Discardable Plastics John Parker

John Parker

Plastic is one of the most essential items in America today, we use it to package things, we use it to carry things, heck we even put it our house as a layer of insulation. I personally didn't have a very hard time with this challenge because I didn't go home to see how my family does with consuming plastic. I stayed here and managed to keep track of every piece of plastic I ever used and it was quite shocking how much I used. I collected a total of 24 Gatorade bottles, a few plastic containers of turkey that I used to make sandwiches and a plastic bag of Reese's that I had over break. In order to save plastic on these materials, what I did was I came up with some solutions to not use as many Gatorade bottles because that was my main problem. What I did was instead of buying the plastic bottles, I bought a small jug of the powdered Gatorade mix and I bought One of those Gatorade sport bottles at Dunhams and I mixed water with the powder in the same bottle multiple times in order to conserve plastic. This in turn also saved me about 25 to 30 dollars as well since I only spent 3 dollars on the Gatorade bottle and 5 dollars for the powdered mix of Gatorade. My solution to my minor plastic problem with turkey was that instead of buying it in the package, I got it fresh in the deli and used my own tin foil wrap instead of the plastic bags that they give you. I really liked this experience because it showed me how much plastic I use, and this is at college, I don't want to know how much I would use if I actually went home. Another thing that I had trouble with was my yogurt containers, I really couldn't find a substitute for what I could do for the plastic yogurt containers so if anyone has any ideas, I would appreciate it.

Thanksgiving Plastics Kim Wittig

Kim Wittig

Over my Thanksgiving break, I went home to Green Bay, Wisconsin. Throughout my break, I visited many family members and friends within the state; therefore, I was not home very often except for family functions and dinners. With this project to keep track of my plastics and the plastic of the people around me, I thought I would obtain more than what I did.

However, my first day of observing our plastic usage was spent at home for an evening with the rest of the day out shopping with my friend, Brennan.

While I was home, I noticed the snacks my father was eating had been wrapped in a plastic coating/container. These included beer dip, chips, bread, peanut butter and jelly, and leftovers from thanksgiving in a Tupperware container. Majority of the store bought snack-food items around my house are somehow intertwined with a plastic whether it be their container, wrapping, or how they got to my house within a plastic bag.

Joe Fedie

Joseph R. Fedie

SS3300

               

                This Thanksgiving it was surprising just how much plastic is can be used for a single meal. Paper plate with food that has been involved in plastic in some way, a plastic fork, spoon, knife and either a plastic water bottle or cup. Then after all this has been used once or twice it is thrown into a plastic garbage bag that is thrown away. This was the same thing for twenty people all for lunch and the same thing happened for dinner. Now this is a once a year thing for us, but some people rely on this exclusively and that is a staggering amount of plastic used for one meal that is then discarded, never to be used again. I never realized how reliant we are on plastic in our day to day lives, how securely it has cemented itself into our lives. If you buy almost anything plastic is involved in some way, it could be wrapped in plastic, come in a plastic bag or be made of plastic. Just a simple trip to the store can result in an astonishing amount: items made of or packaged in plastic then placed in plastic bag (unless you bring your own) then brought home. If it was just packaging it has a life of about three seconds before it is thrown away into another disposable plastic bag, not to mention the store plastic bags that then get thrown into this bag.

                In my two days of no disposable plastics it was more difficult than I thought. I got paper bags to throw my trash into and stayed away from any sort of vending machine. Plastic utensils or cups are something I rarely use so avoiding these was much easier. Food is where things got tricky, yogurt, hamburger, chicken, rice, cheese, really almost anywhere I looked was packaged in disposable plastic. The only option I could find was buying bread from a bakery and telling them I dont want a bag and buying meat from a deli. Fruit was fairly easy as I could simply put them in cloth bags. The amount of plastic I had left over was significantly less after I took these measures but ended up costing much more than a normal trip would. It also involved significantly more travel than normal instead of stopping at Wal-Mart like I normally do. Overall the experience was much more expensive and difficult to accomplish which would explain why so many people don't do it. So I concluded that going without any sort of disposable plastics at this point is practically impossible for a modern individual but there are simple steps that can be taken. The cloth bags are relatively simple and work for small trips and using an aluminum water bottle or a drinking fountain instead of buying water. The biggest one is probably using real utensils as they can be washed and reused over and over again for little to no work involved.

Average use (plastic bag from Wal-Mart, yogurt cup, bread bag on the left)

Above is a simple way to drastically reduce plastic usage inspired by my Thanksgiving meal.

