Living Without Plastic

MY DAY WITHOUT PLASTIC- Amy Romenesko, TA: Vanessa- Section 311

Living without plastic is just plain difficult!

The Morning: Since I couldn’t use my phone for my usual alarm I depended on mother nature and the sun’s unmerciful rays to shine in my eyes at a horrifying 6:30 a.m. to wake my ass up for my class as 9:55. After rolling out of bed, I got dressed in the only clothes I had that were not hanging on plastic hangers, which includes sweatpants, t-shirts and all of my grubby essentials. I walked into the bathroom and realized that everything that is involved with personal hygiene is currently housed in a plastic container. Therefore, I had to tap into my more gross and primitive side and resolved to use my finger as a substitute toothbrush in an effort to make up for using toothpaste from its tube. Skipped the shower (since all my shampoos, soap, and loofa include plastic). Now it was 7:30 and I couldn’t make my usual morning coffee to energize myself for another day of class. Breakfast was a little easier to manage since eggs are in a paper-based carton and pans are made from metal. My morning result: an extremely disheveled, tired, but well fed student. So far semi-plastic free.

Off to class: So it was a good start. I managed to use very minimal amounts of plastic in the morning I packed my bag with my notebooks and old-school wooden pencils for class. Unfortunately my back-pack has plastic latches and zippers but I decided this is just unavoidable. I decided to go out to eat so that I could avoid putting my packed lunch in plastic bags or containers and thought it was a personal victory by avoiding some packaging plastic bags at Subway by not placing my 6inch in a bag. Even though I could do nothing about the plastic containers that stored every meat and vegetable in the place.

Work: At the risk of losing my pay check I had to succumb to the pressures of using plastic. At work I needed to use computers, printers, scanners, and many other plastic objects to complete my daily professional tasks. Already today the task of avoiding plastics was starting to get difficult. With no phone I felt extremely disconnected from the world. Without my usual plastic bottle of water I had to travel to the bubbler (water fountain, whatever) every time I was thirsty which is extremely inconvenient.

At night: I’m sorry to say but at this point, the plastics challenge began to get to me. The sun went down and I needed to turn on the lights (plastic), I made dinner from ingredients chilling in my refrigerator (plastic), did homework on my computer (plastic), stored leftovers in Ziploc containers (plastic) and used my phone to make some essential phone calls (plastic).

I realized that avoiding homework for a day and not using my phone for a day may not be the kind of plastic that I should really be avoiding. I think the biggest victories were in the smallest efforts. By denying unnecessary plastic bags, using ceramic and glass instead of plastic cups for all of my liquids, and using wooden pencils and non-plastic notebooks and the small things seemed to be the most long-term and effective way to help. These are the types of plastics that are used and discarded without a second thought. By avoiding these, I really do feel like I’m making a difference. Even though I felt a little gross and really missed my toothbrush, I felt like I actually had a victorious day.