I wouldn’t say it was difficult but eye opening. I never realized how much plastic we use every day. I made some permanent changes since the challenge began but have a long way to go. What did make it challenging to make easy changes was the inability to take your own bags to the grocery store due to COVID. I will keep trying to improve each day. 

This is last day of the Challenge, and until today I wasn't sure how to answer this question. But I watched The Story of Plastic this morning and I was very moved by it. I can see now that the reduction of plastic packaging, and moving away from plastic manufacturing in a big way, has become a matter of life or death for us all. I will watch the film again before August 4th and take notes so I can arm myself with facts to drive those important conversations that I need to start having. I have wanted to start a blog for a long time. I've tried a couple of times but it always drifts off into oblivion because I can't think of anything to post, or I forget to post for weeks at a time. After completing 3 semesters at ACHS, and this Challenge, I am full of ideas for things that I want to talk about! That's a start. But I need to do more to make people in my family and my circle of friends and my community aware of what's at stake. They need to know about the scope and scale of the plastic problem, because we can't see it where I live. It's not REAL in anyone's life here. And if ever there was a clear example of what environmental injustice is all about, this is it. Disposable "convenience" items that we toss in the trash without a second thought are actually KILLING people in other countries because underprivileged and marginalized people are the ones who have no choice but to take responsibility for cleaning up the tons of plastic waste surrounding their homes. People in the United States are actually being KILLED because the proximity of their homes to chemical plants that process petrochemicals to create plastic continually exposes them to toxins. Children who live there are getting cancer 56% more often than children who live elsewhere. Plastics are killing wildlife and getting into our water and even the food that we eat, no matter where we live. So yeah, this is a big deal. 

The other thing that I became more aware of after watching that movie is that there is no way that recycling or reducing packaging or choosing to use less plastic is ever going to fix the problem. There is just too much plastic being produced, and the amount continues to grow. Consumers can help with their actions, but we cannot and should not be held responsible for the clean-up. The big corporations all along the production chain, who are making billions of dollars selling items made out of or packaged within plastic, need to take responsibility and be accountable for the pollution that they create, not only in our air and water but on the ground, all over the world. They should not be allowed to make huge profits at the expense of consumers. 

So that is my rant for the day. It's a long one, about a topic that I get very emotional about. So I guess it's fitting that this is my last post for this Challenge. I've had fun, learned a lot, and stoked the fire of motivation to help me transform knowledge into action. Thanks, all. I wish you well. Stay safe, but not too safe!  ;-)

I wasn't very surprised, but I do feel bad about ordering takeout in plastic. I have definitely been doing this more during COVID. My goal is to work on ordering takeout only from places that use sustainable takeout packaging. I have also been working on replacing lotion and shampoo containers with ones with more sustainable packaging as I run out of the old ones.