A World Without Synthetics

Although plastics and synthetic materials didn’t become common until after World War II, some of them had been invented decades earlier.

But now, they’re everywhere.

Okay, here goes my writerly imagination at work again: what would happen if they were all to suddenly disappear?

 People would be walking around naked, or with transparent clothes. 

Vehicles would fall apart.

Paint would disappear from buildings and, without insulation, electricity would start millions of fires.

Of course phones and most electronic devices would be reduced to a few metal parts so no-one could call for help and no fire fighting equipment would work anyway.

I could go on and on listing things that would no longer exist if synthetics disappeared.

Only some people in third world countries would be saved from all the disasters. 

Now that could be a setting for a story about the future. Hmmmm……