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I would say that it is probably possible to live in Berlin without bringing too much plastic into your home. It only requires a lot of time, money, and constant vigilance. The minute you stop paying attention, you find yourself with some new bits of plastic in your possession.

You also would have to be willing to forego a lot of things. In our case, the things we noticed you can't really get without plastic included chicken, snickers bars, gummy bears, and frozen pizza.

The farmer's market is a great place to go to avoid plastic. I even found insoles! Kaufhof Galeria is the worst place. Yesterday, we went there to get Vigo a new pair of rain boots. We completely forgot about Plastic Avoidance Week and we walked out of there with three new plastic bags.

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Even when you try to buy your soda or water in a glass bottle, you end up with some bits of plastic on the edge of the metal lid. At least beer is safe. The best way to avoid bringing more plastic into the house is simply not to buy anything, which is actually not such a bad solution.

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My friend Susan sent me this video. Enjoy!

Plastic State of Mind from Ben Zolno on Vimeo.

Avoiding plastic is pretty easy if you don't buy anything. I had to forego a candy bar at work. I ate a Knäckebrot instead. So, this is our first day of total un-plastic.

After this we should do a normal week and just record the amount of plastic that comes into our lives. Then we can compare.

This exercise is a lot easier for me than it is for Erik. I don't leave the office all day, so there's nothing to buy. Yesterday I ate food I had in the office kitchen already, plus some of the free office fruit. I imagine some plastic was involved in getting me the cappuccino I drank with Guy before heading to work, but I didn't come into direct contact with any of it. So, successful day for me.

Vigo also avoided bringing any new plastic home.

Erik had to go shopping again. The soy milk has a plastic opener and the soy sauce comes in a plastic bottle. He asks whether he gets some extra credit for buying soy products. No.

This weekend, we decided to do an experiment. For one week, we will try not to bring any more plastic into our lives. Plastic we already have, we can use.

Monday's plastic

Tracy: Forgot headphones at home and had to borrow a pair from IT. The plastic headphones came in a completely superfluous plastic ziploc bag.

Vigo: Halloween celebration at school. Many plastic-wrapped candies.

Erik: Had a hard time remembering the Plastic Avoidance experiment. New insoles for his shoes came in Plastic bags, as did the carrots he bought. Head of broccoli encased in seran wrap.

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