Design Conjecture: Plastic Wrapped 2025

Spotify Wrapped? Nah. Make way for "Plastic Wrapped."

"Plastic Wrapped" is meant to help users know exactly how much plastic they come into contact with. Like Spotify, it tracks how much plastic each user touches daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.

Some things it could collect data on:

1. What is your most touched/used plastic product?
2. How many times did you touch it?
3. What type of plastic do you use the most?
4. How many single-use items were thrown away?
5. Where did most of your trash go?

At the end of the year, users are able to share their data on social media and among their friends/family. They can compare and contrast across genders, ages, cultures, countries, and more.

The goal of "Plastic Wrapped" is to address our enormous consumption of plastic, the lies about recycling, and how social differences contribute to how we view waste.

Some additional data visualizations to support:

Now, how would this be possible? How can "Plastic Wrapped" keep track of everything its users use and touch?

Here are some ideas:

Obviously, while not a very feasible idea, "Plastic Wrapped" addresses many of the issues of plastic consumption that came up in my articles from my Special Interest section. Waste is very personal; it is tied to our intersecting identities, it is in the psyche of our cultures, and it is almost invisible.