Life without plastic

I think it would be hard for anyone to live without plastics for a day, let alone a whole week.

plastic is unfortunately part of our life..cannot life without it

Taking on that eco challenge with a house full of kids just isn't a good idea...
It might be possible without all the things kids need though.

This is a very interesting subject that is close to my heart. I hate the amount of plastic we consume, it's ridiculous. I would love to be able to live a life without plastic...

I started buy buying the new cloth bags from the store and at first it was hard to remember the bagsto bring them, but now when I empty them after shopping they go right back in the car. We now never use the plastic bags anymore. Now we are going to start working on something else to start the new year, so yes you need to start with one thing at a time in the house so you don't get flustered with it and quit. We all must do our part to make the change it's for grandchildren and great grandchildren! Its fun to do it as a family, Victoria Marie

Even right now, I'm typing on a plastic keyboard. If I chose to not buy anything new with plastic, I think I could do it. We should all be more careful about what we buy anyway, and definitely recycle more.

We can too live without plastic... speaking in a survival sense, of course. Humankind did it for centuries. In a modern economy and technological lifestyle, plastic is currently the means of production for many things we rely on. That's not to say we need it in order to live, by any means.

Remebering Al Meyerhoff. A Bill Moyers essay.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01022009/watch4.html

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01022009/profile4.html

BILL MOYERS: Chemicals have more rights than people.

AL MEYERHOFF: Far more rights than people.

BILL MOYERS: Case in point: after it was determined that a class of chemicals known as phthalates, used in common products from shower curtains to children's toys, caused cancer in animals, the Environmental Protection Agency took no action to either ban or limit its use, even after Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act:

AL MEYERHOFF: We refer to it as the Toxic Substances Conversation Act.

BILL MOYERS: Because?

AL MEYERHOFF: They built in obstacle after obstacle and process after process where it is virtually impossible to get a known high-risk chemical off the market. There have been very few chemicals that have been actually banned because of their health risks. That's because chemicals get far more due process than people do.

Humor is the politeness of despair said the optimist ;)

OUR ALIEN MASTER'S RADICAL LESBIAN SEX CONSPIRACY
http://current.com/items/89622684/our_alien_master_s_radical_lesbian_sex_conspir...

living without plastic would be very hard in today's society. Can not make transportation without some sort of plastic. However reducing plastics on common items like bags and containers that we could survive. Plastic was not around centuries ago, so it can be done, however will we be efficient?

Hemp or other bio-plastics can biodegrade while providing the necessary antiseptic qualities we need them for... We are addicted to plastics that permanently pollute and that is the problem... new ways of thinking about the solutions and not the problems will bring forth a new generation of bio-plastics which won't stick around not decomposing for thousands upon thousands of years.

Boycotting modern plastics even in the short-term does nothing except make us feel good; we have to change the source of the problem before we can even contemplate solutions to our own hubris

ooh, i'd love to go plastic free.

we started with not buying bottled beverages, and taking cloth bags to the grocery store.

the lady at Giant gets frustrated when we ask for no plastic bags, but things are changing! :)

A couple of things are missing here, unless she devised some miraculous way of brushing hers and her family's teeth without a standard toothbrush, cleaning with something that does not have bristles (generally made of plastic), has 100% cotton towels and washcloths, etc etc etc.
Plastic is an integral part of modern living - sure we went without it for centuries, but we also had an average 40 year life span, lost our teeth by 30, and played roulette with our food as we tried to eat it before it spoiled. Plastics have allowed us to save our foods, our teeth, our lands (growing cotton for every item of clothing could be environmentally damaging) and our health. Granted we throw WAY too much of it away, but living plastic-free is a pipe dream for anyone in a first world nation. Its a sad truth, but nevertheless a truth.
Besides, this woman is out of her skull if she believes that she _must_ go to the most expensive trendy organic shop to get all these things that she really didn't need. Soap is soap - get a bar of soap at the local grocery, or try a local Asian market. I have sandalwood bars of soap that cost $.50 each, and they work just fine. Rubber binkies are available at Babies R Us for a couple bucks. Stainless steel bottles? Really? Come on, paying $25 for a bottle to drink from is just dumb. Its not impossible to go to a local market and avoid plastic. It is, however, shameful for someone who is trying to support a plastic-free agenda to report that its going to cost an arm and a leg to go without plastic, when the reality is they're just too yuppie to shop at a store that overcharges people for wanting to go green. Believe it or not, you local grocery store has plastic-free options for a number of essentials...

