Anna Emmerich 310 - A Day Without Plastic

To start my day without plastic, I had to mentally prepare myself what I had to avoid. Through intensive brainstorming I came up with a few things I didn't need to avoid....

Glass items: cups, plates, bottles, jars, decorative vases and half of our kitchen blender.

Ceramics items: bowls, mugs, decorative vases again...

Wood: chairs, tables, various furniture, a cutting board and 2 of our

kitchen knife handles, random kitchen accessories, pencils, loose leaf paper and notebooks without plastic covers and plastic rings.

Stainless Steel: my BPA free water bottle, kitchen appliances (used with fresh produce of course)

Aluminum: tin cans in the pantry - which don't even count because they contain BPA and nearly all tins are plastic lined even if they don’t look that way - I will be dramatically cutting down on Chef Boyardee in future.

Miscellaneous items: the chair and couch in our living room, the pantry curtains, the kitchen sink, a small portion of my shoes, t-shirts and jeans with metal zippers and buttons, mittens, a small portion of my food...

And the list goes on throughout the day.

Needless to say I didn't start my day off on an extremely optimistic note. I roll out of bed, conveniently the same time as my room mate, so I avoid the use of my plastic alarm clock. By showering the night before I avoided use of the plastic bottles of shampoo, conditioner, body wash and the various cleaning products. I did fail by using my deodorant and toothbrush - sorry Nancy but can't do without it. But I did walk all the way downstairs to use the all metal sink and avoid plastic handles on my

bathroom. I pulled my hair up in a hair tie, no plastic, and grabbed my books and what not to head downstairs, again. There may or may not be plastic in the zipper on my backpack but I am not entirely sure so I will plead the fifth on this one, the zipper handles are metal, so... I used my backpack.

Dressing without plastic was probably the easiest part of my day. The weather is cold, which allows for it to be Ugg boot season, no plastic there. And layers of t-shirts and sweatshirts, no plastic, keep me warm. Also, my winter jacket uses metal for the zipper as far as I am aware. I wore my knitted mittens and didn't use my ipod because of the plastic headphones. The sad part of this morning was probably my lack of use of my travel mug. I use the same plastic mug and make coffee in the morning on a typical day - utilizing various different plastics. But I don't feel guilty by using plastic in this instance because it's a waste using disposable cups each day. I didn't drink coffee this day and consequently started falling asleep in my 2:30 class... Sorry Mr. Velliquette!

I was capable of being plastic free in class, which increased my optimism level about this whole concept. I used wood pencils and looseleaf; nonetheless I had an excuse to take the bare minimum of notes.

I struggled intensely when it came down to eating. Breakfast is easy, an apple or banana. Lunch caused my first real troubles. In our pantry I have the very top shelf out of all my room mates. I can't exactly

reach anything without my PLASTIC step stool. So instead of realizing we had wooden chairs in our kitchen, I hopped around a little bit and reach for various items. I would say that almost every food item in our freezer and fridge had some sort of plastic on it, or it was in tupperware. I had slim pickings for lunch: a large glass jar of applesauce, my mom's homemade chex mix, pasta noodles, potatoes and eggs. I went with buttered noodles because all the seasonings and cheeses we have are in plastic containers. Good thing I have butter, salt and pepper in glass dishes!

I don't know how people can do completely without plastic at this day in age. I can understand why people should reduce their use, but I'm taking a Rachel Carson perspective on this issue and I'm going to say we need to realize the damage we can cause with our uses of everyday items. We need to be more conservative and not take advantage of our resources. I took the liberty of googling plastic use - just for kicks. And here are the images that aren't as gruesome as birds being cut open or anything, but still give a slight concept of the pollution our population is creating.

Honestly, I would have to say I can't live without plastics. Credit cards, debit cards, our school ID, our drivers license... all of these items you can't supplement. The SERF, the tools our professors use for lecture, the city buses that keep our campus mobile... all these items you can't supplement. My day without plastic was pretty manageable, because it was only 24 hours. A life without plastic would be a whole new story.

And on a side note. I had to wait 24 hours to eat the cookies my room mate made... because they were in a plastic bag. That right there is dedication.