Category Archives: Blog 1

Plastic Reality

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Plastic surrounds us everywhere. We all use plastic in our daily lives whether we know it or not. Starting my plastic journal I felt fairly confident that the number of plastic items I used would be moderately average. I try my best to use sustainable items like a hydro flask instead of plastic water bottles, or cloth bags instead of plastic ones. However, once I started my day I knew the number would be much higher than I anticipated. Many of my everyday items I used were plastic and I didn’t even know it.

As the day went on the number of plastic items I came in contact with grew tremendously. Many of the items I used were all disposable like masks, silverware, cups and plates. On top of that, I only listed things once. I didn’t repeat them. I used many disposable plastic items multiple times throughout the day and they weren’t even included in my total number. In total I touched about 30 plastic items, but if I counted everything that repeated the number would have been much higher.

I think that this number is a fair representation of how much plastic I touch in a day – except for the fact that I didn’t repeat items. Everyday is different but most of the items I ended up using, I use on a daily basis. This journal was a complete eye opener for me. As I said before I thought my number would be on the lower side, but in turn it was much higher than I thought. So many of the items I used everyday are made of plastic and I never even realized.

When it comes to recycling I try my best to recycle whenever I can. However, living in the dorms makes that much more difficult. I have yet to find a recycling bin on the floor of my dorm, which is a problem. At home I make a conscious effort to recycle but it’s much harder here. I definitely agree with Beth Terry’s quote “Guilt is not encouraged.” but after completing this journal it’s hard not to feel guilty about all of the plastic I encounter. This is because I know most of it can be replaced with something more sustainable. 

 

A plastic planet

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As a college student, I find that plastic is one of my most used items of the day. From my toothbrush to the packaging of my textbook, I am surrounded by plastic. Listing every item of plastic I touched in a day turned out to be more than a process than I thought. I found myself listing something almost every time I moved. It’s easy as a college student to curate an extensive amount of plastic because it’s just too easy. Trips to the dining hall will add just five more items to the list. Thinks that I didn’t normally think about, my morning routine added about 8 items. I get it, it’s convenient but is it really all necessary?

I think my one day of noting my plastic use doesn’t accurately portray my whole plastic footprint. I think the transition to college completely changed my plastic use. While at home – of course, I had the same morning and night routine, using plastic shampoo bottles and make-up. I was lucky enough to be able to be using silver silverware, while at college, the plastic silverware I use at least 3 times a day normally gets thrown out because I’m too lazy to clean and reuse it.  I never could have imagined touching 35 items of plastic in a day, many of which I touched multiple times a day. I was filled with guilt each time I wrote down a new plastic item on my list however I thought back to what Beth Terry thought about guilt. That if I am guilty then it means I genuinely feel bad for my plastic consumption, which I do.

assorted clothes hanging on rack

I think that making a change in my plastic footprint honestly would not be impossible. Finding reusable silverware and using that in the dining hall, as well as my own water bottle would take off a lot of items on my list. Even starting by not buying plastic water bottles because I found an overwhelming amount of plastic bottles in my dorm room between me and my 3 other roommates. This is change that would not only make me feel better but will make our planet feel better.

The world of plastic.

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Growing up I always used plastic but never kept track of how much I used nor did I know how bad plastic can really be.  For 24 hours, I have kept track of what I have touched that are made out of plastic materials. Even the disposable items I have used. Some of these items include:

  • plastic water bottles
  • Ziploc bags
  • disposable coffee cups (k cups)
  •  body wash(container)
  • garbage bags 
  • mechanical pencils
  •  drink cans
  •  dish cleanser
  • toothpaste
  • toothbrush
  • hair comb
  • mouse(computer) 
  • keypad(computer)
  • gel pens
  •  calculator 
  • plastic plant
  • eyeliner packaging
  •  plastic bowls
  • plastic utensils
  • plastic cups
  • some of my clothes
  •  many food wrappers

(Disposable items I collected from one day in the picture)

Because I have had a pretty repetitive day since I have come up with a routine for myself,  I use the same amount of plastic from day today. This includes most of the disposable plastic I have listed. I learned that disposable plastic I use can vary from time to time because I don’t go out every day but when I do I notice I use a lot of plastic. I also noticed that I dispose of a lot more plastic than I do with plastic that isn’t usually disposable. I also learned that many of the things I touched, I didn’t realize that they were made out of some type of plastic. It definitely shows that more and more things are made with plastic and most people don’t realize it. Even me.

