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I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Plastic Ice Cream?
The images of oceans filled with plastic debris have clogged our minds for the last forty or more years. Soon those plastics will clog our arteries as well.
Scientists, and even artists, are looking for some way to dispose of the mountains and mountains of plastics in our world. Based in London, multidisciplinary artist & material designer Eleoanora Ortolani has developed plastic ice cream. It is for an art installation she calls “Guilty Flavors.”
She was inspired by the intersection of plastic pollution and food insecurity.
Frustrated by recyclers who melt plastics with resins, rendering the plastics unusable for further use, Ortolani thought maybe humans could eat plastic and get rid of it for good.
Ortolani is currently pursuing her MA in Material Futures at Central Saint Martins, a prestigious arts college in London that encourages students to create ideas for the future.
Ortolani connected with Dr. Joanna Sadler at University of Edinburgh who uses genetically engineered bacteria to make a product she calls “vanillin” from plastic. Dr. Sadler is a biotechnologist and researcher in plastic degradation and up-cycling, and using plastic waste as a feedstock for microbial growth.
