Material derivation affects the perception of sustainability in polymer products

There is an increasing demand for “natural” products by consumers, businesses, scientists and product developers. Trends suggest that the term natural may be colloquially understood to be a plant-based material or ingredient. This study investigates whether this trend could apply to polymers by declaring the derivation of the polymer as a plant or as petroleum. Because polymer materials do provide environmentally positive attributes for products in relation to other materials, such as lightweighting, durability, and lower fabrication energy requirements, it may be helpful to understand the influence of a polymer’s derivation on the perception of a polymer product’s sustainability. The goal of this study is to assess peoples’ relative perceptions of the sustainabilities of polymer drinking cups when the base materials from which the polymers were derived are exposed. A set of six injection-molded drinking cups was given to research subjects to analyze. Each cup is made of a different polymer. The polymers have derivations including petroleum, corn, sugar and trees. Participants evaluated the cups on six qualitative design strategies for sustainability, including natural-ness. This paper compares the perceived sustainable attributes of the cups, and which attributes were most strongly influenced by revealing the derivation of the polymers.