A Day Without Plastic: Anne Venzor 309

December 4, 2010 was probably one of the hardest days of my life. This was the day I attempted to live without plastic. On the 3^rd, I started to prepare for this day, and at this time I thought that it would be fairly simple to complete the task of living without plastics. I made a list of all the plastics I usually use in the morning before I went to bed that night which include:

1. Alarm Clock

2. Computer

3. Coffee Container

4. Tooth Brush

5. Cell Phone

I didn’t think this list was so bad because I asked my roommate to wake me up instead of my alarm clock, I used my computer as much as I could the night before, bought a metal coffee cup, and decided to brush my teeth with a q-tip. Completely satisfied with my plan, I went to bed with complete confidence that this task will be so easy, but I was quick to realize that I was terribly wrong.

Saturday morning quickly rolls around and my alarm has not been set to wake me up. Sarah, my roommate, was expected to wake me up at 9, but she completely forgot and left the room thinking that I was tired and needed the sleep. Next, I wake up at 11, look at the clock and literally jump out of bed. I missed my orchestra meeting that was at 10, because I overslept and didn’t rely on my plastic alarm clock to wake me up. The first thing I do is reach for my phone, but pull back due to the sticky note I put on it the night before saying “remember phones are plastic too!” The feeling of not being about to communicate with the world hit me here, and I also realized that I couldn’t text or call my friend in my orchestra to see what I missed

Despite this set back, I calmed myself down and looked at the list I made last night. I reviewed the 5 items I use every morning with plastic and then my plan on how to avoid them. First, I head to the bathroom and brushed my teeth with a q-tip. Next get dressed in sweatpants, a t-shirt, and a sweater with no buttons on it and I headed to pops to fill my metal coffee cup up. Ok, so minus the panic I had in the morning I thought I was doing pretty well so far. As I was in line to get my coffee, I quickly realized a devastating fact; my wiscard is plastic! I use my wiscard for everything I do on campus, and I can’t believe that I overlooked this. Determined to not fail, I empty my coffee out, and leave the line. I got back into my dorm by following someone else who used their wiscard to get in, went up to my room, grabbed cash and headed back over to get coffee and a muffin.

After breakfast was over, I went back to the dorms, following someone once again to get in and decided to start my homework to preoccupy myself. Wooden pencil in hand, I began to take notes on the chapters for my geography class. I wasn’t thinking about plastic at all until my roommate came back. She was talking on her phone, holding her wiscard, a plastic cup of coffee, and her computer was sticking out of her bag. After seeing this, I was so tempted to stop the challenge and give into the plastics that I realized I depend on. I had to get out of the room, so I grabbed my cash and went with Sarah to grab some lunch. At pops, I realized that almost everything is wrapped in or served with plastic. I stood there for 5 minutes just trying to think about what I can get that is plastic free. I decided on grilled cheese on a glass plate, not plastic and water in a paper cup. I paid with my cash and made sure to use a metal knife to cut the sandwich. As I look around the dinning hall, everyone has at least one item of food, on their plastic tray, which is either in a plastic bowl or has been previously wrapped in plastic. After finishing my plastic free meal, I head back to my room to do more reading in order to distract myself.

A few hours later, my roommate is getting ready to go see a singing group perform at the union. I really wanted to go with her but I realized all the plastic I would have to use in order to go. I would use my straighter, makeup, computer to play music, plastic hangers to find an outfit, plastic brush for my hair, my phone to tell friends about the concert, and much more. I was so sick of doing homework, and wanted to go with her so badly but knew I couldn’t use any plastic. Does this mean that in order to live a day without plastic, I would have to sit in my room and read all night long? I was suddenly overwhelmed by this realization, and couldn’t help but give up. I desperately ran straight for my phone, turned on my computer, music, the straighter, started putting on makeup and jumping up and down in excitement. My roommate started laughing because I looked absolutely ridiculous with all of these plastics surrounding me. I realized that my initial list of five items I thought was all I used in the morning kept exponentially growing throughout the day. I depend on so much plastic that I couldn’t make it through just one day without using any. At the end of the day, my list grew to:

1. Alarm Clock

2. Computer

3. Coffee Container

4. Tooth Brush

5. Cell Phone

6. Straighter

7. Plastic Plates

8. Clothes Hangers

9. All makeup

10. Wiscard

11. And much more

Yesterday I failed the challenge because I realized that I cannot live without plastic. I came to the conclusion that not only can I not live without it, but I rely on plastic to get me through everyday. During the day I was trying to avoid plastic by staying in my room and working on homework, but whenever I went out to eat or just wanted to leave the room, I was tempted to use it because plastic has become so popular in our everyday lives. This challenge has taught me how much I really do rely on plastic, and in the future, I plan to cut down on these so called “necessities” and see what progress I can make from there!