Day 9: On the road

Greetings from Tampa! It's not very warm or sunny here. But I wouldn't even know, since we spend all day in meetings in windowless rooms. The meetings are going well, really interesting conversation and people.

I want to update about the troubles that travel presents a plastic-free gal.

Tuesday I packed all my goodies and headed to the airport, but TSA took away my toothpaste. It was over the ounce limit for liquids on carry-on. I could have checked a bag, but that would have cost me $75 over the week (3 flights at $25 a pop). So they took my lovely Tom's of Maine gingermint in it's metal tube and threw it in the trash.

I had to ask the front desk at my hotel for a small tube of toothpaste, and it of course is plastic. I felt sad but the alternative of not brushing my teeth for the week was too terrible to consider.

On the 1st flight on the way here, I didn't get a beverage- avoid that plastic cup! Plus, it was an hour, do I really need 4 ounces of diet coke to make it until we land? Not really.

On the 2nd flight, I pulled out my ceramic mug and tea, and asked for hot water. The flight attendant was surprised and said that he had never seen this before, someone bringing their own mug. I hope we can reverse that trend because that is a lot of trash generated. It doesn't help that they don't let you bring your own bottle of water but I bring a jar or something to fill at the water fountains inside the terminals.

So the moral of the story is that flying on airplanes is a hard place to avoid plastic. As are airports. If you want to eat healthy, cheaply, and plastic-free, you'll have to pack your own food. I was really hungry in between flights and had basically zero time to find something to eat but I did find a hot pretzel that they handed it to me in just a small paper sleeve. That plus the Maine apple I packed were a nice supper.

Checking into the hotel, I realized we don't use metal keys anymore, but plastic cards to get into our rooms. I hope they will recycle mine afterwards, but it is still a plastic failure. Two in one day!

My hotel room bathroom was stocked with tiny bottles of shampoo and soap wrapped in plastic. My planning paid off, so my shampoo bar and soap bar with me let me avoid using those small bottles. I hope they don't throw them out when they clean the room and turn it over for someone else.