wyhr.orgWendy’s World

Day 5 was supposed to be my conclusion but I felt it was getting a bit lengthy hence this post.

So after a week of my non-plastic journey I have to admit that I don’t necessarily have one final conclusion (I suppose the scientist in me desires that) but I can say I’ve learned a few things:

• I learned that the rise in our use of plastic coincided with World War’s I and II¹.
• I was also reminded that plastic is a by-product of petroleum and that without petroleum, we wouldn’t need to find a use for this by-product.
• I learned that plastic fuels our convenience and throwaway culture.
• I agree with Katherine Sharpe and her hierarchy of plastic. There are items that have single uses and are extremely wasteful. Then there are items like credit cards, computers and microwaves that seem like a decent use of plastic.
• I learned there are areas of my life where I can make non-plastic choices.
• I was reminded of the various types of plastic.
• I asked a lot of questions.

I suppose this whole experiment was about the journey – what I learned and how it will affect my future choices.

¹Fellow blogger’s plastic history entry and American’ Chemistry’s History of Plastic