Break Plastics
Simon Wu

During this thanksgiving break, I succeeded living barely with any disposable plastic. I could hardly imagined how hard it would be before the break, but finally I made it. All of my family members are fans of ceramic products, as well as glasses. Therefore, we do not have many disposable plastic in our daily life. And this year’s thanksgiving, same as previous ones, all food was home made. As a result, it was a little bit hard for me to find some disposable plastic at home in the first place. The first day I got home went on pretty well for me, no disposable plastic. (maybe there were some out there but I cannot find them because I had left home for three months after all.)However, things started changing the second day of this break. Shopping for food is an inevitable mission when you are at home, especially when you have guests visiting. Talking about food shopping, plastic can always pop out from nowhere even though you don’t even want it, such as plastic bags. Aside from those evil plastic bags, some items on my shopping list also bundled with plastic. For instance, an “Apple Slices” pack included a plastic box as a container. And the apple slices were wrapped up with plastic bags. Also, the caramel inside this combo was also packed with plastic cups. Therefore, considering the amount of plastic used, this “Apple Slices” can be regarded as a level of being wicked. Questions may be asked like “why did you buy this now that you knew you were trying to diminish the use of plastic?” The answer is “kids’ preference”. Because I got some little young guests who were playing around at my home and I had already done a “persuasive” speech but they still failed to change their mind because sugary food sounds more attractive to them. It is a little bit alarming when I was trying to dig out the back story out of the shopping event. A majority of these younger generations are already used to these daily products and it is hard or even cruel for them to ponder these issues. Just like iPad is already the center of today’s children’s joy and many of them do not play on the playground outdoor as what I did when I was a kid. The truth of this sometimes really frustrates me and makes me sad. Okay, let me jump out of the digression and come back to the plastic. At the end of the second night, all the food which come in plastic packs were eaten and spread out. Therefore, it was a relief for me because there was no more disposable plastic at home. During the rest of my break I managed to lead a non-disposable plastic life. Several parties were held at my home, but no disposable plastic existed throughout the events. Though there were tons of dishes, cups, mugs, silverware to wash, I felt really happy and proud of myself. To be honest, living without disposable plastic is not as hard as some people think. Most importantly, this lifestyle is very environmentally friendly and can lessen the burden of our only home, earth.