Purging Plastic: Results
My plastic experiment has finally come to an end. For those who haven’t read earlier Purging Plastic posts, here’s a quick recap. I spent ten days (was originally going to be two weeks, until plastic debris started consuming my kitchen) going about my regular routine and saving any plastic I went through, hoping to get a better idea of how much plastic I used and where I could make improvements. After the ten days was up, I spent another ten days making a conscious effort to, without inconveniencing myself too much, curb my plastic use, still saving all plastic I went through. At the end of the twenty days, I compared the results of the two ten-day periods.
The changes I made were easy, and they included:
- If I had to purchase food or drink in a plastic container, I always opted for the larger version, if available
- For example, I brought two-liter bottles of Diet Coke to work, rather than purchasing a new 20 fl. oz. bottle every day - I bought a reusable coffee mug to use for my daily coffee (this got me a 10 cent discount, which was a pleasant surprise)
- When grocery shopping, I tried, within reason, to buy foods with minimal plastic packaging
- I ordered less take-out food and made an effort to prepare my own more often, using grocery store ingredients
And that’s about it. Here are the results, in picture form:
The plastic I used during the first ten days of the experiment, during which I went about my standard routine.
The plastic I used during the second ten days of the experiment, during which I made a few small, easy changes to curb my plastic use.
In examining these results, I had a few thoughts. One, considering how much plastic food container waste I built up over the course of the first ten days, I’m shocked that I’m not morbidly obese. I ate all that stuff? Two, I drink way too much Diet Coke. Three, most importantly, by making some very easy behavioral changes, I was able to significantly reduce my plastic use and, even though ten days isn’t a very long time, my “plastic savvy” mindset is already relatively second-nature to me. As an added benefit, I’ve found that the changes I’ve made have forced me to adopt slightly healthier eating habits, because I eat more fruits and vegetables and less pre-packaged, processed snacks.
Obviously, no matter the routine, one should recycle as much as possible. Unfortunately, though, not all plastic can be recycled, so the best solution is to simply avoid using plastic altogether. Try your own “plastic purge” experiment and see what happens.
