The Truly Impossible Challenge - James Herman

The day started off just like any other day, except that instead of waking up to my phone alarm ringing, my roommate was pounding on my door. You see, an entire day without plastics even means no cell phone!

I got out of bed and put on an entirely cotton shirt (some fabrics even have plastic) jeans, and a wool sweater. I ate breakfast, which just consisted of fruit because my normal meal, cereal, requires the plastic milk jug and also the plastic lining of the cereal box. Then I realized that you can’t even brush your teeth without plastic! I've never even heard of a metal toothbrush so I skipped it for the day.

Next I hopped in the shower, and noticed that every bottle of shampoo that was present was made of plastic. I’m so glad I had bar soap instead of body wash though! I purposely choose to do this challenge on a Thursday because I only had one class so it would be a little less challenging. I took notes using an old fashioned wooden pencil in my Geology class. Walking to and from class was bitterly cold because my winter jacket is made from plastic. The material, Gore-Tex, is made to be water resistant but also made from a synthetic polymer.

This meant I had to layer up more than usual wearing more wool and cotton fabric than I knew I owned! When I got back from class I thought I would start studying for my Water Resource exam, but realized that most of my laptop was composed of plastic!

This forced me to do my Structural Analysis homework because it only used a textbook. I got through most of the first problem. All I had to do was calculate a few numbers… Except I couldn’t because my calculator is made entirely of plastic! I tried to do some of the calculations by hand but gave up realizing more than ever how much I rely on plastic.

I almost gave up at this point, but it was only around 2:30 PM. Then I remember that I could play guitar because it is composed entirely of wood and metal. However, I failed to remember until I started playing that all guitar picks are made of plastic. I played the few picking songs (this means playing entirely with your fingers) that I knew how to play. I heated up a can of soup (ignoring that soup containers are lined in BPA which is used to produce many plastics) and chopped up some vegetables for an early dinner. It was 5:00 PM when I finally threw in the towel on my day of no plastics. The main reason being the fact that I had to do my homework and study, and it’s virtually impossible to do without plastic as an engineering student. The “day” of no plastic made me understand how much our modern world requires plastic. Unless a drastic change occurs, we are going to be intertwined with plastic for a long time to come. (All pictures were taken after the plastic free day was done).

-James Herman