Plastics Challenge

When I thought about doing this challenge I knew it would be exactly that: a challenge. But I was actually wrong; it is pretty much impossible to complete the challenge. I decided to take the challenge on a Saturday because that gave me a fighting chance to go as plastic free as possible for the day. I would be able to wake up on my own without using my phone for the alarm clock, I would actually have a chance at not needing my computer for a day, and I would be able to stay in my room and basically avoid all things plastic in this modern world, or so I thought.
I prepared for this non-plastic day by first taking a shower the night before. If I hadn’t done this, I would have had to use many plastic items such as my shampoo and body wash bottle, my Axe body scrubber and my shower caddie itself. This right there would have ruined my whole pursuit to avoid plastic. After my shower I proceeded to make up a bed on my futon because from what I could tell it isn’t made of any plastic.
In the morning I woke up and immediately felt the dread of the boring day ahead. I am an active person so the thought of having to stay inside and do nothing wasn’t the best. So I got up and tried to figure out what to do. Could I turn on the TV? No. Could I listen to music? No, because there is plastic in my stereo, headphones, iPod and radio. So I decided to pick up one of my snowboarding magazines and read that, which turned out to be my activity for the day. I sat down at my desk and began to read. After about an hour passed, I realized that I had already failed. The corners of my WOODEN desk were sealed with a piece of plastic! And even more, my bookshelves were also covered in a fake wood (plastic) veneer! This was extremely discouraging because the thing that was supposed to be the farthest from plastic (a wooden desk) actually had plastic in it. At that point I just went into the middle of my room and lied down on the floor and continued to read.
After another long hour passed, it was time to eat lunch. I was really confused about what to do because literally everything that I would want to eat involved some sort of plastic, whether it be preparing the food or storing it. I couldn’t use my microwave so I decided to head down to Pop’s. I then realized that I couldn’t get too much food at once because I couldn’t use one of the trays!! So I got my plate of food and was struck by another feeling of disappointment! I had to use my plastic Wiscard to pay for my food! I realized that leaving the center of my room was a bad idea because I was now surrounded by plastic! This was turning out to be a nearly impossible thing to ever do in this modern world. The only way to go completely without plastic would be to avoid leaving a single space that does not have any plastic in it, like a field! If I wanted to document every other plastic thing that I accidentally encountered that day, I would be writing this journal for a week! Needless to say, I made it an early night and went to bed around 9 o’clock.


Brady Ernst
Section 312
TA Emma Schroeder