Aaron Nelson

Aaron Nelson

When I started this assignment, I knew I would accumulate a lot of plastic during an average day. I still live at home near campus, and as a family we go through a lot of plastics every day. In our home we recycle pop bottles and cans, but not daily household items which get thrown away. In the morning I had a bowl of cereal and some toast. I usually make a bag lunch for the days I go to school for a decent length of time, this usually consists of an apple or banana, a sandwich, chips, granola bar, and a Gatorade. All of these items except for the apple or banana have plastic contained or wrapped around them. After school I went to work at a local grocery store for a few hours, I didn't consume anything plastic related there, but I was realizing how much plastic is used to store food and other things. Just about everything in the store besides fruits and some vegetables have plastic around them. After I got home from work I had pizza ordered, with a glass of water. This was a perfectly normal day in my life with plastics, the next day I was going to try and do without any. As a college student I realized how much wasted plastic we use, and thought about how we could minimize the use of these plastics for a better life. The following day was a challenge. I had to monitor myself to use the least amount of plastic possible. This was going to be a challenge considering everything I like come in plastic containers. In the morning I had cereal for breakfast, and then I made my lunch. My lunch consisted of only a sandwich, fruit, and a can of pop. The bread was the only item using plastic. During the day I stayed away from using plastic on campus as much as possible, no bottled pop or water, and no MUB food. For dinner when I got home I had a can of soup with some toast and a glass of water. It is very hard to go a day without using any plastics, I believe nearly impossible. The only items I used that were related to plastic were the bread, and peanut butter. Other than that everything else was in its natural state. In this project I learned and realized how much wasted plastic we use every day. Pop bottles, bread, juice, water bottles, they all come in plastic! It is really remarkable to figure why we use so much because it is so easy. Unfortunately, it seems nearly impossible to live without plastic in our lives; nearly every item that I use comes in plastic containers. Even the littlest things like dishwasher detergent is used in plastic. Luckily I have the opportunity in the state of Michigan to be able to return plastic bottles and cans, which is a great option that other states should adopt. Over the last two days my awareness of plastics has been brought to attention, and I will try to become more attentive to my plastic use for the rest of my life.