The day before I decided to go a day without plastics I planned out the next day, which was the day that I would use absolutely no plastics. I replaced things I would usually use that were plastic with things that were not plastic. I planned on replacing my alarm clock, with the lovely sound of my roommate’s voice in the morning. My on-the-go coffee cup I put away and decided that I could not take that lovely cup of coffee with me to class on that early Thursday morning. Instead, I drank my coffee from a glass coffee cup. I replaced my usual dishware with the dishware from the dinning hall, which is all glass plates, except for there plastic cups which I happily replaced with a glass Snapple drink instead of water or soda. I replaced all of my plastic pens and pencils with only wooden pencils. I also decided that I would go the day without using my cell phone, student ID card, T.V., and laptop.
Thus, began my adventure to a day without plastic. I decided that in order to go outside and walk to my classes I did in fact have to wear boots my boots, but then I realized that the bottom of my boots were made out of cork! Fewsh! Close call. As I was walking to my class I realized that my coat zipper was made out of plastic and I was so angry that I did not think about that yesterday. Instead of taking the bus or my bike to my classes I decided to follow through and walk the entire way in the bone chilling cold.
When I got back to my dorm I had to wait for someone else to come along and open the door for me, so I would not use my I.D card. For lunch, I ate from the dishware I set out the night before and I did not use the microwave or refrigerator in order to get my food. I got my food from the dinning hall and only ate with metal utensils and from my glass plate. When I decided to do my homework however I realized that my notebook (of all things) had a plastic front to it! I had not thought about that the day before!
Later in the day, I got a horrible headache and I had to open the plastic container that contained Tylenol. The plastic bottle had never been opened before and it even had the plastic wrapping around the top of it. So this headache cost me two more points against the plastics challenge. Once the day was over I decided to brush my teeth and take a shower. As I was doing these things I realized that the shampoo, conditioner, and body wash all were contained in plastic containers. My tooth brush had the plastic bristles and a plastic handle! I just decided that it is ultimately impossible to go an entire day without coming in contact with a plastic item.
By attempting this plastic challenge made me realize that in a modern society it is extremely hard to not come in any contact with plastics. Our shoes, clothes, utensils and many more daily items all contain plastic or they all have a plastic twin. Such as, the plastic utensils one can by at the store, versus the metal utensils. Or the cork bottomed shoes, versus the plastic bottomed shoes. Today it is possible to buy many items in the plastic version rather then a metal version. It is highly unlikely for someone to have an cell phone made up of all metal. Plastic’s are durable and can be molded to fit many of our daily items. Such as our cell phones, lap tops, T.V.’s, and shoes. This project was very hard, but it taught me the lesson that instead of using plastics all the time I can always attempt to find an alternative.
By:Kelly Bohning
Discussion 309
Peter Boger
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