tics are used in a gratuitous manner.
It was an inexpensive substitute at the dawn of plastic’s age. The term “plasticky”, however, is not meant to be a compliment.
Plastics packaging became more and more fashionable as the industry evolved.
Just received a beautiful digital recorder. The thoughtfully-designed and well-constructed device weighs 6 ounces. It is hard to open the box and difficult to reuse. It weighs about 11 ounces.
Plastic in this box and so many other over-stuffed packages will never disappear. It can’t be recycled. It will end up in a landfill or the ocean, or it will be burned.
The word gratuitous originally meant “freely given.” A marketer’s over-investment in something not needed demonstrates their confidence, power and status. Now, gratuitous is synonymous with inefficient, irritating and wasteful.
Marketers try to sell a better story. Better changes. Better could be more efficient, less expensive, exclusive, mainstream or just fun. Better is no longer synonymous with being wasteful.
Plastic is the answer to a few questions, but we are all learning that it has a price. It is no longer a marketing tool that elevates the status of companies who use it, but a shameful, lazy shortcut.
We can improve our standards with surprisingly little effort.
