Why give up plastic?

So why give up plastic? After all it's an amazing material, it can be hard or soft, it can and is (as I shall no doubt discover) used in a myriad of different ways. It's relatively cheap and has transformed our high streets in under a century (compare the things we buy now to the things our grandparents bought). It's relatively light surely thus requiring less fuel to transport than alternatives such as a tin, ceramic, glass, wood and so forth and isn't that more eco?

As a concerned but not expert consumer (hmm actually I am rather an expert consumer, aren't we all, I mean of course not an expert on plastic) there are two main reasons I'm trying to give it up....




















The first is what it's made from. Oil. Which is both polluting and rapidly running out.

















Image from www.treehugger.com

And the second is the legacy it leaves: the pollution, the impact on wildlife and the fact that it takes for ever and ever (from hundreds to thousands of years depending on the plastic) to degrade.

It all just seems wrong to me, destroying the planet for my convenience and wallet. But I'll freely admit that this is a bit of a gut reaction, I'd like to know more about the actual science behind plastic and its impact on the world and hopefully this focus giving up plastic for Lent will also give me the impetus to do some further research. And blog about it of course.

Why give up something for Lent?

So I guess there are two obvious questions people ask when I say I've given up plastic for Lent: why plastic and why give up things for Lent. There's also a more detailed question about what exactly I mean by giving up plastic.

So let's get the Lent one out of the way first. For me the really simple answer is 'because I always have'. It was something we did as children and I've carried it on. The more complex answer, still at a personal level, is that yes, there is a spiritual discipline about it. It is tied into my faith, even though I fluctuate wildly as to what I actually believe and why, I do still continue to have some kind of faith and it is primarily rooted in and experienced through the Christian tradition. It is also tied into my belief in the importance of ritual. I'm also a strong believer in the discipline of denial - giving something up is very different to taking something up, though both are good. I could frame 'giving up plastic' as 'living a more environmentally positive lifestyle' but I find the language of 'giving up' actually more helpful.

As to why people give up something for Lent in the first place - well of course that's tied to Lenten fasting. I can do no better than point you in the direction of Maggi Dawn the Cambridge based theologian and priest. She has a good post here on the corporate/communal aspect of Lenten fasting and she starts her explanation here though it's also very worth clicking on the Lent tag in her sidebar and reading all the entries as she comes back to it on an annual basis (funny that). She's also written a book Giving It Up which I really must buy.

In the meantime I leave you with this:

"Lent – it’s supposed to be good for the body AND the soul. It’s supposed to simplify your life for a while, giving you time and money to re-focus. It’s not supposed to feed your vanity by taking off a dress size, but to give you the space to rediscover the true value of life, framed by a fresh vision of God. What part of your consumer lifestyle will you give up, for a while, to get your life into a new gear?" Maggi Dawn

Ash Wednesday

"Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return"

Lent begins today and this year whilst others give up chocolate or alcohol or meat (or indeed nothing at all) I am giving up plastic.

I did this for the first time last year and it proved to be an interesting, and difficult, forty days. So I thought it would be worth trying again this year. And to blog my time in the plastic free wilderness.

Or almost plastic free. For so all pervasive is plastic now that I don't think it's actually possible to live in 21st century Britain without it. But I'm going to try not to gather any new plastic over these forty days. I'm also going to be looking at the issues around plastic: from the raw ingredient (usually oil) to the end disposal. And the alternatives.