Rethinking Plastics in Product Design

Plastics are everywhere—but at what cost? With rising environmental and health concerns, the need for sustainable materials has never been more urgent. Plastics dominate consumer product design due to their affordability and durability, but their widespread use has severe environmental consequences throughout the product lifecycle. With increasing global pressure to phase out virgin fossil plastics, designers must rethink their material choices. But plastics are lightweight, strong, chemical and heat resistant, cheap, and available in any colour, making it challenging to find alternative materials.

In response, designers and manufacturers are experimenting with recycled plastics and bioplastics (renewable plastics). Drawing from his new book, Rethinking Plastics in Product Design (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025), Isaac will explore these innovative materials through real-world product case studies and interviews with leading industrial designers. His analysis identifies practical strategies for designers and manufacturers concerned with lowering their environmental impacts to help shape a more sustainable future.

Geoff Isaac is a Research Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney and a casual academic at the Australian National University. His PhD focused on the history of the plastic chair and the challenges of working with plastics in the age of environmental emergency. He has written papers for various journals and his monograph, Featherston (Thames & Hudson), on the life and work of the Australian mid-century industrial designer Grant Featherston, was published in 2017.
 

This event will be held both on-campus and online via Zoom (a link to the online stream will be sent to registered attendees).