Compared to my total plastic footprint using disposable plastic can differ. With disposable plastic, I am only using it once and then getting rid of it. With usual plastic items, especially the ones I have never realized were plastic, I continue to use them over and over in everyday use. Most people would usually get rid of disposable plastic and not reuse them. Unfortunately, I have done that many times. 

While living through this experience,  I’ve also noticed that when moving around on the outside of my dorm I touched more plastic items than I did on the inside of my dorm. I feel like it also depends on the day. The first day I kept track of the plastic, I didn’t touch that much because I was in my dorm all day, but when I walked around outside and even went to my classes I touched a lot more plastic. Obviously, I touch and use a lot of plastic as most people do, but I feel like depending on the day and what I do each day, also has an effect on how much plastic I use or touch. 

I definitely want to try and reduce the amount of plastic intake I use. I also want to know more about where I can put the plastic after I use it. I have noticed that around campus there are a lot of trash cans that are labeled, trash, compost, and recycling. I have been using that to my advantage and making an effort to take care of the plastic that I use. I have also learned that there are many ways that can help decrease your plastic footprint. You can carry your own reusable cloth shopping bags, compost food waste to reduce your use of plastic garbage bags, recycle, look for clothing made from natural fibers and shoes that don’t contain plastic, and educate other people to maybe try and do the same. (Priesnitz) .

 

When reading Beth Terry’s book as well she says in her book that “Guilt is not encouraged.” I definitely agree with her because having too much guilt in your life, especially with using plastic, can have a bad effect on your life. Instead, try doing things from here on out to try and change things for the better. 

 

Citations: 

Priesnitz, Wendy. “Twenty-five ways to reduce your plastic footprint.” Natural Life, Jan.-Feb. 2013, pp. 22+. Gale In Context: Science, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A368471916/SCIC?u=cofc_main&sid=bookmark-SCIC&xid=f74d39b0. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

 

Diving into Plastic

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As an amateur fossil collector and diving hobbyist, I have always enjoyed the marshlands and streams that cover coastal South Carolina. Whether I’m fishing, kayaking, or diving there is no other place I would rather be than a tidal creek/river in South Carolina. Although I have been diving and fishing in the marsh for a long time, I never considered how large my plastic foot print could be. For years, collecting crab floats and other interesting garbage that washed up onto Pickney Island was my favorite past time. After major storms, huge patches of sticks (dead spartina grass) and garbage would collect in inlets. At low tide I would search the shoreline of the islands for crab floats, life jackets, fishing supplies, boats, dock pieces, and anything else that was interesting. Looking back on it, nearly all of the stuff I kept was made of plastic, and so much of what I didn’t keep was also plastic. The crab floats are made of some sort of polystyrene as they are a white hard foam. The life jackets were most likely nylon and a different type of plastic foam. My kayak is a hard semi transparent plastic. The garbage, mostly plastic water bottles, containers, and foam could cover shorelines at times. I have seen first hand the plastic foot print of cities like Hilton Head, so its about time I start examining my own.

The Plastic I dispose of.

Most of the disposable plastic items I use when diving are plastic water bottles and zip lock bags. They are handy for keeping small fossils safe and keep our food and water clean. Everything on the dive boat eventually turns brown due to the tannic acid in blackwater rivers. Its handy to just throw away food and water containers instead of having to clean them constantly, especially since I usually get back home at 10pm. I also use drum liners to collect gravel to sort later. These are a basically massive plastic (2 feet wide, four feet long) bags and are super tough. I usually throw them away after I use them since they get punctured by sharp gravel pieces. I use about 13-14 plastic water bottles, 5 zip locks bags, and 10 drum liners every diving trip.

