Milk, Blood, and Seaweed: Alternative Plastics of the Early Twentieth Century

• In Event: Grasping at Science: Tire Reefs, Trees, Weather Simulations, and Milk Plastic

Abstract

Before petroleum-based plastics became ubiquitous in everyday life, industry professionals in the early twentieth century speculated different ways of making plastic from a diverse range of “wasted” materials. This paper examines the history of alternative plastics made from milk, blood, and seaweed. As I will argue, obsolete plastics such as Aladdinite and Karolith (both milk-based plastics) set the mold for what plastic became as a modern material. Qualities such as cheapness, color, inertness, and versatility are each historical achievements of plastics from the early twentieth century. Drawing on American industry magazines from the 1920s and 1930s, this paper explores historical connections between plastic production and industrial waste a hundred years before petroleum-plastics became the norm.

Author

• Zi Yun Huang, University of Chicago