oj’s status update

I was wondering what life would be like if you were to completely forego plastic. To get rid of all plastic items in your home and wider life.

I guess it would be a bit like the 19th century. Ok, most books and furniture could stay. The kitchen would be very different (but probably a lot nicer - nothing wrong with implements of china, steel, glass and wood). You’d stay fitter with your manual whisking, mashing and kneading.

A motor car would be out of the question. Even a bicycle would be tricky - have to get rid of those nice shimano components. In fact, there’s probably not a mountain bike in existence that’s plastic-free. Would have to be an old 10-speed. Oh, but what about the cable housings? Sorry, no gears. Single-speed, with a back-pedal brake.

It would be fun making the items you needed that couldn’t be got non-plastified. Of course, you would need a lot of nice, old-fashioned tools. (Perhaps you would have to make those… but with what?)

No CD’s… or cassettes… or LP’s. Possibly an old crystal set radio at a pinch (no bakelite knobs though). A top-notch piano with real wooden keys. And a fiddle perhaps (if you can get a bow without a plastic grip).

But my belly calls my thoughts back to the kitchen. You would have to buy food in a completely different way. Even bulk foods come in plastic. You could probably only do it if you were within cycling distance of a comprehensive bulk foods retailer, with nice, big hessian sacks of all sorts of goodies. Which would invariably be located in a big city…

I guess country life in the modern age comes at an environmental cost. But so does urban life. I know which I prefer.

By the way, there’s no danger that I’m about to go all silly about plastic. What would be the point of the exercise if I couldn’t blog about it every day?!