PlasticLand

Your average day in PlasticLand.

Turn off the plastic alarm. Stumble to the bathroom. Put two pieces of plastic in your eyes. Voila! The world is clear! PlasticLand! Brush your teeth with plastic. Wash your hair, your body, and your face with paraben soap steeped in plastic. Get dressed. Put on plastic shoes, a plastic hairtie, and a plastic watch.

For breakfast: cereal from a cardboard box with a plastic liner. Milk from a plastic bottle. A piece of fruit (hey! where's my plastic?!)

And etc, ad nauseum.

Plastic doesn't biodegrade, right? So it's made to stick around in some form. But plastic does not wear well. Plastic is like Living Forever. When examined closely, it's not really that pretty. Right now I'm examining a Ziploc bag. A nifty product. Waterproof. Clear. I can store the turkey sandwich I made in the morning in my Ziploc and eat it for lunch, the whole while having a nice view of my 'wich (and being confident it isn't switched for someone else's PB&J.) Then what happens to my Ziploc? I'm a good citizen of the earth, so I reuse my Ziploc. I rinse it out and put my uneaten half pear in it. (Soak in that plastic, pear! Soak it!) And once I've eaten my pear, maybe I use the bag to store my oil pastels when I travel. After that, it's pretty well used up. So what happens next to Mr. Ziploc? To the landfill. An object that will be on this earth forever (forever!) was useful for two months. The Material of Eternal Life is used to: create a one-time seal on a juice bottle; shrink-wrap fruit; satisfy your dog's chewing habit; and keep safe the sandwich you will eat in 3.5 hours.