My plastic-free experience

In this post, I’m going to share my personal experience with going plastic free. This is just my experience. It isn’t meant to hinder you from going on your own plastic-free journey, it’s just my own adventure and thoughts if you want them. They may be helpful to some and not to others.

I was plastic-free for one month. This was not a very long time, but I felt like it was enough time to get a rough understanding of what plastic-free living was like for my research and project. My main goal for the entire experience was just to understand. Was this way of living possible? Possible for me and possible for others living a similar lifestyle that they don’t want to give up. I learned a great deal from this experience and have gained a lot of understanding and knowledge from it. I am very happy I had this experience and don’t regret it. Of course, there are things that I definitely can improve on for next time. And I am quite certain there will be a next time.

Honestly, living plastic free is not easy. It’s quite challenging in fact. I had a really hard time finding food that I could eat and buy. There was always something I couldn’t do or have because it came in plastic. I couldn’t eat the bag of chips I wanted in the vending machine. Or have the Starbucks drink because it was plastic. I think that it made me take a step back and kind of look at my dependence on this material. And knowing all of the negative impacts it has on our Earth I started to understand why plastic pollution is so hard to combat. We are so used to having this resource that it's nearly impossible to cut off all use of it.

But after having this experience I know that it is not impossible. It just requires a different mindset. We have to understand that there won’t be any perfect replacement for the convenience and affordability of plastic. We need to understand that this is a different lifestyle. You cannot live the same way but without plastic. You have to live a plastic-free lifestyle. It is a big change that not many people are able to make. Overall, I’m glad I did because now I know how difficult it is. I also know how I can make living plastic-free easier for myself in the future and share that knowledge.