 

 

 

 

 

I think this day is representative of the amount of disposable plastic I use. The only other disposable plastics I use often I are food rappers and plastic containers such as peanut butter jars and milk jugs. I don’t enjoy eating at restaurants and like to cook my own stuff. I don’t interact with most of the disposable plastic that has ingratiated itself into our consumer economy. I don’t bother recycling since most of it ends up in a landfill anyway, my motive for not using disposable plastic is to avoid taking the trash out.

The plastic I use.

Although I use quite a bit of disposable plastic, I think its important to examine the massive amount of other plastic items I used that day that were not thrown away. Every piece of my dive gear had some sort of plastic in it. Every single one. Whether it be the neoprene wet suit, gloves, and boots. The dive knife, regulator, BCD, helmet, light, fins, dive computer, etc.. When I scrape against rocks or dig into the phosphate nodules for fossils, small plastic particles are being released into the water. The plastic we use can have a foot print even if it has not been disposed of yet.

The Harsh Reality

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Many people, including myself, like to think that small gestures like using reusable water bottles and straws are making some sort of significant impact on the well-being of the environment. Although those are great adjustments to make in your everyday life, is it really enough? 

I totaled up all of the plastic items that I touched in one day and the results were incredibly eye opening. A good bit of the items on the list are deemed “single use” and go straight to the landfill soon after. The worst part is, I’m sure there are several items that I forgot to list because we are so careless and it’s become so normalized. Stepping back and listing all of the plastic I’d touched really put into perspective how much damage one person can do in a singular day. 

Several of the items I listed that can easily be replaced include:

  • Ziploc bags
  • Plastic silverware
  • Straws
  • Plastic shopping bags
  • Plastic water bottles
  • Plastic straws

Every single one of these items are things that play into my life almost everyday and over time it seriously adds up. They all have reusable substitutes that will be more environmentally friendly, but will also save lots of money in the long run.

The great thing about going to a school like the College of Charleston is that the school offers several ways for students to recycle and do their part in the community. That leaves it up to the students to take advantage of those resources and to make those environmentally conscious decisions for themselves. A big problem that I see is the student’s lack of knowledge on where to put what materials when recycling. When students get confused they tend to just throw everything away instead of sorting through it or trying to figure it out. I think having labels on the compost/recycling bins that clearly state which materials go where would help students significantly.


Beth Terry said “Guilt is not encouraged” which is a really powerful statement when discussing a topic like plastic consumption. To me this means that no one should feel guilty in areas where they want to make change. In today’s world, the use of plastic is pretty inevitable so you shouldn’t feel bad about things you can’t control. That being said, if you want to make a difference then do it in a way that works for you and your lifestyle. These changes can look different for everyone, so it’s all about your intentions and how much change you’re expecting to see in your life. 

Like I previously stated, it’s pretty sad to say that the use of plastic in today’s world is inevitable, but at this point it’s the reality of this day and age. That’s why it is so incredibly important for us to make as many changes to the way we live our plastic-filled lives as we’re able. We can’t stop the effects of plastic on the environment, but we can do everything in our power to slow it down.

 

Plastic All Around

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When I woke up today and started collecting my plastics, I anticipated the numbers to be very similar to the first experience I had to tracking my plastics throughout the day. The first time I tracked the plastic objects I used throughout the day, I had about 40 different plastic objects in total. The bright side from that was that only about 5 of the plastic objects were single use. The results of tracking my plastics today was much different though. I payed much closer attention to what I used that is plastic based, but only ended up with roughly 25 objects, much less than I thought I would get by being more aware of what I’m using. The main cause for this is the fact that I did not play hockey today. Almost all hockey gear is partially made of plastic, so not having to come into contact with my gear today saved me about 7 objects. Other than this, the majority of my day was pretty similar to what a normal day looks like for me, which is why it was surprising to still get a lower number.

