1979

From Plastic: The Making of a Synthetic Century

Our postindustrial epoch frequently goes by the handle Information Age. But it could just as easily be called the Plastic Age. Plastic provides us with the material prerequisite for information storage and retrieval, both analog and digital. ... Plastic not only imitates natural materials, it allows us to recreate an entirely new world of the visual and aural imagination.

In 1979, the global volume of plastics production outstripped that of steel. At precisely that point in our industrial development, we entered the Plastic Age.

The ultimate triumph of plastic has been the victory of package over product, of style over substance, or surface over essence.