By Bella Goodnight
Not sure if you’ve heard, but Plastic Free July is a big deal around here.
Credit: PlasticFreeJuly.org
Plastic Free July and its sustainability-themed challenges came about in 2011 when a group of staff and volunteers for the Western Metropolitan Regional Council (WMRC) in Australia took strides to avoid plastic for the entire month of July.
Holding onto all plastic waste created throughout the month afterwards, they were able to reflect on their process. This inspired them to spread the newfound movement beyond themselves. Now, people around the world take part in what is tokened as “Plastic Free July.”
People commit to many variations of this challenge, often a plastic free day, week, or month. I want to see what I’ll learn from taking this on for a week.
Day by day, I’m going to take you through my challenge to avoid single-use plastic.
Check out my notes on what I did each day, so you can come along for the ride:
7/18 - Day 1:
Ate food at home then exercised at the gym
Went to Chipotle because its burritos come in tinfoil
Chipotle workers gave me a fork in my bag even though I didn’t request one. I didn’t use it and will keep it in the car for future use
Went home, spent time with my family, and ate dinner there
Watched Love Island and drank tea
Day 1 Reflection:
I feel like I am at a crossroads between wanting to buy groceries to eat out less and wanting to eat out at restaurants with sustainable packaging to avoid the unavoidable single-use plastic packaging of grocery store items. I thought of going to the farmers market to get groceries from local sources, but only certain food items would be available that are often still wrapped in plastic.
There’s no perfect solution, and that says a lot about today’s consumerism. My focus is avoiding single-use plastic specifically, so I will stick to eating what I already have at home and only eat out where food is on plates or in paper, tinfoil, or cardboard.
7/19 - Day 2:
Meditated and went on a walk with my mom
Went shopping with my mom and brother and brought: food on a glass plate, a reusable water bottle, and reusable bags for our shopping errands
Bought only essentials that were almost all things I wouldn't want to buy at a thrift shop for hygiene reasons (undergarments and bath towels)
Went to Sonic with my brother (food in paper packaging)
Day 2 Reflection:
You can make sustainability convenient. Bringing reusable items out is easy, saves money, and means you are using higher quality materials throughout your day. For example, eating with a metal fork versus a plastic fork or using a large, sturdy tote bag instead of a plastic grocery bag.
7/20 - Day 3:
Went to an art museum for a free student wellness and relaxation event. The food and drinks were all paper products, which I checked with a friend about before I went. For part of the event, my boyfriend and I potted succulents! They originally came in little plastic pots before we transferred them to clay pots, so that was a small amount of plastic. We spent time looking at art and the different stations at the event until we left
Got snacks at a Cuban restaurant, dinner at Cheesecake Factory, and dessert at Crumbl (This is a lot, I know. I did all of this for a day of dates with my boyfriend because we had not gotten to go out alone together much lately. I used no plastic though!)
Drove around to visit family members and loved ones
Went home to do schoolwork and watch TV
Day 3 Reflection:
I had to be incredibly conscious of where I went for food and what I ordered to avoid single-use plastic. It makes me imagine and hope for a world where that isn’t the case.
7/21 - Day 4:
Ate mostly at the house, but I ate some snacks at home without thinking and realized they were in plastic wrappers. I never purchased anything like that during the challenge, but I tried to still avoid using them at home besides this
Ordered a sandwich from Firehouse Subs, which is in paper and cardboard
Helped my boyfriend and his mom because their house is getting new flooring
Did HW and watched TV
Day 4 Reflection:
Because I ate a granola bar at home without considering its plastic wrapping, I began thinking about the waste involved in individually wrapped snacks. How much of this unnecessary waste is in my lunchbox during the school year? Plus, how healthy are my lunches if half of the items are preserved and wrapped in plastic anyways? I want to attempt a 100% plastic free lunch once every week when school starts back up.
7/22 - Day 5:
Stayed home all day
Longboarded in my neighborhood
Watched TV
Did schoolwork and internship work
Had a homemade dinner with my family
Spent no money today and used no plastic!
Day 5 Reflection:
During a lazy day like this, it is much easier to avoid plastic. It is wild to me how many activities out of the house have become commercialized or involve the purchase of some product. I feel proud of days when I have fun using only what I have.
7/23 - Day 6:
Went on a walk with my friend
Went to the pool in my neighborhood
Took a quiz and worked on my summer classes
Attended a Zoom call for my internship
Day 6 Reflection:
Spending time outside reminds me of why I choose to take on a challenge like this in the first place. :)
7/24 - Day 7:
Used no plastic again!
Ordered a sub from the grocery store deli
Helped out again at my boyfriend’s mom’s house
Spent lots of time at home
Day 7 Reflection:
This challenge makes me realize I want to begin using refilling stores to restock on my household essentials and random ingredients. So much waste can be saved by making simple switches like that.
You may be wondering, “How much plastic did she end up using?”
Total Plastic Use:
Plastic mint-wrapper
Plastic fork
Tiny plastic sample-cup
Tiny plastic plant holder for succulent
Small plastic price tags that attach to clothes from when I bought clothing
Plastic wrappers for two granola bars from my house
Plastic wrapper for Baby Bel cheese from my boyfriend’s house
In total, I could easily stuff all of the single-use plastic I used in one less-than-full plastic water bottle. A lot of the plastic used were thin wrappers from snacks I already had at home, but I still count those.
I did not plan to end up with any of this plastic, but restaurants sometimes gave little mints or a fork with an order without request. The rest of the time, I was either eating a snack at home without thinking or accepting an offer of some kind of item without realizing it was going to involve plastic (the sample cup or succulent plant holder).
Credit: Adobe Stock
As you can tell, I was not perfect throughout this challenge.
Acknowledging this, here are my takeaways from these seven days:
I can greatly reduce my plastic intake by being mindful of my purchasing choices. As consumers, we have to remember that purchasing power is a real power. Supporting businesses that offer sustainable packaging over those that don’t is how we make a statement. Not only does this effectively reduce individual plastic waste, but our purchases are how corporations gauge the importance of sustainability to consumers. Companies often won’t take action without seeing they won’t hit their sales quotas until they make a change; this is how we show them.
This challenge also made me more aware of my consumption. I pride myself on generally sticking to my reusable water bottles and bags, shopping sustainably or when I have a real reason to, and being conscious of the environment in many small ways throughout my day. However, I noticed that I purchase food to-go or from restaurants a LOT. This week was an exaggerated version of that because I was staying at my parents’ home with no snacks, often wanting to treat myself to a snack somewhere (especially if I’m already out of the house). Usually it’s something small and inexpensive, but that is still a lot of extra to-go packaging per week.
It is extremely difficult to completely avoid obtaining single-use plastic in a week. Modern American society is set up for convenience and profit. When citizens do not express the Explain how this shows how difficult it is in our modern society and how important it is for consumers to do their part/show the government that we want a better way.
After completing this challenge, I offer this advice to myself and readers:
Spend a week noticing every time you use single-use plastic. When is it unavoidable versus when is it overkill?
You can hold two truths at once: We are to an extent set up to fail, but that does not excuse a complete abandonment of trying. Giving up single-use plastic entirely is challenging to the point of unlikelihood, but that is why we should care more, not less.
Let the frustration of feeling unable to avoid plastic fuel change in the right direction. All of the plastic that has ever been made still exists today. That being said, I want to limit its additional production when possible.
Trust that your efforts make a real difference. Change is in our hands!
Photo Credits: Author unless otherwise credited below image.
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