I read an interesting blog from this weekend, about a challenge that — ideally — shouldn’t be any sort of challenge whatsoever. Can you go one day, three days, or even one week without accruing any new disposable plastic? Author and blogger Trudi Morgan-Cole caught wind of just such a challenge (albeit informal) on CBC Radio One’s The Current and decided not only to attempt participation, but to blog her experiences and results.

DAY ONE: Friday, July 11 — Good start. Forestalled the check-out guy from giving me a bag at Shopper’s Drug Mart, and remembered to bring my own mug when I met Tina for coffee at Starbucks. In the afternoon, the kids and their friends went to Needs and came home with Slushees in big ugly plastic cups. I wondered if I should count those but decided I couldn’t be entirely responsible for their choices. It’s not like I would have chosen to buy Slushees!! With that rationalization made, I was guilt-free until after supper, when I went to Needs to pick up a few last-minute supplies for the weekend — milk, chocolate bars, and marshmallows. Curses! Marshmallows come in a plastic bag!! I brought my own shopping bag to Needs, but I couldn’t get marshmallows without their little plastic bag.

Things do get off to a rocky start…

We stop at Subway for subs on the way to the beach. Jason and Emma come out of Subway swinging our four paper-wrapped subs stuck into — curses, foiled again!! — two plastic bags. I think Subway could easily switch to paper bags, but I don’t know how they’d react to people bringing in their own grocery bags to carry subs out in.

Would they? No one at Subway seems to mind when I carry my five-dollar foot-long out in my hands, and as far as alternative bags go I think we all know the equal perils of paper. So then is the sandwich store plastic bag an unavoidable casualty, or is this instance more a case of reusable bag shyness? It’s something to think about.

How does Ms. Morgan-Cole fare by the end of the week? Does she relapse hopelessly, or does she prevail and edge ever closer to a plastic-free existence? And how many lessons do we learn about life and ourselves along the way? Read on here, if you’re interested. If anything, it’s quite the accurate portrait of everyday struggles and the obstacles stacked against us at every turn.

Image via Flickr!

• Seven artists give a new meaning to the word “recycling.” [WebUrbanist]
• Toronto wants you to design their reusable bags! [I Want - I Got]
• A harrowing personal account from the frontlines of the reusable bag war. [Cheesy Kitty]
• Get with the program, California! [Bamboo Geek]
• Reusable bags = Profit?!?! [The Happy Rock]
• The OC keeps on keepin’ on in the campaign against plastics. [OC Metblogs]
• Change may be in the bag in Lafayetteville. [Northwest AR News]
• Thoughts on grocery chains, farmers’ markets, and self-imposed double standards. [Tanker Tracks]
• Ann Arbor elementary school students say “yes!” to reusable bags. [Everything Michigan]
• Civil disobedience in the bag game brings unrest in Singapore. [The Electric]
• Mixed thoughts on plastic bag taxes in Hotlanta. [Atlanta Fifty Forward]
• Somebody loves their reusable bags. [Tree Hugging Family]