The Plastic Challenge
A Day Without Plastics, IMPOSSIBLE?
Ryan Crawford- Section 312
I decided to attempt my Plastic Challenge on Saturday, the day after we got our snowstorm because I figured it would be the easiest day to live without plastics but little did I know that I would be locked up in my room without anything to do. Anyways, I spent Friday afternoon planning out exactly how I would actually get through a day without plastics and I quickly discovered how hard… impossible… it was going to be. In my planning I decided that I would sleep on the ground because my bed had plastic in it, I would turn off my alarm clock and open my blinds before I went to bed so that I would wake up in the morning and have some form of light to use during the day because I couldn’t turn my lights on in my room for Saturday. Light switches are made out of plastic. I had some reading that I needed to do for my literature class so I had my book set aside so that I could read during the day without using any plastics. I couldn’t use my TV or computer so I knew I had to find other things to do during the day and reading was one of those things and the only thing I could think of that I could do without plastics. I had also planned on going for a long walk or a bike ride but realized plastic was in all of my shoes and on my bike, so I had to shoot that idea down. I decided to make a sandwich on Friday night so that I would have something to eat on Saturday. Once it was all made I put it on a plate with some chips and left it in the fridge.
After doing all this planning I decided to go out with my friends for a little while and go home early so that I didn’t have to encounter any plastics while I was out. I got home before midnight and set everything up for the next day so that I could be successful. I went into the bathroom and almost brushed my teeth but realized that the toothpaste, my toothbrush, and the faucet handles where all made of plastics so I simply went into my room and fell asleep on the ground. I couldn’t brush my teeth because by the time I got around to getting ready for bed it was already passed 12 o’clock and that meant it was Saturday, the day of my challenge!
I woke up in the morning, I think around noon because someone was vacuuming outside my door. I didn’t know what time it was but decided that I should get up and start reading. I took a drink of water from a glass cup that I put out last night and picked up my book. I had read about a hundred pages and was starting to get impatient and bored of the book. I got up, stretched a little, and planned on going into the living room to see what my roommates were up to and to go the bathroom but quickly realized that my door was shut to the living room. I knew I was bound to fail now because there was plastic in the door handles. I shouted to my roommates to come let me out but neither responded. I was locked in my room with nothing to do and only time would determine when I was going to fail in this Plastic Challenge.
Instead of reading I worked out for a little while because I knew that I didn’t need plastics for that. Working out was successful for awhile until I absolutely had to go to the bathroom. I shouted to my roommates again but they still didn’t respond. I was angry that I didn’t leave my door open the night before and that this was going to be the reason I failed. My roommates never came back and I eventually opened my door and went to the bathroom. I brushed my teeth after because they felt gross and opened the fridge, which had a plastic handle, in order to get my sandwich. I didn’t realize the night before that I would have to open my fridge in order to get my sandwich and that would have caused me to fail as well.
After doing this challenge I have come to realize how much people in general and especially Americans rely on plastics. Everything we use in our lives has plastic in it! It was very hard for me to plan out a day without plastics and I didn’t even make it half way through the day before I failed. I use to think I could live without plastics but I now know that this is impossible unless I go out into the woods and survive with a metal knife and nothing else. We live in a Plasticine Era and that is why I am attaching this link to a song by Gov’t Mule!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfOTVl2ebNQ
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