Plastic

Plastic is a synthetic material we associate with cheap mass production, in contrast to, for example, wood. There is something impersonal about the material; for instance, one rarely becomes attached to something made of plastic, whereas one might pick up a stone on the beach and keep it as a cherished memory. Outside the factory, we do not work with plastic as we do with natural materials; instead, we either use it or simply discard it. Once discarded, nature—again, in contrast to natural materials—cannot break it down. In this way, plastic can symbolize something “unnatural,” perhaps fabricated, and it can be seen as worthless. (But remember that the worthless can turn out to be valuable, and what is “just plastic” to one person might be gold to another.)

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