What if plastic was edible?
All plastic becomes edible. A bottle can be lunch, and the bin starts to look like a pantry.
The cap is gone. The bottle is next.
Day 1
A boy bites the cap off a water bottle for a dare. It tastes like plain bread. He finishes the cap and looks thoughtfully at the bottle.
By lunchtime the video is everywhere, and supermarkets have put a guard next to the stack of empty crates.
Year 1
Food and packaging are no longer two separate things. The box can be part of the meal. Streets get cleaner, then a little stranger, as people snack on litter they used to step over.
Doctors start seeing people who ate a whole crate because it was there. Feeling full isn’t the same as being fed.
Year 10
Bin day smells much better, and there are fewer plastic bags caught in hedges. The park benches have bite marks.
Foodies argue about vintages: a bottle from 2014 tastes different from one made last spring. Some collectors keep a cupboard of old bottles, unopened, That misses the point.
Who wins
- Rivers and beachesA bag that can be eaten doesn’t stay in the sea for centuries.
- People who are hungryFood is easier to find, even if it isn’t very nutritious.
- Makers of clean, plain plasticTaste becomes a selling point.
Who loses
- Parents of toddlersToys, cups and lunch boxes all count as lunch now.
- HospitalsA stomach full of bottle isn’t a balanced diet.
- Anything that must stay sterileA medical tray is now a snack.
- Bin collectorsTheir rounds get shorter, and so does their pay.
Edible packaging already exists, made from seaweed or milk protein. The plastic in a bin behind a supermarket is something else: oil-based polymers, dyes and dirt. It would never be safe to eat, whatever it tasted like.
Would you eat it?
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