The Life Cycle of Plastic: Ethics and Insights

Dec 18, 2025

Plastic is everywhere and yet rarely seen in full. It slips between categories: tool and toxin, innovation and excess, surface and signal. This framework invites you to explore plastic not just as a material, but as a system shaped by extraction, design, use, and afterlife.

Through reflective inquiry across science, design, culture, and emotion, we trace how plastic moves through our lives and landscapes. We ask: What does plastic make possible? What does it obscure? How does it reflect our values, habits, and hopes?

Each module offers:

Reflective prompts to surface emotional and ethical dimensions
Technical notes to ground inquiry in material realities
Adaptive scaffolds to support cross-disciplinary learning and facilitation

Plastic becomes a portal into systems of convenience, cost, transformation, and care. By engaging with its complexity, we open space for more intentional, inclusive, and regenerative design.

Pop over to Gwenin for a selection of frameworks, or pop over to Spiralmore’s for expanded PDF collections. You’re also welcome to explore our more relaxed corner: the informal blog.