Two days without disposable plastics, Mikayla Young

Two days without disposable plastics

The two days I sent without disposable plastic was a real eye opener to the amount of plastic I use daily. 

Day One

One of the first things I had to change is how I contain my extra pancakes. I make pancakes in large amount and then freeze them so I have an easy breakfast in the morning. I typically place my pancake in plastic sandwich bags but instead I placed them into Tupperware.  Another problem with making pancakes is the pancake mix comes in a cardboard box but then within a plastic bag which is where I first failed the disposable plastic challenge. Later that day I went grocery shopping at Econo Foods, luckily for me they ask paper or plastic which I used paper instead of plastic. After grocery shopping I was hungry for a quick snack which caused me to fail the challenge again because I had Ramon Noodles that come in plastic. Later that night for dinner instead of using a plastic cup to drink out of I used a glass cup. I also ate a meal that was not packaged in a disposable plastic, which was eggs that came in a cardboard container but the cheese came in plastic so I failed again. I started to notice it is extremely difficult to make meals that don’t come in plastic or you use plastic to transport them. I mean even fruit when you buy them from the store you are still recommended to use the plastic produce bags. For day two I was determined to not fail like I did a few times already.

Day Two

       

        I woke to having my premade pancakes which were not in disposable plastic. I went to Transportation Engineering and then Calculus II which both those classes I did not use any dispose able plastic. When I got home around noon I was ready for lunch. I was determined to come up with a meal that is not packaged in a disposable plastic. Spaghetti is one of the few things I could come up with that was not in plastic. The noodles come in a cardboard box and the sauce comes in a metal can. I decided to not have Parmesan cheese because that is packaged in plastic. I also had water out of a glass cup instead of a disposable plastic cup. I had leftovers that I placed into my glass containers I actually typically used for tomato based foods.  I then did my homework which took most of the rest of the day. For dinner I just had the leftover spaghetti because I was stressed out from homework and honestly sick of the plastic challenge because it was affecting me a lot more than I expected. I could have things like milk because it comes in plastic; I couldn't even have Parmesan cheese on my spaghetti because so much of our food is packaged in plastic that you then later throw away. After that day I was happy to go back to not worrying if I'm using disposable plastic or not. It did make me realize the large amount of plastics we use daily and  will make me try harder to use less then what I already use.