Many of the objects I used today were also reusable. The only non-reusable things I used were food wrappers. The fact that food wrappers are widely used though can provide some worry for the world. With how much packaged food is sold in grocery stores, large amounts of this packaging is most likely not being recycled and ending up in our environment. I was also caught off guard by the plastics that I found in unexpected locations, such as the gym. I never realized how much of the gym equipment is made of plastic, these things mainly being bands, the covers for metal weights, and the various machines.

While I do not think that there is a dedicated recycling facility in the area around College of Charleston, I do know there are many compost areas and recycling areas. As good as it may make us feel to put our waste in these, as we learned in class, these small bins do not help much. For waste to compost in large volume, the waste needs to be in a large area with heat and oxygen for the bacteria to work, but the composters on campus only allow for a small area and volume, and there is no true way to know if this waste is transported to a larger composting location. Single stream recycling bins, like the ones on campus, also produce many problems. In an article written by long time environmental reporter Jacob Fenston, he goes over how much of this recycling is actually contaminated. In a visit he took to a contamination station, he stated that, “…it’s as if for every nine trucks that dumps a load of recycling, a tenth truck pulls up and unloads nothing but trash,” (Fenston, 2019). This may not seems like much, but when you try to put into perspective the amount of people in the world all producing roughly 4.5 pounds of waste per day, this scenario seems much more tragic. So although there are the small areas for recycling, there is no true way to know how much is recycled after it is sent off.

Finally, Beth Terry says, “Guilt is not encouraged.” I agree with this because if you feel guilt and force yourself to feel guilt, you will focus too much on it and ruin your life. Therefore, I believe that we, as in the whole population, should strive towards not drastically changing our lifestyles, but being more aware about our waste and how we deal with it.

Works Cited:

Fenston, Jacob. “Does Your Recycling Actually Get Recycled? Yes. Maybe. It Depends.” WAMU, 5 Dec. 2019, wamu.org/story/19/02/12/does-your-recycling-actually-get-recycled-yes-maybe-it-depends/.

Plastic Life

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Plastic is everywhere, it surrounds us 24/7. We eat it, we touch it, we even smell it and while we may not know it, we are probably never going to be able to get rid of it. I never really thought about how much plastic I used every day until I was told to keep a list. Not going to lie I was kind of scared because I knew that I used a lot. My list consisted of thirty-eight items. I was blown away by how long the list was, but when I went to class and heard my classmates sharing theirs, I realized I forgot to put various items. From things like a light switch to the hat I was wearing that day. My list probably could have gone up to around 70 or 80.

 

Over the span of the past week, I have been very sick and because of this I have been using more plastic than ever. I have been getting food delivered to me for every meal and drinking a lot of plastic water bottles. As I’m sitting here writing this, I think about ways I can limit my plastic use, and while there are things that I can do to help, it is very hard to live a so called “plastic free life”. I look around, while I sit in my dorm room and almost everything I see is made from plastic. I know these items aren’t single use plastics and I can use them for years, but at some point they are still going to end up in the trash.

In the bag of trash that I collected throughout my day it added up to 10 items, well 11 if u include the bag, I used to carry these items how ironic. It was a plate, 4 cups/bottles, food containers, etc. I think this is representative of my lifestyle. Especially being in college and having the bad habit of eating out every day I do use lots of plastic. If I were to use around 9 disposable plastic items every day that would add up to around 3,000 items per year. That’s a lot. From this I have learned that I need to be more conscious of what I buy. Now most of the plastic problem comes from the food industry, which is understandable because how else are you supposed to package food? This school is supposed to be a sustainable school but as far as I have seen it really isn’t. In my dorm room there is no way to recycle anything. Everyone just dumps their trash downstairs. Now if I really wanted to, I could probably drive somewhere to get it recycled. Even when I go to the dining hall there are separate bins, but it all ends up in the same place.

