The use of plastic substitutes for traditionally paper products may be seen as a retrograde step in the unceasing struggle to make everything easily recyclable. But its use offers many benefits. Silicone muffin cases (1) are bright and attractive and can be simply washed and reused time and time again. This clean and reuse characteristic is also exploited in the pages of the pocket note book (2).
Polystyrene fast food tray (3) and cups (4) provide improved insulating properties over their paper counterparts. Celebration parties are often where one might expect to find paper products in use, with their inherent unreliability. Offering a more robust alternative are the paper lookalike beakers (5) and bowls (6) and bendy polypropylene drinking straws (7) exploit the properties of the material from which they are made by incorporating the accordion like living hinge.
The clear polystyrene egg box (8) is designed to have a lid and base which snap together to provide a rigid and secure environment in which to transport and store the eggs, and the see-through nature of the material is shown in surveys to be an advantage, as consumers like to examine the contents without having to open the box.
The ephemeral nature of the commemorative table cloth (9) has acquired an unexpected longevity by the use of PVC in place of the more transient paper examples.
