A Day Without Plastics

A Day Without Plastic

By: Jessica Doney

I was challenged to go a full day without plastics. Some people may claim that this is an easy task or that it can actually be done, but it really does get you thinking about how much plastic you actually use on a daily basis, whether that is disposable plastic or if it something like your cell phone or laptop computer at home.

I was in Green Bay, WI a few weeks ago for a Girl Scout Leadership Conference. I was going to attempt to complete this challenge while I was at the conference all day that Saturday, because how hard could it be to sit at a conference all day and attend my 5 sessions and not come into contact with plastic…………well………I blew the whole challenge before I even got out of bed because I picked up my phone off of the night stand which is half made out of plastic. I was disregarding the plastic that is in the sheets of my bed for this challenge because I had no choice unless I was going to sleep on the bathroom floor with no blankets. Just getting ready for the day I came across a lot of items that I use on a daily basis that are made of like 100% plastic. For example, the hair brush I use every morning to tame my wicked wig is 100% plastic. 

I continue on to only pick up more and more items that are made of plastic that I use every morning before leaving the house to go to work or to class.

 My laptop and my tablet are very key pieces in my life that I use all the time.

For most who know me I don’t go very far without the two items above and that being the pair of sun glasses and the Brita water bottle. I find those two items necessities in my life.

The next think that all my friends know me for and also something I don’t go far from the house without would be the cowboy boots that I wear every day. Unfortunately the soles on the boots are a rubber that is a form of plastic.

 After seeing all the plastic I use on a daily basis and that is only a very small portion and I am not even out the door to walk down the hall to the conference, I decided to turn the challenge into one where I could use the least amount of plastic for the rest of the day. For the most part it went well because we were given wax covered paper cups to put water into to take with us thought the day and for lunch the glasses were glass and the plates were made out of a clay pottery like material. Now I did run into plastic because the table cloths and the clothing I was wearing had a small amount of plastic in it. Plastic items surround us everywhere and are hard to get rid of sometimes.

You could choose to replace some of the items that you use on a daily basis to something that doesn't involve plastic, such as using a wood handled hairbrush with metal bristles. Now most people don’t enjoy those kinds of brushes but if you really wanted to it could be done. After thinking about the plastic that I use on a daily basis, not much of it is actually plastic that is disposed of on a daily basis. My water bottle, sunglasses, phone and tablet, and my hair brush aren't things I throw away and buy new every day, they are items that last awhile before needing to be replaced somehow. This cuts down on how much plastic I contribute to the environment on a daily basis, but even tossing out old hair brushes and such items even like empty deodorant sticks when they are gone start to add up.

So after trying to go plastic free for one day, I epically failed, it was still a learning experience for me to take into consideration how much plastic I use or come into contact with in one day.