Starting My Plastic-Free Journey

I started my plastic-free journey a little over two years ago. I had stumbled upon the Plastic-Free July Challenge and decided to give it a try. The goal of the challenge was to refuse all single-use plastics during the month of July.

At the time I had been a volunteer with the Surfrider Foundation for over eight years and one of my first programs was geared towards reducing single-use plastics, Rise Above Plastics. So, for eight years I had been carrying around my reusable water bottle, bringing my reusable shopping bags to the store, and even using a ceramic mug at work–I thought this challenge would be cake.

For the first few days it was easy. But it wasn’t until I sat down at Taco Bell (guilty pleasure) and reached for a hot sauce packet that it hit me. I thought to myself “Crap! This is plastic!” And it got me thinking…how much single-use plastic had I been blindly using for the last eight years?

Once I snapped out of it, I put the hot sauce back, ate the saddest taco of my life, and left determined to crack down on the plastic in my life.

For the rest of the month I took stock of all the disposable plastic (both single-use and multi) that I encountered and it was an eye-opening experience. So many of the items we get from the grocery store are packaged in plastic. Nearly every to-go food item–packaged in plastic.

Towards the end of the month, I had been successful in refusing single-use plastics until I sat down at a local restaurant. Before I could even make eye contact with our waitress, someone had come by and put a cup of water in front of me with a plastic straw.

Being a competitive person, I was beyond annoyed. Not at the awesome customer service person doing his job, but at how hard it is to avoid single-use plastics and how throwing away resources in the form of disposables is not even given a second thought because it is so ingrained in our society.

I ended up putting the straw in my bag and using it later but after that month, I was a changed person. Since then I’ve been systematically removing all the disposable plastics in my life and finding better alternatives.

While there are several things I haven’t found replacements for, like Oreos (I miss you so), in the end I find that I’m better off not eating things that come in plastic.

In doing my part to reduce my use of plastic I’ve found a few unintended benefits 1) I eat healthier 2) my routines are simpler 3) the simplicity is beautiful. So, I hope in reading my blog you’ll find some useful tips in freeing your life from disposable plastics and in turn make your life a little more healthy, simple, and beautiful.

Looking for tips to reduce your usage of plastic? Start here.