Ready, set and…go?!
I was challenged to NOT USE SINGLE-PLASTIC for 14 days, by my University, more specifically by the innovation studio subject of the master course of Product Service System Design.
I’m writing with the hope that the motivations towards decreasing plastic consumption are more than well-clarified and even understood as the urgent need it is. Therefore, I’ll not extend myself into painting an already clear picture of this matter but I’ll speak from the place I stand: a privileged middle-class foreign design student, from Brazil.
I’m also 33 years old and I now live in Milan, with my wife and 3 pets (2 chihuahuas and 1 cat).
I feel that I already analyze and invest in practices that reduce my waste volume, my water consumption, and improve recycling perspectives…but I’ve never reported on that or committed publicly to it; and as I started this report, I realized that this way of acting became a magnifying glass into how coherent and not-quite-there my lifestyle was to my environmental crisis perspectives.
My optimistic first-impression of my practices being close to my philosophy is 30%.
Examples?
I decided to list the absolutely indispensable items that I purchase frequently and to make it more entertaining and realistic my judgments on why or how indispensable they are to me:
1. Batman’s food (my cat) comes into a number 7 plastic packaging and I researched only now that this is the worst plastic category for recycling (check yourself: https://learn.eartheasy.com/articles/plastics-by-the-numbers/). Am I changing it? NO. Why? It was recommended by the veterinarian as the brand that will not give him kidney problems because it’s grain-free and protein-rich, and to be raw-honest my preventive attitude for him became more dramatic after losing his “sister” Lasagna (the other cat we had);
2. The 12 bottles of mineral water I consume every week do not come into 20L refillable bottles that I was used to purchasing in São Paulo, my former city, and they are the worst evidence for me of plastic waste. The bottles themselves + the labels + the shrinking around them are enough to make me go down with the plastic container 3 times a week sometimes. My excuses that just by writing are making me re-think on solutions: a friend of mine got a urinary infection that according to her was due to the number of minerals that cannot be filtered in Italian water and my students budget and language do not make it easy to hire someone to check and install a filter in my rented house. Also, I must share the guilt of this one with my wife that did not accept the activated carbon filters.
3. I smoke…that itself is not environmental friendly at all. I tried to roll them to make it better but I got sick (no voice and fever-style) every time I tried. Eventually gave up and came back to the paper packages that are also surrounded by plastic…why?! Well, it’s an addiction, I might stop, but honestly, not because of plastic.
I believe those 3 are enough to prove my point: 30% is the maximum of coherence I can give myself regarding what I think an individual that knows what is happening to the world should be doing.
I hope to work on those but, meanwhile, as the introduction to this journey, I’ll finish with a small redeemed list of what I do accordingly:
- I shop with reusable bags, mostly fabric but some are durable plastic;
- I use the menstrual silicone cups;
- I re-use ice-cream packages and therefore do not buy Tupperware;
- I use a stainless-steel water bottle;
- I purchase Batman’s sand in the paper package (also paying more for that…);
- I stopped using plastic film to store food in the fridge (but this made me use more water to wash more dishes and I’m not sure it’s a good solution);
- I’m trying to reuse the trash bags.
Besides my embarrassing performance, I’ll leave you all with a hope that, as I’ve never reported on these actions or committed to them publicly, this approach might have different results and I’m opened and anxious about it.
This text was a result of my first 3 days challenge, let’s continue soon.
