Erica Johnson 309

I went to bed early Monday night to ensure that I wouldn’t have to use my alarm clock in the morning. It worked! And my day began.

I am fairly plastic conscious as it is. Back in August when I was collecting everything I needed for my move to Madison, avoiding plastic was one of my priorities. As a result, I have 100% organic cotton bedding, a mixture of metal and wooden kitchenware, mason jars to use as glasses or water bottles, and plastic free SIMPLE shoes. Over time I have acquired enough 100% organic cotton to get me through the day (if a little chilly when I went outside). As far as shampoo, soap, deodorant, toothpaste and toothbrush go, I was doing pretty well, too. I was fine going without deodorant, had soap that I got unpackaged from the farmers market two or three ago, utilized baking soda (from cardboard box) mixed with hot water to clean my hair and brushed my teeth (w/ a wooden toothbrush with bristles made from natural materials) with baking soda as well. I picked up these eco-friendly habits in my attempt to “leave no trace,” as I traveled Latin America last year, oftentimes finding myself in indigenous areas where there weren’t necessarily water purification plants, for example, and therefore my chemical shampoo runoff essentially went straight into my little host brother’s drinking water. I inevitably became more conscious. In the way of food, I eat a mostly vegan, raw diet so struggles surrounding plastic food packaging, microwaves, stoves and ovens didn’t really occur for me. The only problem was that I couldn’t open my vermi-compost bin (or use the garbage can even if I wanted) which is plastic…so I just tossed the scraps outside. Lucky squirrels, I guess. Lights switches were also fairly easy since I’ve got beeswax candles all over my room in hopes of saving energy throughout the year and I intentionally left my blinds open over night so that I wouldn’t have to worry about using the plastic involved in letting natural sunlight in. In class I used a wooden pencil and didn’t have to worry about my notebooks or folders because they are all just paper and metal.

I ran into challenges surrounding whether to go with contacts, glasses or being blind, transportation (and maintaining an efficient pace throughout my day), avoiding my computer for school work, avoiding my phone mostly as a clock, trying to work on my art projects and how to go about class with plastic desks. Well, I ended up wearing my glasses because I thought, for the sake of my safety, I should probably be able to see and that not having plastic directly in contact with my eyeball was probably better than having it. As far as transportation, I was on foot. This actually just made for a really amazing slow pace day. I wanted to keep my day as normal as possible in order to really challenge myself. My bike lock and bike both contain plastic so those were staying put, but I was planning on making dinner with a friend and we needed some groceries. I live not two blocks from Capitol Centre, but know full well I’m not going to find non-packaged foods there. So we took a stroll to Willy St. Co-op where I regularly shop. It was nice to extend what would usually be a lonely ten minute bike ride into at least a half an hour walk with a friend. When we got there I stayed in the produce section and just loaded stuff up in a cotton bag and Bettny went and took care of the bulk ingredients. That was definitely kind of cheating…the bulk containers are plastic. However they do minimize the amount of packaging actually needed to sell the product. Plus I made some reusable bulk bags out of old curtains so we didn’t have to use individual plastic bags for the cashews, etc. I also thought about doing homework and art, but the thought soon passed as I realized that all of my art materials were plastic and my work required the computer…too bad. It was a good excuse to take a day for myself and really slow down and enjoy the place where I live and the company of a friend.

I really spent most of my day thinking about all of the ways that I was cheating. Though my faucet is completely metal I know full well that the water is purified and run through never ending amounts of plastic before it’s in my cup or running over my head. I know that a lot my food, while I tried to stick with mainly local, required plastic in the growing, harvesting, processing, transportation and the packaging used to transport it safely. I know that when I bought that toothbrush a while back, it came in a plastic package (though the soap and baking soda did not). I know that I looked at the plastic microwave for the time since my phone was hidden away. I know that the lady that rang up my food had to use a plastic cash register. I know that I walked upon tiles and carpet with plastic content. The list goes on and on. Plastic is unavoidable. However, I do believe we can eliminate a lot of the plastic that we think we need with creative alternatives in our own personal lives and not just for a one day challenge, but for our average, day-to-day lives.