"Aesthetics" – as it's now called – is a have-a-punt kind of industry, disposable income, with low entry costs and a strong brand-building component: exactly the sweet spot where entrepreneurs can pile up cash.
The exhibition – one of a few currently showing across the US to examine the meeting of tech and textiles – is held against the backdrop of an important moment for the industry, where disposable fashion dominates.
In an industry where disposable is king — Starbucks can go through as many as 2.3 billion disposable cups per year at its 18,000 stores across the globe — Silo stands out as a nearly zero-waste cafe.
"It's like the fashion industry and disposable clothing," Heather tells me.
Instead, we've a vast new industry of disposables for coffee on the go.
At the same time, in a world that is starting to demand sustainable solutions, the plastic and disposable goods industries need to adapt for survival by providing innovative alternatives to petrochemical products that will truly biodegrade, even at sea.
However, the dirty little secret that these retailers, manufacturers, and their supply chains don't share is the true cost of the disposable clothing industry.
And there's the let-the-child-be-the-guide camp that fuels a multi-billion dollar disposable diaper industry, which makes nappies big enough for first-graders.
Porter, "The Disposable Diaper Industry in 1974" (Boston: Harvard Business School, Case 380 175, 1980); H. Tecklenburg, "A Dogged Dedication to Learning," Research Technology Management 33 (1990): 12 15; and "The Great Diaper Battle," Time, 24 January 1969, pp. 69 70.
The waters around the rigs and platforms provide them with some of the richest fishing grounds, they say, and the high salaries in the oil industry provide the extra disposable income that fuels their business.
