I've decided to blog my experience going without plastic this Lent, as it will likely keep me honest and give some structure to this experience. Maybe I've been over-inspired by watching the movie "Julie and Julia," but, oh well. I've been seriously reflecting over the past 6 months on the dependency my life has on plastic - a substance which requires oil for production. Seriously, have you ever thought how much your life would change if you didn't have any plastic? The laptop I'm using right now to type has a plastic keyboard, screen, etc. My refrigerator uses plastic, everything I use to preserve food (plastic baggies, tupperware, etc.) is plastic, my atm/debit card is made of plastic, and so is my toothbrush. Yeah, pretty much everything that's important.
For me, the purpose of Lent is to add or take away something which, upon desiring to engage in that activity (or being "forced" to add it) one is reminded of God's presence in one's life. Lent is where you substitute things like giving up cheese (last year's sacrifice) for a type of rubber band around your wrist that you snap to remind yourself of something. So, because my life is so dependent on plastic (Lent is also about analyzing our routines and being mindful of the things that unconsciously are so woven into our everyday lives) and because the Bible tells us to be stewards of the earth and plastic is, I suspect, not very good for the earth, and because I think this will be interesting, I am giving up plastic.
I haven't set the rules for myself completely yet, but I think there are a few ground rules:
1.) I should not buy anything that is made of plastic.
2.) I should minimize my use of plastic things that I already own - so no plastic ziploc bags, not plastic storage containers, etc.
So, of course, I'm thinking already about having to give up using my SmarTrip card, which saves me money when riding the metro (a paper fare card makes you pay 25-50 cents more per trip). In any event, this first week is going to be more focused on taking an inventory of my life and my plastic dependence.
Ok, that is enough for Ash Wednesday. Until tomorrow, cogitate on this factoid from a great website my awesome boyfriend alerted me to www.nonplasticearth.org:
"Given the fact that plastic takes roughly a million years to decompose, it’s safe to say that every piece ever manufactured is still around today."
Awesome idea. Obviously trying to be 0 plastic is admirable and I'm excited to find out more. I'd suggest, though, that something like SmarTrip that saves paper (another wasteful thing even if it's not oil-based).
ReplyDeleteI'm also curious why no plastic containers? By using sturdy plastic containers like RubberMaid aren't saving a lot of ziplocs and flimsier plastic containers?
I guess those might be concerns for long term and not just Lent. I try not to use plastic as much as possible, but I could certainly do much better. I can't wait to read more about this!
I'm excited for this. I am also really interested in some of the issues of design we were talking about earlier. And Leran has already brought up a good one, which is the issue of over-design in something like ziplocs and baggies, which are meant to be discarded but have extremely long material life-cycles.
ReplyDeleteAmanda, what a cool idea: both the blog and your Lenten commitment. Just focusing our awareness on something as ubiquitous as plastic is such a valuable practice. Instantly we see clearly what was before so familiar as to be invisible. I love that. Lent always makes me wake up a little -- I guess that's the point. I'm sticking with self-pity as a Lenten offering, although I think giving up plastic will probably be at least as challenging! Thanks for sharing your experience. I look forward to reading more....
ReplyDeleteThis is such an awesome idea and very admirable! Just remember that all the plastics you have right now can either benefit you and you can get some more use out of them, or you can discard them. Giving up plastics is one thing and purging them before their life is up is another. Maybe give up new plastics?
ReplyDeleteThis article pretty much sums up my exasperation with excess packaging:
http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=23548
Good luck and can't wait to hear about how it goes!
Here's a handy short list (representing of only about 1% of all products made from petroleum) to help you in your buy/don't buy decisions. Not all of these products are plastic and would only be antithetical to your vow if you were to generalize it to not using oil-based products. Still, it might be helpful. There may be a more comprehensive list out there but I couldn't find it in 10 minutes or less. :)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ranken-energy.com/Products%20from%20Petroleum.htm
As far as plastic ziploc bags go, instead of not using them, how about just committing to re-using them (i.e. wash them). I already do that with large ziploc bags (though I should probably do that with all of them). Anyway, I do think that your attempt to use less plastic is very admirable. :)
ReplyDelete