1 day - no plastic - nbd

1 Day, No Plastic

Stephen Mack

I had some idea what I was getting into before I began my day with no plastic. First of all, I am well aware that nearly everything I do using any form of higher technology would use plastic. Also, I had a pretty good idea of what other things might use plastic. For example, I did not wear my typical shoes because I knew they had lots of plastic with them (nike support shoes) so instead I wore an old pair of boots I dug out of my roommate’s closet. They were hideous. As it was cold out and I had no other option I wore my red jacket composed mainly of polyester. I guess the key idea behind my experience was that I did the best I could not to use plastic while not sacrificing my health or well-being.

So, my day started without plastic. I figured that if I ever skipped brushing my teeth today was the day. I also showered the night before so I made sure to be nice and clean to begin the day. When faced with the question if I wanted a ride to school I replied yes, but told my room mate I could not due to an experiment I was conducting. He laughed at me and drove away to school. The main sacrifice of my day was to leave my devices at home. No music in my ears, no texting to friends, and when I arrived at campus, no computers either. My backpack may have had plastic in it or not but I had no other option. Once my day on campus got going, staying away from campus was not a big deal. I made sure not to eat at a dining hall as everything was served on a plastic tray, dish, or cup. For an early lunch I bought an apple from the market along with a kiwi, and a Kombucha (fancy drink in glass bottle). This was also a difficult part of my day as I had to turn down nearly every option I would have chosen if I was not resisting plastic. Even the sandwiches were neatly packaged into small sandwich containers made of plastic. No chips for me, no nuts, and no ice cream as I tend to eat. It did make me choose healthier options like fruit, but even healthy snacks were packaged up like protein bars and yogurt. Not feeling satisfied, I went over to the Chinese food place and had a meal served to me on a glass dish. Things were looking up from here. After doing this, I went back to the library to study. A rare thing for me was going to the library and not sitting at a computer. I read my textbooks, perused the collection of books, and in the end I was alright as my computer based assignments were done the night before.

If there was one thing which sort of bothered me throughout the day was that I couldn’t partake in my typical leisure activities like watching television or listening to music. Instead I went to the pool and went for a swim in the dive tank. After my swim, I washed off with a bar of soap and headed home for the evening. A short while after going home my eyes began to burn from the pool. I had no choice but to use my Rohtos to ease the pain. Also, before drifting off to sleep I always watch an episode of Adventure Time. Turning on my PS3 and TV were only to keep me from being deprived of sleep.

All in all the day went pretty well. I was able to keep plastics out of my life practically the whole day. I predicted that I would be able to do this but forgot about my nightly ritual of watching Adventure Time. Also, when waking up that morning I did have to use my phone, and after watching TV I figured I would check my phone messages and set my alarm back on. I still believe it is not too difficult for one to go one whole day without the use of plastics, but not many will be willing to sacrifice the comforts of modern life to help out the environment.