Plastic cutlery was yesterday! At the last United Nations Environment Assembly, 175 countries voted for global regulation of plastic production. Since last year, a ban on the production and sale of plastic cutlery has been in force in the European Union. Disposable plastic cutlery will therefore soon be a thing of the past - yet they remain fascinating design objects.

The two designers Peter Eckart and Kai Linke show their collections of disposable cutlery, staged as archaeological artifacts, curiosities, objects of fascination, and contemporary witnesses of an era that has just ended. As illustrative examples of efficient design and diversity
of a "species", they are part of the designers’ teaching in design education. Moreover, the artifacts stand for the material and immaterial heritage of a throwaway society that has to enter into critical resonance with its previous history of civilization in order to be able to develop alternative perspectives - in this case on its food culture.

The installation was developed in the Design Campus LAB of the Kunstgewerbemuseum as Germany's contribution to the London Design Biennale 2021 and was awarded a special commendation by the jury. The beauty and ambivalence of the objects raise essential questions: Where do we come from? Where do we want to go? What do we have to do? Design plays an essential role in the transformation process towards a sustainable society. In their search for alternatives, the two designers also investigated the collection of the Kunstgewerbemuseum.