Lack of Plastic

Jeff Shecterle..... TA Vanessa 311

So yea. I wasn't really sure what to expect with this whole, "day without plastic" assignment. In today's society and the way in which everyone I know goes about there day, plastic is both unavoidable and necessary for pretty much everything. Up to this point, there really isn't a close substitute for it. I woke up and the first thing I did was fail by using my alarm on my phone and decided it best to make one more fail to brush my teeth for the sake of everyone I will interact with throughout my day. I did, however, decide that a shower was a lost cause, since everything in the shower is housed in plastic bottles; not to mention the plastic shower curtain. I had to forgo my usual morning shake since my beloved Magic Bullet is pretty much solid plastic, which put my off to an unhappy start to my rough day of living a life completely opposite to what I am used to.
I decided it best to get out of my house altogether, since all that is there is food packaged in plastic conatiners, a tv made from plastic, a computer made from plastic... you get the idea. Basically a useless house for the days festivities. Walking to class wasn't bad, no ipod simply meant I had to hear the rest of campus going to class, the delivery people doing there thing, and homeless people asking me for my change (which is metal, so figured it was ok that I held onto it). Got to class and had to write in pencil, which I don't normally do except for those scantron tests. I realized right away how much I miss the use of a pen. Pencil simply don't cut it, they smear and get too dull and have to be resharpened. Anyways, I probably should have been in that class in the first place since the chairs were plastic and everything we were supposedly learning from was built out of plastic (projector, whiteboard, etc.)Lets see what else... unfortunately on that day I only had one class, so now I had close to ten hours to fill with as many non plastic ativities as I could think of. Oh boy, this would be fun.
I figured I should be useful and go workout; an excellent activity considering it revolved around lifting chunks of METAL, no plastic whatsoever. Yes, I had to workout in silence, but it was a small price to pay. What did make it intersting was getting into the serf without using my plastic ID. I stood and thought for a moment as to how I should overcome this barrier, then decided it was futile and gave up. Plastic wins.
After the workout life went downhill quick. There is really nothing I can do besides eat, sleep, and wander around the campus. I couldn't prepare my own food since everything I have is in tupperware, I didn't want to g home since everything useful is made from plastic, I couldn't go drive around since my car is a Honda (basically all plastic); basically nothing.
I realized a few things at this point which influenced the rest of my day:
1. Plastic really has taken over the American culture, and is so firmly rooted in people's lives that it is unlikely a replacement is in the near future.
2. Since there is no alternative readily available, I should consider my own use of plastic, knowing I must use it, how can I do so in a sustainable manner.
3. I cam to the conlcusion that "sustainable manner" is a very subjective term, and I can create my own definition.
4. My way to deal with plastic is to use as much as I need to (basically don't change at all, since I already only use what I have to), but reuse the hell out of what I choose to use.
4a. This means refilling that water bottle until it shrivels away (my immune system can handle anything, it is well trained)
4b. Using my plastic computer until it is so obsolete and slow that I through it through a plastic wall (that point is coming very soon, at which time I will invest in an environmentally friendly aluminum computer, you are welcome earth).
4c. Use tupperware for any and all of my food needs, since ziploc bags are wasteful and can often only be used once or twice. Tupperware on the other hand, is a miracle plastic and keeps my food nice and tasty...forever.

I could probably continue this list for quite awhile, but in the interest of time and the sake of anyone reading this (myself included) I will cut that list short.
In conclusion, today I learned that living your life without plastic, at least at this point in history, is infeasible. You are much better off for your own sanity to evaluate your own life and use only plastic that you must, and of that plastic make sure you make it last and squeeze all the life you can out of it. That is all, tomorrow will be nice and full of plastic. The end.