Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Shahar Livne has created a clay-like material using discarded plastic, which she envisions as a valuable commodity that future civilisations will mine for.
The Israeli designer is presenting a range of sculptural objects created from her Lithoplast material at Dutch Design Week.
Her aim is to challenge the idea that petroleum-based plastics are damaging the planet ? by treating the material as something precious.
She speculates that plastic production will cease in the future. As a result, the discarded waste from the present era would be seen as a rare and natural resource, needing to be mined from deep underground.

"I imagined a future where plastic has become a nostalgic, valuable material that will be mined from ancient landfills," she told Dezeen. Livne began by digging up waste plastic from beaches in the Netherlands and Israel. To create the Lithoplast material, she layered the plastic with minestone and marble dust ?  two by-products from the coal mining and stone masonry industries, which are usually discarded.
She then applied heat and pressure to mimic a natural geological process known as metamorphism. This process alters the composition of an existing rock, causing its form and texture to change.

The result is a malleable, clay-like material that can be pressed into shape by hand. It has a rocky, uneven surface, which Livne polished with a water jet to create a smooth finish.
Livne says that Lithoplast could be...