Trash Quest Pt. 3

June 30th, 2025

This is not a staged photo.

This is a photo of our bathroom that I took yesterday. And this is what I mean when I say that “what has been seen cannot be unseen”.

What do you see here?

Prior to even a week ago, this scene meant nothing special to me. It was just a bunch of standard bathroom items. Deoderant, skin care solution, toothpaste, toothbrush..

But yesterday, with my new obsession, all I saw was plastic.

Before me, in my very own bathroom, a field of petroleum products. Every single item there on this counter made of plastic, and destined for a landfill, and for existing on the earth for forever.

I’m at the coffee shop again with my sister, and she sat down with her drink. I looked over and said, checking it out, “That looks good. What is it?” She said, “It’s so good. You have to try it. It’s a pistachio latte.” And then something caught my eye. Right next to the latte, resting on the table, was a cursed item.

A black, plastic spoon.

It will be used once. It has already been used once. To stir her drink. And what happens to it now?

You already know.

We have to wean ourselves off of this plastic addiction. Actually, we have to cut ourselves off cold turkey. We have to do it, for the whales, for the babies, for everything and everyone, for the Earth.

So, I’m trying out as many ways as I can think of to generate as little waste as possible and avoid plastic. Here are some of the things I have already adopted successfully:

1. No paper towels. This is very easy. Just use a rag instead. I have not had a use for a paper towel in months. Rags are good enough, even better.
2. Asking for “for here” ware. All the coffee shops should have for here ware, so you are not throwing anything away. Starbucks should even have this.
3. A new discovery: buying “bulk” from a local store. You can bring a container and fill it up from their bulk containers, and weigh whatever you put in it, and pay for it. You acquire no packaging this way.

A new idea I experimented with for the first time just yesterday: using baking soda instead of toothpaste. Apparently this is something you can do. Both my roommate and his girlfriend already knew about that. I had no idea. Baking soda in paper boxes instead of toothpaste in plastic tubes.

But what about toothbrushes?

There are bamboo toothbrushes you can buy, which will probably be what I do. You can apparently also use twigs. I’m wild enough to actually try that, although it seems like you’re supposed to use specific kinds of twigs. Any twig would probably be alright though. For the blog.. I have to give that a try.

(479 words)