4 things a week: Building the Future

1. World

A Japanese team of scientists at the RIKEN research institute in Tokyo have been working on a plastic that breaks down in salt water. Unlike other biodegradable plastics like PLA that break down into micro plastics, this polymer is a supramolecular plastic, meaning it’s composed of ionic monomers held together by reversible interactions. In this case the reversible interactions, holding the polymer together, are broken down by salt water. So, if the plastic was to end up in the sea, it would break down in hours, leaving behind components that can be fully metabolised by bacteria.

Now, this isn’t the first time scientists have developed alternatives to typical biodegradable plastics that will break down in nature. However they are somewhat controversial. Oxo-degradable plastics, have faced a ban in the EU after findings show that they result in an increase of micro-plastic pollution. A Canadian firm; Change Plastic for Good has created an additive called BDP that attracts microbes that colonise on the surface of the plastic and break the plastic down. Whilst this does break the plastic down fully, what is left behind is mostly methane, a greenhouse gas 28 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

Plastic is quite clearly here to stay. We are completely reliant on it. In the EU, only 32% of plastic is recycled, a figure that is increasing, but is still a small proportion and the damage mis-managed plastic waste causes to ecosystems is alarming. Imagine if there was a way for it to, well, just disappear. So you can see the allure and why people get very excited about developments such as this. I’m more of a cynic, these things always come at a compromise, but I’ll be keeping an eye out to see how this Japanese plastic develops all the same.

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2. Innovation

Every design agency is experimenting with it, some more publicly than others. in face we used it in our latest project with Wagamama. I’m talking about AI. Pentagram have recently shared a video about how they integrated Midjourney into their process on a recent graphic design project which has triggered some interesting conversation in the comments. One in particular that resonated with me: AI takes the joy out of design. For me that joy is the struggle that leads to a deep connection with the design result. When you and your team are solely responsible for the creation of an idea, you understand it and so you can communicate it with perfect clarity. For me, that communication, that storytelling is super important. Now, in the case of Pentagram, the use of AI was part of that story. But if that’s the same for every thing that gets created, it all gets mindnumbingly boring, very quickly.

I know that you’ve all used some form of AI. Now we’ve all gotten over the hype and tried integrating it into our process, what do you honestly think?

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