This year for Lent, our family gave up the consumption of "new plastic." Basically, that meant that we allowed ourselves to consume the current products in our refrigerator and cupboards that were wrapped in plastic but not the purchase of any new items that came pre-packaged in plastic.
This was inspired partly by the revelation that plastic is a relatively new invention and yet such an omnipresent fixture in our current society. As the Tru-Form Plastics points out, "for the majority of human existence, our ancestors relied on natural materials like stone, wood, metals, leather, and clay as the building blocks of everything." Now, however, we can't even get our fresh produce without attributing to plastic consumption. Such an experiment then seemed like a good test in resilience of our species-- to see if it's even possible in today's day and age to live a plastic-free lifestyle as our ancestors did. And if so, at what cost.
The second motivation was the increasing evidence of the deterioration of our beautiful planet due to plastic waste gathering in our oceans and landfills. I began to run across article after article showing devastating images of pristine beaches now littered with plastic bags, disposable straws, and other now unrecognizable plastic packagings. I found articles showing marine birds starving from the consumption of plastic fragments. I even learned that the Arctic, thousands and thousands of miles away, was being polluted by our affinity for plastic convenience. After so many sobering articles and reports, we wanted to see if we, in our single family lifestyle, could slow the curb towards pollution.
And we learned so much from our six weeks of (*almost*) plastic free living. We learned new places to shop so we could buy rice in bulk instead of in pre-packaged bags. We began to plan ahead by bringing extra old plastic bags to reuse as we gathered our produce at the market. And we learned how to make certain grocery staples ourselves at home so as not to have to buy them in their pre-packaged containers.
And we certainly also learned the limits on our attempts: once totally forgetting that Thai take-out comes in ALL plastic containers until we went to pick up our order. Or remembering that Starbucks iced drinks come in plastic cups after forgetting to bring along our own reusable mug. And then sometimes just deciding I was tired and hungry and it felt like too much dang work, anyway. Such is the journey to developing new habits and new lifestyles. Such is the road towards joint responsible living and the caring for our beautiful and vulnerable earth.
As a reflection of our time, I collected the plastic we consumed during those weeks and sewed a coat with clear plastic material. I placed the consumed plastic in the coat and sported the wear for a visual reminder that what I use and what I consume is "on me and on me alone."