October 13, 2009 - 1:05pm

Princess versus plastic

Without question, plastic has saved lives and brought about miracles. It's used in IV bags, syringes, in plastic surgery after horrific accidents; it allows us to donate blood. But did you know about The Great Pacific Garbage Patch? It’s the world’s biggest landfill – smack in the middle of the ocean, stretching from Hawaii nearly to Japan.

This swirling mass of our society’s ideals of cheapness and disposability forces us to confront our lifestyle reflected back to us in the water. Our lives are completely infused with plastic. But that’s just the tip of the garbageberg; how easy is it for the average person to pass on the plastic and opt for alternatives?

Now that we’re all more conscious of plastic bags and plastic water bottles, I got to thinking: What other plastic stuff do I use so often I’ve stopped noticing? Could I even survive a plastic-free day in my own life? I decided to spend a day noting all encounters with plastic from morning to night. Here, the daily encounters I’ve been taking most for granted:

ALARM CLOCK
The very first thing I do each morning is begrudgingly reach my arm out from the depths of my cozy blanket cave and interact with plastic. Okay, so I smack it. Quite violently. Between 3 – 88 times.
Is there an alternative? Alarm clocks made of steel, metal and chrome are retro and quirky, but a bit more expensive than the plastic ones. But alas, most non-plastic bodies still use plastic for the hands and windy thing in the back.
Is this change realistic? It’s an improvement, but still not plastic-free.