 

Beth Terry stated in her book “Guilt is not encouraged” this is something everyone should go by. If you are guilty about the plastic, you are using you will never be able to overcome it and fix what you are doing. Overall, I think that this was a good learning experience. I thought that I knew how much plastic I was using but it turns out I really didn’t. I feel that now I have way more knowledge than I did 3 weeks ago, and I feel as though I can limit my plastic use.

 

Plastics Everywhere

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I started this blog on September 14. I had a lot of classes that day so I thought it would be a good day to start my blog. This assignment was to write down each plastic that we used throughout the day. I didn’t expect To use as much plastic as I did. When I think of plastic I think I was plastic water bottles, plastic plates, plastic bags, and plastic straws. I never thought about toothbrushes and toothpaste and stuff like that. I never realized how much plastic there is in this world until this assignment. It’s really hard to not use plastic because it’s so easy and it’s so cheap that it’s the best thing to use. In the 24 hours that I did this assignment I touched 38 items.  At first I thought that wasn’t a lot but then I realized that a lot of the stuff I kept touching repeatedly. If I counted every time I picked up a pen or pencil I would have over 100 items.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle are Important to the Students of Learning Haven - Gallegos Sanitation

I think this one day fairly represented the amount of plastics I used because I was going out of the house a lot and going to different classes and going out to eat. Before leaving for my classes I would always grab my keys that has my cougar card, credit card, and key along with my mask. Today was the day that I touched the most plastic because I was so busy. Unfortunately, I have to admit that I was running late to my one class so I had to grab a plastic water bottle for on the go. I did recycle it but I should have given myself a few extra minutes to refill my metal water bottle. On Tuesday I learned and realized how much stuff is made of plastic. Since it was so hot me and my roommate had to turn our three fans on in our room. There’s three fans counted towards my 38 items that I touched that were plastic.  When I started this assignment I never would have imagined how much plastic there is only in my dorm room. We even have ice trays or plastic.  Me and my roommates have a recycling can that’s different from our garbage can. We use a lot of plastic forks and other utensils when the other silverware isn’t clean. Hey, what can I say, not everything can always be clean.  When I was figuring out my plastic footprint, I found out that I use 52.4 pounds a year. 

AAI removes single-use plastics from another 20 airports

By the end of the day I was really ashamed of myself with how much plastic I used. Even in the shower thinking about the day there was plastic surrounding me. With body wash, shampoo, conditioner, and many face products, it was an insane realization. I am only one person and the fact that I use that much plastic hurts to see.

 

Best shower and bath products 2021: shampoo, conditioners, scrubs

Plastic is Surrounding us.

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I always thought that others were the issue when it came to the amount of plastic waste, until I counted the amount of plastic I used in my daily life. From single use products to reusable plastic products. The first time when just counting the products I used, I counted 61 products in just one day alone. Granted, there most likely a ton of plastic that I missed. While carrying my bag around, I kept complaining about how heavy it was. Without even realizing it, I saw the problem. Around halfway through the day, the bag was completely overflowing with plastic items. It had gotten so full that I had to get another bag… And that bag filled up too. These items are oftentimes not even given a second thought when thrown away. 

 

Including:

Disposable face mask

Deodorant 

Tooth bush 

Shampoo and conditioner

Hair brush 

Sadly, these items are used for getting ready alone. 

Unfortunately, College of Charleston does not have a recycling program. While they do have separate bins for compost, landfill, and recycling, they all end up in the same place. When I was in the dining hall, I watched them empty each of the separate bins into the same bin. It’s upsetting to see organizations that have the funds to recycle, but they do not. If enough of us have this conversation, things will change.

 

 

I do believe that this was an accurate representation of my daily life. Being a college student, it’s hard to afford eco-friendly products. The prices of eco-friendly products are much higher because plastic is the cheaper alternative.  Since I have been in college I feel that I have been using much more plastic than I do at home. Everything I own is basically made of some sort of plastic. It’s cheap and easy to throw away when you are done with it. Being in college, you are always on the move. Most days I don’t have time to sit down and eat. I usually grab a plastic water bottle and a plastic wrapped granola bar.

