Tag Archives: plastic experiment

Plastic Ties

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I don’t want to sound like someone that has no hope for the planet, but plastic is inevitable.  Plastic is everywhere, and if you look up from your computer right now and take a look around, I’m sure you will be able to spot at least 5 items of plastic.  Even your computer contains plastic in some way.
I try to be as environmentally cautious as possible, but after logging all the plastic I touch in a day, I was truly shocked. I had 74 items, mostly synthetic but reusable, luckily.  Things like Tupperware, the handle to my dorm washing machine, tv remote, and the rubber is the soles of my shoes are all items that will last for an extended period of time.  Some items just aren’t able to be reused or recycled though.  In the bag of trash I collected throughout the day there was 5 items: 2 food wrappers, a paper cup (containing a plastic lining inside), a gatorade bottle cap, and a dryer sheet. I even collected this plastic trash in a bag made out of plastic, ironic right?
Trash collected throughout my day. Food wrappers, cup, dryer sheet, gatorade cap
I think this image fairly represents how much plastic I dispose of in a single day.  This amount of trash may seem small in scale of the whole earth, but imagine if every person on the planet collected this much trash in one day, for 365 days a year throughout their whole lifetime. That’s a lot of trash.
One main thing I have learned about my lifestyle over the past few weeks is the food industry needs a revolution when it comes to packaging.  4 out of 5 things in this picture are related to food and drinks, and were simply disposed of at the end of my day on Sunday.  There was no way to recycle or reuse these items.  I wanted a snack, and had to sacrifice the planet to enjoy the food I love.

Beth Terry states “Guilt is not encouraged”, but when thinking about it, maybe guilt should be motivating.  No single person has a way to get rid of all the plastic on the planet, but you hold the power to minimize the plastic in your every day to day life.  I think being able to see my waste from just one day just laid out on my dorm room carpet quickly made me realize that I have the power to leave a lasting impact on the Earth, and whether it’s a good or bad impact is up to me. When walking into a grocery store, I will begin to examine what I buy more carefully.  More cardboard and glass; less single use plastic and packaging in general.

I am lucky to attend a college that has a big focus on sustainability and contains recycling bins at almost every corner I turn, but what about the people that don’t have access to this? One thing I think is important about wanted to make an impact is increasing the accessibility and convince of recycling.  Many people don’t have the facilities to recycle items at, and I think this is a big drawback when it comes to an individual’s efforts to reduce their plastic footprint.  How much work and far would you be willing to go to make sure one plastic water bottle ends up at a recycling plant and not your local landfill?

Handcuffs Made of Plastic

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Although I’d like to think of myself as a young, environmentally conscious, organic, Gen-Zer, today’s experiment proved me wrong. After evaluating the number of plastic items I had touched for Journal entry #1, I thought “Wow, that’s kind of a lot! And even after talking to my classmates, I didn’t even hit the tip of the iceberg of what I missed…” So that’s why today when carrying around a bag full of disposable plastic items, I was pressed on seeing the true extent of what I missed the first go around.

Well, by about 10:30 the bag was already overflowing. I was shocked but also slightly annoyed that I still had to keep adding to this bag while being forced to lug it around the rest of the day.

Things I found in the bag at the end of the day:

  • plastic bags(from convenient stores and small plastic baggies)
  • plastic cups(solo and clear)
  • plastic straws
  • food containers/wrappers
  • plastic cutlery
  • plastic plate
  • water bottles
  • cup of noodles
  • sanitary items (tampons/pads)
  • Q-tips
  • candy wrapper

There was so much more I had collected by the end of the day, but these were some I chose to highlight because I feel many college students use these on a daily basis.

While I feel I collected my own weight in plastic today, I know this is not an accurate representation of my lifestyle. I think I use more plastic than I had found while conducting my experiment. I feel as if someone were collecting all the single-use plastic I usually use on a daily basis, the findings would be quite different. This is because I feel subconsciously I was always somewhat thinking about the experiment. My total plastic footprint is definitely larger than I had originally thought and this has made me realize I need to make a more conscious effort to make choices that are more environmentally conscious.

However, this also made me realize that there are not that many viable options for college students to live that way easily. I feel there’s little access for college students to get information on recycling facilities, let alone to use them. And even though some places at the College of Charleston claim to recycle, do we really know if that’s what they are doing with it?

 

After this whole experience has ended I have learned a couple of things. I learned that 1. There is a huge problem with disposable plastic items and how frequently they are used in our world. When in reality do we really need them to be that expendable when they are not even biodegradable? 2. Being environmentally conscious of your plastic footprint got a lot harder once I go to college. Many of the things I took for granted while living at home are now things that would be far too expensive and just simply not viable. Also, the outreach for college students (who probably have a very large footprint compared to the rest of society) is just not there and it should be especially when it’s as easy as offering to recycle.

Finally, I learned that we are truly in plastic handcuffs when it comes to saving the environment. Looking at the life I live now I don’t know how we are going to get the country, let alone the world, on board with this minimal plastic idea. How do we stop what’s already here? How do we get rid of an item that we physically cannot break down? Where will all of these items go? How will we replace them in a capitalistic society? After reflecting on Beth Terry’s words I do not feel guilty about the plastic chains I just feel liberated to break them. But how will that translate to a world where our hands are figuratively and literally tied with plastic? That, I do not know.