In honor of Plastic Free July, I decided to attempt to go plastic-free for a day. What this looked like for me was attempting to reduce or eliminate single-use plastics, as well as plastics that I would throw away eventually once I was done with a product. I’m a teenager, so my parents buy all of our groceries. Because of this, I chose a day where I was going out to eat for 2 meals (something I rarely ever do), so that I could make conscious decisions about my consumption rather than basing my meals off products my parents had already bought.

Morning Routine Challenges- Hygiene & Breakfast

Right off the bat, my morning routine proved to be somewhat problematic in attempting to be plastic-free; the culprit being my contacts. I wear daily contacts which means I have to open new plastic packages everyday in order to be able to see. I do have a pair of glasses, but the prescription isn’t up-to-date enough for me to be able to safely drive with, so I had to opt for my contacts. While this was unavoidable, it made me think about the possibility of switching to monthly contacts as opposed to dailies next time I get a new prescription. Another offender of my morning routine is my toothbrush. I have a new pack of bamboo toothbrushes waiting to be used, but I don’t want to open them until my plastic toothbrush can’t be used anymore. This plastic toothbrush came from my dentist, so it wasn’t a purchase on my part, but in the future I can decline the “goodie bag” they give me at the dentist to avoid the plastic toothbrush. As for toothpaste, I use Bite toothpaste tablets that come in a glass jar, so no plastic there.

For breakfast, I decided to have oatmeal. The oatmeal itself comes from a cardboard container. I usually use oat milk in my oatmeal, but I’m pretty sure the carton has a layer of plastic so I opted for water instead. For fruit in my oatmeal, I added peaches (from the farmers market, in a cardboard carton), and bananas. I skipped blackberries that were in a plastic container, and I skipped dried banana chips that were in a plastic bag.

Afternoon Opportunities- Cups & Straws

I then went to meet my friend for a hike. Before our hike we stopped at Starbucks, and I brought my reusable metal Starbucks cup so that I didn’t use any plastic. After our hike, my family and I went out to lunch at First Watch, a restaurant in Apex. We don’t often eat out, but both of my siblings were leaving for sleepaway camps that day so we wanted to have lunch out together before they left. Normally when eating out I choose not to take a straw, but something unique about First Watch is that their straws are from the company Phade, and are “marine biodegradable”, as well as “home + industrial compostable”. The thing that stands out to me about the

second point specifically is that many plastic alternatives that claim to be compostable are only able to compost in industrial facilities, meaning if you tried to compost them in your backyard they would likely take a really long time to fully break down. This straw, however, claims that it will compost at home. I took one home and put it in our compost bin to see how fast it does compost.

Dinner- Supply Chain Issues for Compostables

The time between lunch and dinner I spent reading, cleaning my room, and working on college applications, so there wasn’t any plastic use there. For dinner, I went to Mezeh, another Apex restaurant, to celebrate getting hired at a new job. I chose to go to Mezeh because they have compostable bowls. Unfortunately, due to “supply-chain issues”, as a sign in the restaurant read, they were serving food in plastic bowls instead. At first I was disappointed, but then realized that these plastic bowls were good quality, and that I could add it to our Tupperware collection to be used again.

Personal Hygiene- The Main Source of Plastic for Youth

A main takeaway from paying attention to my plastic-use is that my hygiene products are by far the largest source of my plastic intake. For my shower that night, both my shampoo and conditioner are in plastic bottles. I’ve tried different shampoo and conditioner bars, and not been super happy with the results from any. However, I saw a tip online somewhere that recommended using conditioner bars to shave your legs in place of shaving cream, which is something that I started doing and have been really happy with. My body wash is a bar that I got from the seller Eusibathtime on Etsy that I really like, and my pouf is from Ecotools and made of recycled netting. 

I make an effort to be conscious about what products I buy, but I’ve never paid such close attention to how much plastic I use in a day. There wasn’t anything I was super surprised by, but now I have some changes I can make: switch to monthly contacts and look for more plastic-free hygiene product options. I think if I was an adult and bought my own groceries, I would have a much more difficult time going plastic-free due to how many products are packaged in some form of plastic. I do think it would be a good practice to pay attention next time I’m in a grocery store, and see what products have plastic-free packaging.