Synthetic Forever

Synthetic textiles create problems both as waste and through the shedding of plastic microfibers. But the afterlives of synthetic textiles are more complex than can be captured through quantification. This article explores the degradation of synthetic textiles by speculatively tracking the decomposition of three white suits: a fictional and indestructible prototype from the film The Man in the White Suit; Colonel Sanders’s iconic tailored suit; and a hazmat suit, zippered to prevent transmission of toxic substances. Each introduced a model of future fabric, awash in promises of cleanliness and safety. All protected their wearers from the grubbiness and toxicity of their surrounding environments. But all were also derived from the by-products of the fossil fuel industry, and each was and continues to be deeply connected with social mores, racism, classism, and the expansion of the plastics industry. This essay follows their remnants into subterranean sewer infrastructures, where they meld with the exterior landscapes from which they once provided protection. In the underworld of urban development, they form into fatbergs: accumulations of synthetic textile waste and fats. Thus reconstituted, they refuse to rest, instead forming the carapace of a buzzing world of microbe, insect, and vermicultural sustenance. One specimen is followed from a plugged sewer and into a display at a renowned museum where, as exhibit, the fatberg evokes fascination and a strange celebration of human impact on the world. Through an examination of the afterlives of synthetic textiles, this essay focuses on how, as Heather Davis writes, “plastic will not let go.”