With RoGuiltlessPlastic, design comes back to demonstrate in favor of sustainability and responsibility, but with emotionality this time! Despite the forced delays, shared perplexities, and the usual criticisms that accompany its organization, the Salone del Mobile 2021 has managed to be confirmed among the most awaited international commercial-cultural appointments. There is still a bit more than a month to go until that week of the year; when Milan replaces the inflated frenzy that is often ascribed to it with an atypical widespread enthusiasm. This is also explained by the participatory and often misleading clamor generated by the Fuorisalone events. In fact, numerous ‘glam’ appointments make noise in the city, despite the lack of attention to the crucial topics that design can respond to.
Among these, the initiative developed by the gallery owner Rossana Orlandi needs to be considered. Her competitions, exhibitions, and awards are making a comeback, mainly because of the critical approach she has adopted and stimulated.
Hence, for the third consecutive year, plastic becomes the protagonist of the planning debate in the Via Matteo Bandello gallery and at the Leonardo da Vinci Science and Technology Museum. Artists, designers, researchers, and entrepreneurs are invited to reflect on their habits and the possibilities of use, recycling, and reuse of plastic. How? First of all, by taking part in the Ro Plastic Prize competition with a project that falls within the categories indicated. This year they have been reduced to three: Urban and Public Furniture Design, Responsible Innovation Projects, and Emotion on Communication. Then, finalists will be able to win a €10,000 prize. Moreover, they will have the opportunity to see their prototypes exhibited and serve as a setting for the press interviews that will take place 24/7 around the ‘signora del mobile’.
But, for those who haven’t experienced yet the ‘design tour de force’, we reconstruct below the context and philosophy of which Guiltless Plastic is an expression.
What is the Ro Plastic Prize?
RoGuiltlessPlastic is an international project that since 2019 has been engaging the design world in giving new life to plastic scraps before they reach oceans. Researchers and visionaries of all ages and nationalities are called upon to imagine a new circular development model. Plastics become once again a resource and no longer a threat to the ecosystem. Exploring the endless transformation possibilities of synthetic waste thus becomes the method to make future generations aware of calibrating their choices based on their impact. ‘Reuse, recycle, rewaste’ is a wish, but above all an exhortation.
The goal is to exempt the material itself from the stigmatization that has made it a threat to both man and the environment. The fault lies not with the material itself, but with the abuse we have made of it. This time, however, a third keyword joins the well-established duo ‘sustainability and responsability’: emotionality (we have already talked about it here). To increase consumers’ awareness on the importance of ‘re-waste’, the queen of design has realized that it is no longer enough to indicate causes and consequences. It is necessary to stimulate emotions as well. Right now, strategic, multimedia and interactive communication is actually crucial to discourage its consumption and revive affectivity towards products. Therefore, this will be the challenge that will, once again, raise the bar in plastic manufacturing according to criteria of innovation, functionality, durability, and environmental impact.
And how has the whole project evolved over time?
The initiative was born from an intuition that the big, white glasses talent-scout, which have by now become her distinctive and stylish feature, came up with in 2017. From the amount of colorful plastic found on the coast of Sardinia, the summer location of her business, Rossana Orlandi decided to make plastic the focus of her militancy in sustainable design. Hence, during Fuorisalone 2018 she first participated in ‘Guilty Feeling’, the series of speeches moderated by journalist Cristina Gabetti, aimed at reasoning about how design can change consumption habits.
Hence, the first Ro Plastic Prize of 2019 took place, registering 300 applications from 52 countries. The mission was immediately clear and appealing, as well as the precise and very strict rules. Consider that the prize for the ‘Packaging Solutions’ category was not awarded at all as no project met the requirements.
In fact, looking at the world of waste as an opportunity and not only as a problem requires an approach to design that studies the second life of the product beforehand. Whether it is an object, or its packaging makes no difference. Consequently, redesigning the coexistence between man and nature is the payoff of the competition which has now come to the third edition. Furthermore, it is necessary to find formulas to make conditions, costs, and standards of production transparent. Just as the impact these have on local communities and on the environment.
But, what is the secret of its success?
Known for being a voice out of the ordinary, since the beginning Rossana Orlandi has imbued her own intervention with the resources that the leading position, she has carved out, ensures her. Foresight, pragmatism, and reluctance to rhetoric and to false moralism. By embracing a perspective that is easily misunderstood in the insidious path of the ‘sustainability of consumption’, Orlandi introduces the theme of circular economy to the design festival. Thus, by attacking every form of plastic mystification until now perceived as an enemy to be rejected, RoGuiltlessPlastic initiates an intense dialogue between design, technology, and art.
But in which way? By using what the world of contemporary design has not been able to inherit from the masters of the 20th century. The close confrontation between artistic works whose objective is to safeguard the collective future of the planet, by reinforcing the concept of responsibility in public awareness.
And, what is the thinking from which it derives?
It must be said, in fact, that the value of the initiative is to be found in a reflection that is often difficult to accept. Among other things, the focus of the thesis extensively reiterated by the philosopher Maurizio Ferraris, is the understanding that nature can survive without man but the opposite cannot happen. As a result, if we have all understood that climate change is an issue to be solved right away, we now need to understand that it is in our interest to respect nature to protect ourselves too.
RoGuiltlessPlastic, thus, reiterates how the role of the arts consists also in making humans aware of what is at stake. Of what we are about to lose due to a lack of responsibility. And, in doing so, design is a crucial tool for raising awareness, which does not necessarily have to make them fear the neglect of their cherished aesthetic details. Every action in the creative process must reflect this responsibility, from the beginning to the end of the life cycle. After all, the world of design builds, plays, and experiments with materials: so, it couldn’t be exempt from offering its contribution!
But, concretely, which kinds of projects does Ro Plastic Prize incentivize?
To avoid being vague, we examine the intervention that best summarizes the scope of this contest. Let’s go back to the first project awarded in the Conscious Innovation Project section. It was in 2019 when, after 6 years of development, Dave Hakkens presented Precious Plastic. An open-source project that aimed at boosting plastic recycling globally. By offering resources, tools and technical knowledge, the goal was to enable everyone to self-build machines to make objects from waste.
By making available four DIY recycling tools that could be reproduced in any part of the planet thanks to an instruction packet, Precious Plastic emerged as a new design formula to revalue plastic and create local circular economies. Traditional centralized recycling systems require large investments for the purchase of prohibitive high-tech machinery. Their recycling methodology is strongly opposed to any massive production of virgin plastic. Here, we are definitely talking about a participatory intervention to promote an alternative future without waste.
So, to recap, when, where and how will this third edition be?
Sponsored by the president of Qatar Museum, H.E. Al Thani, RoGuiltlessPlastic will be held again this year at the Leonardo da Vinci Science and Technology Museum. The formula of the TrashFormation Village has been proposed again; an ideal village made using waste materials that will occupy the two gardens of the cloister. In the Hall of Waste, there will be a traveling exhibition on companies committed to rethinking the waste chain. Lastly, in the Cenacolo room, the Re-Food Market will be built, an iconic supermarket whose shelves will only display food brands that pursue an ethical approach to food waste.
As for the dates, the deadline for the competition was June 22. On July 7, the finalists were announced and, in a few days, they will deliver the prototypes. All we have left to do is wait until September 9 for the awards ceremony and, perhaps, drop by the Salone or ‘Fuori’ to get an idea of what’s going on. From September 5 to 12!