Somebody's plastic pictures

Check It Out- Neil Hagerty

http://ss3300finalprojecthagerty.weebly.com/

Link to the website I created. Never made a website before, pretty neat deal! Might have to make another when time permits. :-)

Ditching Temporary Plastic ~ Melissa Patterson

Living off campus has created a new challenge for myself as an environmentally-conscious person. Budgeting for food presents its own challenges as I realize just how cheap it is to buy foods wrapped in plastic versus other packaging options. Plastic is all over the grocery stores. I knew when this plastic challenge was issued that most of my disposable plastic came in the form of food packaging, usually one-use items. That being said, I found it surprisingly difficult to keep track of my household’s disposable plastic use for two days. Even with informing them of this project, it was hard to remember to separate out the plastic. Since the city of Houghton has limited recycling service, we usually throw it out with the trash, which we have always disliked. Ergo, the picture below represents an approximation of how much plastic we go through in two days time. We also used less plastic accidentally during this time, as most of my household went for pasta and other cardboard meals during the two days I tried to collect. I actually expected our plastic usage to be considerably higher. We had plastics from food packaging, cleaning supplies, and plastic bags from a recent Walmart trip.

 Collected Plastic:

 Disposable-Plastic free meals! (all jars are glass)

I expected the two day challenge to eliminate disposable plastic in my life to be difficult. Planning ahead to eliminate disposable plastic was far more taxing than I’d expected. I interpreted the challenge as an attempt to eliminate one-use plastic items – things that wouldn’t or couldn’t be used again and again. I eliminated any and all plastic bags, and stayed away from water bottles, but considered items like my hairbrush, toothbrush, and cooking utensils as non-disposable plastics, and continued to use them as normal. I had to skip cereal both mornings because of the plastic packaging on the inside, and I bought enough rice to feed the house for the rest of the year, because it came in a cool burlap bag. Most of the sauces I usually use were already in glass bottles, and I usually keep the bottles afterwards for other uses around the house. I enjoyed a meal of pasta and spaghetti sauce, as opposed to stir fry with frozen shrimp and veggies from plastic bags. We also prefer as a household to use Tupperware and other reusable plastic containers instead of plastic bags for storing food, so that wasn’t a huge change for me for the few days. The challenge did cause me to stop and think about all the plastic that surrounds my life. There is plastic in my clothes, in my shoes, in my backpack and my hairband. I have my plants in plastic pots, and plastic milk crates serve as shelves in my room painted in acrylic (plastic-ish) paint. My toilet has a plastic seat lid, my shower items are all plastic, and even my desk lamp has plastic. I try to imagine my world without the substance, and cannot comprehend it. Plastic is a thoroughly engrained part of modern society, literally engrained into every part of our lives. While it is certainly possible and almost simple to eliminate disposable, temporary plastic items from your life (Unless you like peanut butter  - I’ve never seen peanut butter in glass jars), at this point in history, it would be impossible to completely eliminate plastic from modern society.

Disposable Plastic - Duane Himmel

For the two days that I collected plastics, I did not collect a lot, largely because I stick to a relatively strict daily routine. I usually eat the same meals and carry around containers that are not disposable. I did collect 2 6-pack can rings, a plastic candy cane, bubble wrap and a few wrappers from slices of cheese, but aside from this I did not dispose of much. I do however, have several items that are not finished that are wrapped in plastic in my refrigerator, but since I had not disposed of them, I figured that they did not meet the requirements. I suppose that I could restrict my use of disposable plastics more by buying whole foods that are not wrapped in plastics, or making more of my own foods from scratch, but I honestly will probably not do this, due to a lack of motivation. When shopping at the grocery store it is far easier to grab the things that are pre-made and wrapped in plastic and I think that plays a huge factor in why so much plastic is disposed of throughout the country and the world. I'm not sure what remedies to suggest in terms of limiting plastic use, because it is such a convenient product to use, with a diverse range of applications. However, I do see that it is a huge problem to the environment and something should be done to limit its production and waste. The pictures below are of the 2 days worth of plastic, and the containers that I use to carry my food/drink around in everyday. I am usually somewhat conservative in my use of plastics, because I have had several classes where this has been a topic of interest, but it wasn't until only a few years ago that I actually cared enough to change the way in which I shopped and discarded of materials like this. I suppose being educated on the potential effects that plastic can have on the environment was what it took in order for me to understand that while I may not have the power to change the rest of the world, I can at least do my part. This 2 day experience was not much different from my normal routine, but as I stated earlier, there is always room for improvement and there are always opportunities to change things up, even if it is only slightly, to create a better world for tomorrow. After conducting this 2 day event, I will attempt to cut back even further on my use of disposable plastics, but I cannot say that they will be completely eliminated from my life. I do quite a bit of traveling in between semesters and these forms of plastic make it all the easier to stay on the road for longer stretches of time and the amount of planning and preparation that would be required for a week-long road trip would be highly inconvenient for me and whoever I'm traveling with.

