Life in the plastic age
Today, archaeologists find only isolated remains of cultures long before our time. The objects found are often preserved only in fragments, and there are only rare cases of good fortune in which material remains or human remains have been well preserved by oxygen deprivation, for example in layers of peat or glacial ice.
Plastics were developed a century ago as a material that solved the problem of the short-lived nature of natural materials and also did not degrade naturally. Industrialization and mass production meant that plastics have now found their way into all areas of life - and with their longevity, most of them will still be chemically intact in 500 to 5,000 years. Archaeologists of the future will thus one day find almost perfectly preserved objects made of plastic from all areas of our lives - will they then call us people of the "Plastic Age"?
This question is explored in the BOKUdoku: Plastic Age - Forever?
Watch it here in full length:
