Plastic Technologies Award 2015

Held on May 5 the inaugural conference of PLAST 2015, one of the most important trade fairs worldwide for the plastics and rubber industry, where the five winning projects of the Plastic Technologies Award were honoured. The international competition was launched by Promaplast, the company responsible for organizing PLAST 2015 in collaboration with POLI.design.

The overall winner was the project realized by Marco Grimoldi and Tommaso Pardini: Palingenesi, a special 7.5 litre tank produced through the use of advanced technologies, allowing for the creation, in a single production process, of a single-component and a single material container; an experimental design that proposes to integrate advanced technologies within the process of injection moulding, which allows for the speeding up of the production process and facilitates recycling. The jury decided to award this project underlining the “perfect consistency between technological, industrial feasibility and value in the use of the product.”

The focus of this year’s competition was, in fact, the disposal and recycling of products, components and packaging with rapid obsolescence and implications in temporary use or even disposables, such as household utensils and packaging products for rapid consumption: issues taken into account also by the other finalists selected by the jury.

The runner up was the project created by Paul Metaldi, ASAP: as sustainable as possible, a coffee cup in biopolymers: evocative, biodegradable and compostable. The deliberately incomplete shape of the object, that seems to sink and melt on the contact surface, is intended to simulate the process of biodegradation.

Third place went to, Eat&play, realized by Maurizio Prina and Massimo Minchio, an ice cream container which, after use, becomes a game, thus avoiding the rapid obsolescence of this type of consumer product: the spherical container, in fact, once the ice cream has been eaten, can be filled with sand and be reused for playing a game of “bocce”.

Two “Special Manufacturing Prizes” were also awarded to the same number of projects, which were able to exploit the potentials of specific production technologies and plastics processing. The prize for injection moulding went to Yin&gnam by Lorenzo Limatola: a set of ecological and disposable cutlery, whose components are moulded into a single piece with reduced size. The prize for thermoforming went instead to Dario Martone and Francesco Lillo with their project Bione pack, which analyses the problems associated with the use of disposable products for the consumption of hot drinks, such as tea or coffee, in public places: their idea is an integrated packaging, that can be both sugar container and teaspoon.

The winners divided the total prize money of 8.000 Euro in this way:
FIRST PRIZE – 3.000 €: Cod. 285739 – Palingenesi. Sponsored by Assocomaplast.
SECOND PRIZE – 2.000 €: Cod. 201865 – ASAP: as sustainable as possible. Sponsored by PlasticsEurope Italia.
THIRD PRIZE – 1.000 €: Cod. 815429 – Eat&play. Sponsored by Assocomaplast.
“Special Manufacturing Prize” Awards:
Injection moulding award: 1.000 €: Cod. 060312 – Yin&gnam. Sponsored by Negri Bossi.
Thermoforming award: 1.000 €: Cod. 142609 – Bione pack. Sponsored by Amut.
The winning projects have been on display at PLAST 2015.

Innovative and original concepts for rapid consumption / temporary / single-use disposable products that exploit the potential of specific manufacturing and transformation technologies for plastics; these were the essential elements behind the second edition of the Plastic Technologies Award, the International Competition launched by PROMAPLAST, organizer of PLAST 2015 (5-9 May) in partnership with POLI.design.

The 2015 edition of the competition focused on the disposal and recycling of products, components and packaging characterised by rapid obsolescence and a connotation of temporary use, or even single-use disposables, such as household utensils, fashion accessories, cosmetics, personal care items, and packaging for rapid consumption products.

The competition confronted a highly relevant issue, reflecting the effects of relentless growth in the sector of rapid consumption in everyday life in Western culture. Many of the products, packaging components and single-use disposable or temporary products that characterise new styles of consumption are in fact designed neglecting the problems associated with their disposal – which is itself inevitably rapid, since the materials, connections and compositions are sometimes non-separable, non-recyclable, or properly disposable.

The challenge launched for designers from all over the world by the Plastic Technologies Award 2015 – said Mario Maggiani, CEO of PROMAPLAST, organizer of PLAST 2015 – was to design projects that could reduce the impact of disposals, exploiting the potential of production technologies and materials, introducing smart features in the objects themselves that are in line with the needs of potential consumers. In short, projects that could sustainably renew the entire sector of rapidly obsolescent and temporary products.

The competition has been opened to designers and creative professionals, Italians and foreigners (individuals or groups), professionals or non-professionals, corporate employees and students.

Each designer had to enter the competition, choose a technology category in which to compete (injection moulding, blow moulding, rotational moulding, thermoforming or biopolymers), and design an innovative product, respecting the theme proposed by the competition, in addition to the constraints and limitations of the chosen production technology.
The projects had to be submitted by December 5, 2014 and had to be original, innovative and developed specifically for the competition.

The winning projects have been judged and selected by a jury composed of:

Francesco Trabucco, Professore ordinario di Disegno Industriale presso la Scuola del Design del Politecnico di Milano e direttore del corso Design for Plastics (POLI.design);
Luciano Galimberti, Presidente ADI Associazione per il Disegno Industriale;
Matteo Ingaramo, Direttore di POLI.design;
Mario Maggiani, Amministratore Delegato di PROMAPLAST srl;
Claudio Celata, Amministratore Delegato di CESAP srl.

After the initial phase, the jury has evaluated both the project’s innovative content and its level of responsiveness to the opportunities and constraints related to the technology; during a second phase, the selected designers had the opportunity to develop their own concept, based on the information received. At this point, the jury selected the winners.