Life without plastic- nearly impossible!! Andrea Buisker section 310 TA: Peter Boger

I started out my day yesterday with the goal of using as little plastic as possible. The first plastic that was unavoidable was the light switch, so technically I couldn't make it two minutes without using something plastic. I put a gob of toothpaste onto a napkin the night before and brushed my teeth with my finger. I had poured shampoo into a glass so I jumped in the shower and used the amount that I had poured into the glass the night before along with a bar of soap. I had planned the rest of the day to basically just sit on the couch and watch movies so that I wouldn't have to use my car which has plastic on the handles and controls. The TV remote was the next unavoidable plastic that I used. I then realized that I could not even open my refrigerator so I poured myself a glass of water straight from the tap, whereas I would have usually gotten filtered water from the brita in the fridge. For lunch I ordered a pizza since I couldn't open my fridge and payed for it with cash that I had gotten from the ATM the day before so that I would not have to use my debit card. This was probably the first time I had payed for something in cash in a year! I left the pizza on the counter so that I could also have a piece for dinner, which was not very tasty since I could not even heat it in my plastic microwave. The rest of the day I sat on my couch trying to avoid using the remote as much as possible and wishing I could brush my teeth with my actual tooth brush. I did some homework later in the night, avoiding my computer and any pens, highlighters or my calculator. I used a wooden pencil and paper and that was it. When it was time for bed, I used the remaining glob of toothpaste to again brush my teeth with my finger and then had to flip the plastic light switch off. As I lay there in the dark I finally realized that life in 2010 is truly impossible without the utilization of plastic. It is amazing how humans have created a world that literally cannot go round with out plastics!!