The Futility of it All

Zachary Billings 113-311 TA: Vanessa Wishart

-When given this challenge, I knew that it would be impossible to succeed. I even like to pride myself on being as environmentally friendly as I can possibly be, but this is something that would be beyond most people today. I look around my condo and wonder, "How can I even move around my house and not use plastics?" Looking at tomorrow, I think about how plastics will be around me all day.
-Luckily for me, right now, my sheets are 100% cotton, so I can still sleep in my bed. However, my mattress and memory foam pad will have to go. My alarm clock and bedside lamp are also out. I cannot use my cell phone so I will have to rely on my inner alarm clock to hopefully wake me for class in the morning. (Doubtful!) Getting out of bed, I will wear my glasses all day, since my contacts would be a 100% use of plastics, atleast my glasses only have just a little plastic in them. I don't brush my teeth, or shower for that matter, and my deodorant is out too. A little cologne will have to suffice, being in a glass container with a metal top. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, it is dark in the house since I can't even turn on a light! Plastic switches. Down the stairs, I jump over the laminate flooring at the landing. I can not enter the kitchen, it too is covered in laminate flooring. Not that I could use the fridge, it too is made of plastic. I grab some loose-leaf paper and a wooden pencil laid out the night before and head down to the garage.
-Opening the door, my sudden doom looms before me... The car. I live about 6 miles from downtown and it is winter, walking seems out of the question... busses too use plastics, so I can ride in one of those. I guess I will have to walk to school, too bad I can't wear my Gore-tex shoes, too keep my feet dry. I will have to rely on the leather, non-laced shoes that I own to get me there. I walk fast, so it only takes me about 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to class, missing my first one since I didn't plan ahead.
-Luckily, most of the building at the UW are a little older, like Bascom, so the seats are still wood with metal framing. Sitting in class, I realize I have to work this evening. I can walk to work, but being in the restaurant industry, there will be no way of avoiding the plastics. Everything comes in plastic containers for safety reasons. Broken glass is a bad thing to swallow! I could call in sick, or just refuse to do any real work and just hang out, hoping I can get out of using anything plastic. Realistically I know I will have to give up on this challenge.
-The more I think about it, the more I realize the futility of our situation at hand. Without plastics, our lives would change drastically. Food safety would decrease, even considering the removal of some of the harmful chemicals used in plastics currently. Using glass and metal are alternative, but imperfect ones that have had issues themselves. Efficiency would decrease. Cars would be heavier, requiring more fuel. Shipping would change as globalization would begin to decrease. We would be a more locally oriented culture, relying on our neighbors more than we have in the past 50 years. No more computers, cell phones, electronics of any type. Hope you can do math the hard way! No more email, facebook, google... the information superhighway would come to a standstill, as well as the highways into our cities. I can not even go a single day without having to use plastics in some way shape or form. Maybe if I lived on a self sustaining farm it would be more likely, but anyone who lives in a city, or has to commute, will use plastics every day of their lives.
-What does this mean for us? our future? I believe it means that we have no choice but to continue with plastics, but with the hope that we can find plastics that are less harmful to the environment and to ourselves. Limiting the use of disposable plastics would be a great start also. Buy that canvas shopping bag, use a refillable stainless steel water bottle, walk to your destinations, or buy locally at a farmers market. All of these things would help reduce the plastics used, and created, without a lot of sacrifice on our part (none actually, other than trying to remember your canvas bags!) So grab your bags and your bottles, fill up your recycling bin and help the world to the better place we all know it can go to.