A Day Without Plastic – Scott Hall

I need to start off by admitting that the title of my blog entry is severely misleading, and that the realistic title of this blog is  “My honest attempt to go without plastic ends in utter FAILURE!” I chose Saturday as my day to avoid all plastics. Since I would be at work at the grocery store most of the day, I thought I would be a little safer. Well after my alarm clock went off I realized I had already failed.

 I had to wake up at 7 am for work, and the only way that was going to happen was with an alarm clock. I use my phone as an alarm, and I know that contains plastic, but after that minor setback I was determined to have successful day with no plastic. I got out of bed and  headed to the shower. I realized ahead of time that all of my soap came in a plastic bottle so to avoid this I bought a bar of soap that came in a cardboard box. 

           

After struggling through my morning preparations(toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant--ALL PLASTIC), I headed to the kitchen to attempt a plastic free breakfast. Success! I made egss in a cast iron skillet and used a metal fork to scramble my eggs, then ate them on a glass plate with a glass of orange juice for a cardboard carton (which in hindsight was pry coated in some type of plastic to stay waterproof..FAIL).

            

My next challenge was what to wear outside in the -5 degree weather… hmm all of my jackets had plastic on them somewhere. I opted to wear two sweaters and a sweatshirt. I guess it worked, I was only slightly colder than usual, not very waterproof against the snow though. Oh well ! It was all part of the experience. 

           

I do have to admit that I had to drive my car to work since its over 5 miles away, walking through a blizzard in sweatshirts was not an option.  So I did cheat a bit there.  My car is full of plastic components , so I began counting them on my way to work. I quit after about 30 different pieces.

            

Once I got to work, I was busy  stocking shelves so my personal use of plastic was put on hold for a few hours. However, in the grocery store my eyes were truly opened. Almost every single item in the store was contained in plastic. There was no escaping it!

            

After a long day at work, I came home and tried to make a plastic free dinner. Pasta came out of a cardboard box and the sauce came out of a glass jar so I will count that as another success.  I had a glass bottle of beer with dinner (just trying to avoid plastic) After dinner, I was forced to end my challenge, after multiple unanswered text messages and calls from my mother, I felt that I should probably use my phone and let her know I was still alive.

            This was a very unique experience, and I am glad I at least attempted it. This challenge really opened my eyes that plastic is literally EVERYWHERE. It is basically impossible to live in the modern world and completely avoid every form of plastic. I think that is important that we continue to look for greener forms of plastic. The demand for plastic will only increase as we move dtoward the  future, that is  why we must mitigate the risks to the environment that plastics pose.

Below is a picture of all of the plastics I use on a daily basis. Well actually these were all the  plastics that I had at arms reach ( water bottle, computer, phone, lamps, tv, car keys, pens calculator, wallet with plastic IDs, desk, computer chair) I don’t think I could physically gather all the plastic things I use in one day. That is not to say plastics are all bad.  Many of these plastics are reusable, and are a necessity to a modern lifestyle. Without these plastics society would still be stuck in a metal stone age.