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.