A Day in the Life

A Day in the (Plastic-Free) Life - Alex Thomson, TA: Emma Schroeder, sec 305

The struggle started as soon as I woke up. Avoiding plastic for entire day seemed impossible considering the how much plastic stood between my morning routine and me. The curtain and faucet knob. The shampoo, conditioner, and body wash bottles. I hadn’t even fully awaken yet and still had managed to jeopardize my goal for the day.

After drying off and getting dressed I had to find food for breakfast. The day was going to be a battle having to avoid plastic and I was going to need as much energy as possible. My mom had purchased a box of assorted bagels, and luckily it appeared to contain no plastic. However, I wasn’t able to heat the bagel in our toaster because it contained plastic on the body, the electrical cord, and buttons. My only option was to use our oven, it seemed a little excessive but cold bagels never really do it for me. I couldn’t find anything in the fridge to use as a spread because we didn’t have any jams in mason jars. I ate the bagel plain and had a couple clementine oranges from a bowl on the counter.

Since I finished eating it was time to finish my morning hygiene. Again I stood at a crossroads. Sure, I could just not brush my teeth but I figured my dentist wouldn’t approve of this option. I made the decision to use my toothbrush, and toothpaste (both of which contain plastic).

After I was done brushing my teeth I was able to read the morning paper, but I couldn’t read the advertisements section because of the laminated pages containing plastics. TV wasn’t an option either since; well… it’s basically a big cube of plastic. I didn’t have much to do since I was back home and my family was working. I knew I could work on homework, but would not be able to use my computer. Luckily I had a big reading assignment and could spend a big part of my day engaged with that. The problem was my backpack. The novel was locked up, isolated from me, forbidden. I had to again make another exception and fumble through my backpack that contained plastic on the zippers, straps, exterior fabric, and lining the entire interior. I managed to avoid the plastic inside: my calculator, clicker for class, agenda book, and ruler. Once I had my book I was able to sit down and avoid plastic for a couple hours.

For lunch I had to again eat the clementines from the counter with some chicken noodle soup. There wasn’t anything in the fridge that wasn’t wrapped in plastic already. The pot was actually all metal, I just had to remember to use an oven mitt whenever touching the handle. I also couldn’t leave for lunch because all food options were to far away to walk to and my car also contained plastics.

After lunch I went back to reading for a while and was able to work on other assignments from textbooks. I wasn’t able to do much else the rest of the day. Plastic kept me from using my car and winter jacket so I had to remain in the house. All board games, puzzles, and electronic devises I tried to use as entertainment also contained plastic.

When my parents came home we ate dinner, but I was still only able to eat canned soup and the remaining two clementines. After dinner it started getting dark and it became even harder to abstain from using plastic. Light switches, outlets, and lamps all had plastic parts that kept me from using them. Once it had gotten dark out there was nothing left for me to do. I brushed my teeth (again making a concession) and went to bed.

I had tried my hardest throughout day to not use plastics, which basically allowed me to do nothing. I wasn’t able to fully comply with the requirements of the project, but other than personal hygiene uses I was able to see what modern life is like without plastics.