Disposable Plastics Challenge! – Tyler Sturos

            Disposable plastics are essential in most people’s lives nowadays. Plastics such as Ziploc bags, milk jugs, water bottles, and other disposables are a cheap and much more portable option than what was used in the past. Due to the portability and low cost of these plastics, they are used for just about everything nowadays. While recording how much plastic I used and collecting it for a final picture, it made me feel guilty, knowing the damage that it causes to our environment. However, while doing the second part of the challenge- going two days without disposable plastics- made me realize how simple the disposable plastics make my life. Now, here is a summary of how my days went.

Day 1 and 2

Day 1 and 2 helped me to realize how much plastic I use and then throw away. The picture below does not show all that my house used. Missing from the picture is about 10-15 water bottles that were used by my roommates at spittoons, as all three of them are tobacco users. Both days went about the same. I wake up, eat a bowl of cereal in a plastic bowl. Just in that meal, I used the disposable plastic bag of cereal, a disposable plastic bowl, and a disposable plastic jug of milk. I then pack my lunch for in between classes. In this lunch are some fruit snacks, 2 plastic Ziploc bags, a water bottle, a Gatorade bottle, a little Debbie or 2, and a bag of chips or 2. The only product in the entire lunch that I pack just about every day is the paper bag that I put it all in. I then continued on these 2 days to use plastic at dinner as well. The first day I ate a Tony’s Pizza, which is wrapped in disposable plastic. The second day I ate taco bell. The taco bell was mostly paper products except for the cup and straw that were used and tossed in the garbage. The rest of both of the nights, I ate snacks which were wrapped in disposable plastic, stuff like Nutty Bars, fruit snacks, chips, and just about every other unhealthy snack. As I said before, the picture does not have all of the plastics used. It would have a lot more if I could have collected it all.

Day 3 and 4

Day 3 and 4 were not too difficult, I just had to change up the things that I ate for meals. The lunch I packed had to be replaced with a few things. I still brought a sandwich, but instead of a plastic Ziploc bag, I used a sandwich container. I brought peanuts instead of fruit snacks and put them in a container as well. In another container, I put yogurt from a large container of yogurt-which unfortunately is made of disposable plastic but I was limiting buying using large container. Instead of drinking water bottles and Gatorade, I brought Brisk to drink throughout the days. For breakfast, I ate bananas and drank orange juice-from a cardboard carton- instead of cereal. For dinner, the first day I ate chicken noodle soup. The second day I ate macaroni and cheese. For snacks later on, I ate things like homemade chocolate chip cookies from my mother and candy, which came in cardboard containers. Overall, I’d say that the shift worked out well, it just takes more preparation and some foods are limited.

Disposable Plastic- Ryan Anderson

    Ryan Anderson

    SS 3300      

            As I collected items that our household uses that are plastic or have plastic components I soon realized how our lives are infused into a world of throw away plastic, paper, metal, and glass containers and packaging. Our use of these plastic items begins each day as we get out of bed and continues during our whole day. To live without plastic in our lives is impossible simply because everything we need to carry on our daily lives involves plastic in some way, shape, or form.

            An analysis of my typical day shows that plastic is king. Upon rising from bed in the morning I shower with a plastic container of body wash and shampoo. After that comes brushing my teeth with a plastic handle toothbrush with paste out of a plastic tube followed by mouthwash from a plastic bottle. Before leaving the bathroom I brush and comb my hair with a plastic brush and comb. At the breakfast table I have juice from a plastic bottle and make toast from bread that comes in a plastic bag. The bread is toasted in an appliance that has a plastic handle. After breakfast I get fully dressed for the day and notice some of my clothes have plastic buttons and my jacket appears to have a plastic zipper. I look down at my shoes and notice some plastic on the shoe lace ends, eyelets, and other areas of my shoes. I leave the house and upon entering my car, I reach for my keys and notice a plastic fob and some plastic on the key. I enter the car by using the plastic handle on the door and as I sit behind the wheel I am surrounded by plastic. From the steering wheel to the entire dashboard with all the knobs and controls to the plastic windows on the instrument panel, plastic overwhelms me. All of this and I haven’t even left my home yard yet. I get to school and notice my book bag has some plastic parts on it, and when I open it I see my plastic binding. I could go on with describing the rest of my day, but I think that anyone reading my daily experience to this point gets the idea of how plastic has become a part of and dominates our lives. We are to a point that we can’t live without it.

            For the class I collected a variety of plastic items from a couple of days of normal living and found it reinforced my above assertions. Some of the plastic items I collected over two days are as follows. A plastic pop bottle, a toothpaste tube, mouthwash bottle, bakery containers, a milk container, plastic silverware, a plastic TV dinner container, plastic vegetable bag, a plastic coffee can lid, plastic deodorant container, plastic aspirin bottle, plastic sandwich bag, plastic freezer storage bag, plastic drinking water cup, and a plastic bag from the grocery store.

            To replace the items I used for two days was the most difficult part of the project. The only things that were easily used as a replacement were a paper bag, a glass water bottle, baking soda to brush my teeth, bar soap for showering, a glass plate and silverware for meals, and a cardboard juice container.