Labor Day weekend is in full-effect in the United States, which means hordes of people will be making their way to their favorite park or beach for their annual holiday picnic.
In honor of our continuing and expanded 7 Days without Plastic project, I thought it would be interesting to figure out a way to have a plastic-free picnic or barbecue. Now, I'm not saying that this is the easiest of tasks -- but let's see if it can be done.
Ryanne Hodson from ryanishungry.com supplied me with some basic important tips to keep in mind during my plastic-free week. I wanted to share her pointers with all of you.
The main point, and one that I found to be especially true is that my main plastic in-take came from food that was packaged in plastic containers. Avoiding these were difficult but surprisingly doable, especially if you're buying fresh food, which is ultimately better for your body.
So, my seven day adventure officially ended yesterday... and I'm only now catching up on the entire experience. I say "officially" because I'm actually going to continue this. I think seven days is a great start, but in order to get a real assessment of the scope of the project it has to last a bit longer so that you can see how you'll react when you come across certain situations that you may not encounter in those first seven days.
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There are some people who are doing this project along with me. Paco is one of them. He even made an entire blog documenting his experience.
day one recap: seven days w/o plastic from Zadi Diaz on Vimeo.
So yesterday went fairly well, didn't take in much new plastic into my life except for the two unsuspecting condiment containers that came with my lunch. I have to remember to make sure to ask for no straws, etc. Those kinds of things just pop up without warning. Made me aware that there are many small plastic items that add up in the end.
The most embarrassing moment? Buying a dress and having to ask the attendant if they had paper bags -- otherwise I wouldn't be able to buy the dress. I of course said it was for a project... what can I say? I was afraid she would think I was completely nuts. Surprisingly, she completely dug what I was doing. Whew.
And so it begins -- my foray into the land of the plastic-free. I have to admit that I really have no idea what to expect other than to expect to encounter plastic everywhere. For instance just this morning I thought, what happens if I cut myself? I can't use a band-aid? That's insane! What am I thinking?
But that's really not the point of this project. There is good plastic -- like bike helmets and band-aids, and there's bad plastic, the disposable kind -- like cups, utensils, and containers.
Can I go a week without using any new plastic?
Our interview with Sustainable Dave made us start thinking about how much plastic we use and throw away each day. We wanted to know exactly how hard it would be to change our habits. So starting Thursday, August 14th, I'm attempting to go seven full days without using any new plastic at all.
