, book covers and buttons, until I finally got to candles.
Candles were the first step to creating a series of objects that
had no real function. The search for a second object that had a
similar form of “non-purpose” led me to the next, soap. Finally,
I decided to incorporate the already developed dying process
for the yarn.
Filling
01: Resin
02: Wax
03: Bioplastic
(Gelatine-based)
04: Plaster
Reforming
05: Paper
06: Heat Press
07: Film (Acetone)
60
Colouring
08: Dyeing Textile
09: Dying Yarn
10: Pigment Paper
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