This is definately the right idea, one thing at a time, less dangerous than geoengineering our way out of catastrophe.

One can make 100% biodegradable plastic from hemp - it is used in bodywork for Porsche cars and is more resistant than steel. It can replace all our plastic goods.

This is wrong.

Plastic saves *way* more lives than it may or may not take. Should we take away plastic from the field of medicine? Stop advancing computer technology b/c circuit boards are made of plastic? Stop using plastic bike helmets and car seats?

The problem is more complex than "plastic is bad." Consider:

-- a glass bottle weighs roughly 10x more than plastic, so every time a person chooses glass over plastic they increase the amount of diesel fuel used by the trucks that transport them to stores. Those pollutants increase everyone else's cancer risk, not to mention contribute to global warming and global conflict.

-- Plastic is often used to replace wood. How many trees would be left standing after replacing all the tables, chairs, and kitchen counters? And b/c trees absorb solar radiation, fewer trees means more skin cancers for everyone.

-- The most energy efficient materials available to insulate buildings are made of plastic. Better insulation, obviously, reduces energy consumption.

Plastic saves lives -- lots and lots of them. It is lightweight, strong, and hygienic. Plastic is not the problem. Life expectancies in this country have risen consistently for 50 years and continue to do so.

The problem is two-fold: our belief that we are entitled to things we cannot afford requires making things at impossibly low costs; (same reason as above) we don't hold companies accountable when they sacrifice common decency to keep costs low. Having big screen TV's and designer clothes is more important than a higher cancer risk and/or facilitating slave labor -- especially if those risks are largely absorbed by poor countries, far, far away.

Keep using plastic, we'll *all* live longer. Put your energy instead into democratic action, i.e. pressure corporations and politicians into making safer plastics. This promotes innovation.

well they can make plastic out of materials like corn and soybeans that degrade in a friendlier manner.

@LabelMeNot,

you know, i agree with you. at some point there seems to be a need to balance the positives and the negatives. because there is always going to a 'bright-side' of things, no matter how tyrannic something is. but also at some point you are going to need to make the decision and decide, do the negatives outweigh the positives? can we really go on ruining out oceans and mother nature? or can we really go on with computer plastic parts in computer chips? don't get me wrong, i am totally agreeing you. i agree with the fact that plastic does 'save lives' as you put it. but it does also destroy many other things.

at the end of the day, it comes to the individual and whether they decide to use plastic in a more positive-friendly use rather than the ideal of using a shopping bag and throwing it off into the street because it's no more useful than it was for carrying your groceries.

I think we need to both eliminate plastic and quit using credit cards it would make the world a better place

In the way we all live now, it would be very hard to avoid plastics, as alot of goods we find neccesary to doing everyday things are made out of plastic. but we do not need to stop making plastics just learn to use the plastic we have as much as possible, just be sustainable.

Just because of this article, I'm starting today.

baby steps people, baby steps. don't go to the most expensive organic market you can find - try you local goodwill or salvation army for glass baking dishes, glass storage containers, ceramic/wooden bowls or other utensils. Aluminum foil instead of plastic wrap. Buy real kids toys that require imagination -- you can get those at thrift stores too. It's not that hard, and you don't have to do everything at once. But if you like to complain about everyone getting cancer, then you DO have to start wising up and buying smart.

everything out of metal hurray!

Plastic is a way of life for just about everyone. There are small things we can do, and we should when we can.
Use cloth shopping bags, quit buying drinking water in plastic bottles.
(Buying water in plastic bottles is just about the biggest fraud ever committed on the American people.) Even when you include the bailout of banks, auto companies, etc.
Each one of us, doing the small things, will cut back on the waste we put into our oceans and landfills.
BTW, that garbage patch is about as large as the US.