My Day Without Plastic - Bryan Dunn

Bryan Dunn: Vanessa: Section 304: Bdunn3@wisc.edu

My Day Without (Not really) Plastics

Disclaimer: While I definitely tried, I found that it was simply impossible to make substitutions for certain types of plastics.

Upon waking up at 9am, I had to grab my Blackberry to turn my alarm off – while I’m not sure exactly what type of material, I am pretty confident that this device is made of some type of plastic. I make the walk to my bathroom, and complete my morning routine. For hygienic purposes, I chose to continue use of my toothbrush, toothpaste, soaps and shampoos, all of which are made of or housed in plastic containers. After this, I open my laptop – while my Mac is made of some type of metal, the keyboard is undoubtedly made of plastic. After this, I put in my headphones (plastic) and grabbed my bike outside (definitely has some plastic components). Upon arriving to class, I grabbed a water bottle from my backpack (plastic) and drank it.

I didn’t encounter any more plastics until later that day when I had lunch. The sandwich form I filled out required a plastic pen, and it was served in a plastic container. After that, I paid with plastic (Credit Card). I also picked up the scraps from my sandwich with a plastic fork.

Later that day, I had to charge both my phone and computer (both plastic devices). At dinner, I went to a sit down restaurant, therefore avoiding all of the cheap non-reusable plastic that is encompassed within take-out. Once again, however, I paid with a plastic credit card.

Other small encounters occurred throughout the day, including things like elevator buttons, lighters, bathroom cups, etc.

Also, late night I turned on the TV. The remote as well as certain components of the television both were made of plastic. Also, certain COMPLETELY unavoidable things such as furniture, bed risers, shades, etc were used throughout the day.

In conclusion, while I must say that I did not put forth the most effort to avoid plastics, it seems as if most of the things I used were reusable. While there were definitely some things that went to waste, others will be used over and over again, which makes me feel better about including them in my everyday life. Even as an educated consumer, I believe it is the duty of the manufacturers to produce plastic-free items in the future or else it will be difficult for the general public to change their evil ways.