Plastic Challenge

Sat, Dec 4- My attempt at a Plastic-Free Day

I thought that this would be a decent day to try to live without plastic because I was about to spend the morning in a car, driving back to Madison from Duluth, Minnesota (my parents and I went to my brother’s basketball game Friday night). I woke up and decided to leave my glasses on because my contacts are plastic and are in a plastic container (and the solution is in a plastic bottle). I walked to the lobby to have breakfast and I was limited to a banana and orange juice in a paper cup. Yogurt was in a plastic container and there was plastic silverware, so I avoided that. I had to skip brushing my teeth (which was difficult for me) because the paste is in a plastic tube and my tooth brush is plastic. Unfortunately when it was time to leave, I realized that my coat had a plastic zipper, so I just buttoned up with the metal buttons. At least my boots and the rest of my clothes were fine.

We drove in the car for a couple of hours, which was difficult at times with the snow. I slept for most of the ride, which helped speed up the no-plastics day. When I woke up, I read my limnology book and worked on a sudoku from a newspaper.

When I made it back to my apartment, I was starving. I ate a lean cuisine (which is in a paper box) but had a plastic wrapping. I poured milk from a plastic carton and drank from a glass cup.

After I ate, it was time to leave for the men’s basketball game. I couldn’t ride my bike or take a bus because of all of the plastics, so I decided to just walk. I had to use my BlackBerry, which is plastic, because my friend that I was meeting up with called to let me know that he was running behind. Fortunately, the student section rarely sits, so I didn’t have to sit in the plastic chairs.

Back home, things went further down hill. I really wanted to use my laptop to look up Rose Bowl trip packages and start reading articles for one of my classes. I also really wanted to take a shower, which consisted of many plastics-- the shower knobs, shampoo and soap bottles, and my razor. At this point, I had given it a good shot--I made it for several hours after all-- but decided that the plastics are just too much for me to handle. They’re on our clothes, contain our food and hygiene supplies, are in bottles, etc.--there is just no way of escaping them!

Jessica Boebel
Sec 312