Fantastic Plastic!

Cherry

By Rhiannonw

Tue, 26 Sep 2023
  • 632 reads
7 comments
 

At first ‘plastic’ meant shoddy,
cheap, weak and temporary,
but they discovered how
to make varieties that were stronger,
lasting longer –
fantastic nylon plastic:
wipeable toys,
and ‘everlasting’
non-creasing clothes,
‘unbreakable’ cups,
quick-dry sheets
(with no absorption of sweat!)
and then –
convenient carrier bags
– no leakage if contents ooze,
and no need to wash
as so cheap to make,
may as well throw away:
a modern era –
clean and sterile,
lazy, swinging sixties, and seventies…

but, undegradable, so
if you carelessly dispose
toss away, just lose –
so light, it may get lifted, blown by the wind,
land somewhere, wildlife entangle …
And we slowly realise
to make good use of plastic prize
we must encourage that it’s wise
to only use for things that serve us long
(like lego bricks!), not cast off single-usages
growing to an uncorruptable pile
undecaying discarded,
to last a long while,
tired or forgotten mess
pervasive mass.
Work to search and gather, rescue
recycle or bury,
to halt the scatter
of such matter
world-wide, cast aside;
discourage carelessness
and fecklessness …

[IP: ‘it seemed like a good idea at the time’.]

(photo the remnants of a teaset my mother’s cousin gave me when I went to college 55 years ago – collected with cereal tokens I think)

 

Certificate U
Poem
Miscellaneous
Philosophy
Inspiration Point (work that responds to our weekly writing cue)

Comments

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

If only we knew then what we know now, we'd have thought twice before turning out plastic, esspecially the carrier bags which thankfully are not so popular now. I remember back in the early 60s my mum always did her shopping daily with a wicker basket. I would also take my cookery ingredients to school in a wicker basket, they were so handy for keeping cakes safe from being squashed.

Great idea for the I. P. Rhiannon.

Jenny.

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thank you. Yes, I suppose even that brittle plastic would have been difficult to dipsose of the pieces. But there are good uses, if it is used carefully and in ways that don't need disposing of quickly and then doing so carefully. But it isn't easy to change some usages, but it is being thought about now at least. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

thank you for the cherries. It was interesting to follow memories of the development of usage and problems over the years of the subject,, prompted by the IP! Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

As Jenny says, brilliant use of IP! your description
"so cheap to make,
may as well throw away:
a modern era –
clean and sterile,
lazy, swinging"
made me think how plastic made possible so many things - frozen food and ready meals, all the crisps and snacks. It must have made big supermarkets possible, made it easier for women to work. It was like a symbol of being carefree, no fears of running out of wood or metal like in the war, a material evidence of mankind's superiority over nature conjured up by science, now seeming like hubris. Yet you don't rant (like I tend to!) but with your great word skill make your point. Like with:
"undegradable, so
if you carelessly dispose
toss away, just lose –
so light, it may get lifted, blown by the wind,
land somewhere, wildlife entangle"
I really liked the sounds of lose and dispose, the s like plastic rustling in the wind, the o like the sphere of air filling the thin film of a bag.

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thanks, Di. I'm glad you felt it worked reasonably well.There was a lot to sift around and try to end up intelligible! So many things that can be useful can go to our heads and overuse, or carelessly use, or try to cut corners in hard necessary work! Maybe it fitted in with hoping to keep everything ultra sterile too. I was interested to remember how scornful people were of the cheap plastic produced at first, though still being used quite a bit. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Tom Brown on

They said in the news the other day how there are solid plastic islands dritfing in the sea hundreds of kilometres of that. In the oceans. Imagine that? Thousands kilometres of plastic. Killing marine life, like you say, not biodegradable.

All the best, have a good weekend Rhiannon, See you! Tom

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thank you, Tom. Things that seem useful do need to be used responsibly don't they, but we are all careless. Rhiannon