 

So many things are made of plastic that we don’t even realize. I find it ironic learning about plastic on a plastic computer, on a plastic desk, sitting on a plastic chair, even the clothes you are wearing are made of plastic. Plastic is surrounding us. When calculating my plastic footprint, I found out that I alone leave a footprint of 50.3 pounds a year. While that is less than the national average of 110 pounds a year. That’s around the same weight as a baby hippo!

 

 

Before taking this class I had no idea I used so much plastic. I truly had no idea that some of the things I owned were even made of plastic. I believe that if everyone gets educated, we can be the change the world needs. Instead of asking what you can do to change others actions, what actions are you taking currently to help solve this problem?

If you are interested in this topic more, I recommend checking out this website. It has tons of information on our plastic footprints and what we each can do!

https://tontoton.com/your-plastic-footprint-what-it-is-and-how-to-reduce-it/

Plastic Life?

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59 This is the number of plastic objects I touched in one day. It would be even more if I had counted the items, I touched more than once. Furthermore, I probably also touched a plenty of objects that I was not even aware that they were made of plastic. In Today’s world we literally sink in in plastic so that we do not even notice any more if we touch a plastic object. So, it was with me, before this self-experiment I was not even aware that so much in my life consists of plastic. But after the first hour of my self-experiment, I was shocked because I had already touched about 25 plastic items in the first hour of my day and I also realized that almost everything in my bathroom is made of plastic. At the end of the day, I realized what a huge amount of plastic I had touched in one day.

I have divided my plastic items in different categories so I can better evaluate my result:

1. Electronic devices=7 items     examples= mobile, laptop charger

2. Bathroom products=20 items     examples= shampoo, toothbrush

3. Food=8 items     examples= yogurt cup, muesli package

4. Study Supplies=10 items     examples= pens, block

5. Sport= 5 items     examples= Ball bucket, gym bag

6. Other things= 9 items     examples= Laundry bag, cleaning rag packing

After evaluating my list of plastic items, I noticed two categories in particular where I could reduce my plastic consumption the easiest and that is Bathroom products and Food. Because especially in these categories, I used a lot of disposable plastic items, which is why I collected all single-use plastic items on another day. After the experiment, I came to the conclusion that almost all the items were in the categories (as already suspected) Bathroom and Food. And I would also say the disposable plastic items I collected that day reflected my disposable plastic use well

My Disposable Plastic in one day

  And after thinking about it, I also came up with ideas on how to reduce my single-use plastic consumption. However, I also realized how difficult it is to implement some of them in the US.

One example from the Bathroom category is to use solid shampoo, shower gel and toothpaste which is packaged completely plastic free or even a bamboo toothbrush and hairbrush are good alternatives which are usually only a few dollars more expensive than the plastic ones. Another example, which unfortunately can hardly be implemented in the USA is to shop in plastic-free sections of supermarkets, especially for food, or in completely plastic-free supermarkets, which have been around for a few years in Germany. However, after research I noticed that there are hardly any such supermarkets in the USA.

Despite some ideas, it is difficult from my point of view as a student to greatly reduce his plastic use. For example, in the dining halls there is a lot of plastic used, where it is relatively difficult for me as a student to avoid the plastic there. Another problem is that the plastic products are usually easier to get and cheaper than plastic-free products. Another point which I consider problematic is the possibility of recycling, because I find there are hardly any opportunities to use recycling facilities and if you want to find some you usually have to spend a lot of time on the subject, although there are isolated recycling garbage cans on campus, but I have the feeling that it is not taken so seriously.

 

But even after the self-experiments with the shocking results for me and the many problems that I became aware of I do not feel guilty and think that you should not feel guilty too. To deal with the topic in depth is already a start and it has motivated me to reduce my plastic footprint and to go more consciously through life.