Lost without plastics: Casey Sweeney

Casey Sweeney discussion section 304 - TA: Vanessa Wishart

Friday December 3rd

I finally decided that today was going to be the day I would take on the plastics challenge. I knew that it was going to be quite difficult, virtually impossible from what I had been hearing from peers, but nonetheless I woke up ready for the task. After rolling out of bed I quickly grabbed a pair of socks from my dresser and put them on in order to avoid my fake tile bedroom flooring that is made of plastic. I grabbed my towel and clothes and was off to shower, plastic free at the moment.

Once in the shower my task was a little more difficult. First, to turn the shower on you must turn a plastic knob. I avoided this by using my wash cloth. After that the next obstacle was my shampoo bottle that was made entirely of plastic. Guess shampooing will have to wait until tomorrow...

Once out of the shower, I found some necessary tasks unavoidably using plastics. I needed to brush my teeth using my plastic brush and get toothpaste out of the plastic tube and put deodorant on out of a plastic case.

Next when I was making breakfast I could not pour the cereal out without touching the plastic bag, but my silverware and bowl were all non-plastic.

But so far I was feeling pretty good, avoiding the plastic covered keys on my ring I locked my door and was off to my lab. I had made it through my morning routine fairly unscaved. Once at my lab I could not do non of my usual tasks if I were to avoid plastics. Once I put on the plastic gloves I went grabbed the plastic tupperware container that contained a plastic ziploc bag that contained even smaller plastic bags that were used to hold the individual fish. After that I grabbed the plastic binder and the plastic petri dish and made my way over to the plastic microscope.

After lab I started walking to class trying to avoid my phone because of it being comprised almost entirely of plastic. I used it against my better judgement to send a few text messages. At class I had to use my only plastic pen and the plastic binder that I took my notes in. Also to take my notes the desk that I pulled up to take them on was plastic. Soon I realized too that most of my backpack was plastic and there was no way I was avoiding that all day.

Back from class I got ready for a banquet I was going to and my suit was contained in a plastic bag holder, hanging on a plastic hanger. My belt almost most certainly had some sort of plastic covering and once again I was using the plastic toothbrush.

At banquet I was asked to use a plastic camera and of course I could not reject, and I needed to use my plastic filled computer to take a quiz. At this point I was being conscious of what I was touching but I found the quest to avoid all of the plastic too difficult.

I went through the rest of the night looking out for plastics around but it was pretty hard, I mean even our table cloth was plastic. If anything I have been much more conscious of tupperware containers.