The Return

Today when I got out of my car, I found a small plastic bag and the remnants of a plastic bottle cap in my flower bed. Normally I would take these items up to the porch and drop them in my trash can. Today, I took them inside and placed them in a plastic bag that is hanging with my brooms just inside the door to my basement. I decided last year that this year–2024–I would not dispose of any plastic but instead would keep track of it.

Just like everyone, I am surrounded by plastic all the time. This keyboard that I am using, the casing and much of the body of my computer, every pen I use to write down lists, the lenses of my glasses. It is simply true that we depend on plastic for many positive things in our lives.

But at the same time, we are burying our civilization in plastic that we dispose almost without thought every day. So this is where definitions come into play. A big culprit in the plastic pollution problem is single use plastic. That bag you put your apples in at the store. The wrapping for the chicken, or ground beef, or tofu that you buy. Nearly every item that we purchase contains plastic packaging that is not reusable.

There are a lot of political and philosophical ways to discuss the plastics issue, but as one person who has some control over how and what I purchase and consume, I’ve decided to see just how little single use plastic I can come into contact with this year. I’ve got a drawer full of plastic bags that I have saved over the past few months, and I will use them again and again and again. 

My apples, and loose carrots and head lettuce all go into my mesh bags, and are carried home from the store in my ample supply of reusable grocery bags, and there they are transferred to my re-used plastic bags. My meat will come from the butcher section, wrapped in paper. I will lobby my local Whole Foods to provide chicken in their butcher counter as they did in Colorado, or maybe find a local grower who will sell me a chicken in butcher paper.

When my shampoo and conditioner run out, I will refill the bottles at our local refill store, where I also can buy dish detergent and lotion. I use powder in my washing machine that I purchase in a cardboard box. I am trying.

I know I will be discouraged by the plastic I am not able to avoid, as it piles up in bags in my basement. I have seen that some people reduce their plastic waste to small particles that they compress into larger plastic containers that can then be used as insulation. Third world entrepreneurs melt it down and form furniture and bricks. 

What if every city, every place had to take ownership of its plastic, and not be able to send it to a barge that dumps it in the ocean or to a giant landfill where it can last forever or break down into microplastic and make its way to our water supply?

These are the things I wish for. What I can do, just me, is what I am doing. I know there are others out there like me who are trying their best. Makes me think of a song written by Neal McCoy. It’s time to Small Up and Simple Down.