Epic Fail

“B-B-Bruises cover her arms--” My phone alarm begins to wail the most jarring song and I quickly snap out of my peaceful dream world. My arm shoots out of my blanket cocoon as I grope for my phone. As I press my favourite button, the red END button, I inwardly groan. Goddamnit! I drop the phone. My phone is covered in plastic. Fail, I think to myself. Oh well, I think. I can start over starting now. After a few seconds of memorizing exactly how warm and wonderful my bed is, I struggle out of it and into the scary world.

Today was suppose to be my day sans plastic. My task was to live my day without coming into contact with the synthetic substance that is causing so much trouble in our already troubled world- from pollution to resource waste to human health issues. I didn’t think it would be possible, but I was unprepared for just how impossible it would be.
I shuffle over to my dresser while rubbing the sleep from my eyes. Morning had come too soon. As I reach my dresser, I feel something under my foot and look down. My plastic name tag had fallen off of my dresser and now lay under my big toe. Too groggy to care, I reach for my bubblegum pink birth control (as if the colour would make it less harmful) and stop. The packaging is half plastic. I stare at it for a few seconds as it sits on my clear plastic set of mini drawers that I keep my bathroom supplies in. My gaze lowers and I notice my toothbrush, toothpaste container, makeup, and hairbrush (which I seldom use) are all plastic. I glance to the right at my plastic supposedly green apple scented Suave brand shampoo. Well, that worked well. I grab my birth control and pop a dose of hormones into my mouth. Mmm, breast cancer.

So after about thirty seconds I had given up. It just is not possible for me to avoid all of the plastics in my life. They are simply everywhere. Like a great conqueror, they have left no place unaffected. Caesar would simply die of envy. Every area of our homes- from our bathrooms to our kitchens to our living rooms- are infested with the stuff. Even as you enter the home, you may well see a plastic framed picture of Granny smiling at you from the wall. This computer has many plastic parts, including the keys with which I type this.
It is hard for one to imagine life before plastics. It seems like it would be a dingy and crude life, yet not very long ago people lived happily without them. Plastic has made it possible to mass-produce cheap goods, feeding the consumerism in America and other parts of the world. People wanted more, more more- and they got it. We got so much our landfills and water bodies are filled with plastic. What the role plastics will play in the future- savior or sinner- remains to be seen.

-Kathryn De Losh