A Day with No Plastics

A day with no plastics in today's plastic dependent world would consist of either spending a day in the woods, sleeping out of a make-shift shelter or sitting in your house doing absolutely nothing. No computer, cell phone, TV, food would have to be in non-plastic containers beforehand and even pens would be out of the question. Although a day trip out into the wilderness sounds like the best way for one to spend a day plastic-less, school work could not be halted to do so. However, many steps were taken the day before going plastic-less in order to allow for some productivity. Paper and a wooden pencil were used to take notes and a day’s worth of food was packaged in boxes and paper bags instead of plastic. It was also the weekend so no alarm was set to avoid using a plastic cell phone. Only glass or paper products were used as dishes and I made sure I had no errands to run so I could avoid my plastic filled vehicle for a day. However, there were some plastic items I was inevitably unable to avoid. My laptop was necessary due to homework that needed to be completed b that night and my cell phone was used to communicate with people. The culmination of experiences between going one day without disposable plastics and attempting to go a full day without any plastics at all led to some conclusions about the lives Americans live. It was absolutely impossible for me to go a day without any plastics at all unless I completely detached myself from society and spent a day in the wilderness.

So, what should be done about it? It is reasonable to ask everyone to avoid using plastics so we force industry to use other materials? My answer is no. Alternatively, we should begin producing plastics that are at least biodegradable, and are derived from plants rather than petroleum. Or we can invest time, money and research into plastics that, when disposed of, will help grow new materials to produce the next generation of plastics. A concept coined cradle-to-cradle where the materials we are producing today help grow new materials when they are disposed of instead of wasting space in landfills and polluting the drinking water and fertile land we all so desperately need. This concept is an attempt to mimic the natural processes we see every day but neglect to fully grasp in our industrialized societies. In order to successfully implement this process, a call for rapid change in the mindsets of people all over the world is paramount.

Zach Ackerman

SS3300

12/18/2013