What alternatives are there for plastic garbage bags ?

Location:  California, United States

Name: Andrea Gutierrez

Week: 1

Personal Info:

I am a female college student. During this challenge, I did it back at home instead of my dorm room. I feel that where I live/grew up, it affected how much plastic I generated because the city where my college is located promotes “no plastic bags” and most of my items that I generated in my hometown were plastic bags. Also, I decided to add all the plastic items I bought and were used for this challenge from thanksgiving because I was curious to know how much plastic we would generate due to this holiday.

List of plastic items REFUSED this week. (Yay!)
I didn’t refuse any to see how much plastic I would generate without thinking about the environment and what I learned in my class.

Total items collected: 213

Total weight:

Items: Recyclable
50 plastic bottles
41 plastic utensils
36 plastic cups

Items: Nonrecyclable
30 plastic packaging wrappers
56 plastic bags
plastic tape

What items can I easily replace with plastic free or less plastic alternatives?
Items I can easily replace with plastic-free or less plastic alternatives:
water bottles, plastic bags, chip bags

What items would I be willing to give up if a plastic free alternative doesn’t exist?
plastic packaging

What items are essential and seem to have no plastic-free alternative?
As a college student who is always on the go, I feel that the plastic packaging in microwavable meals is very hard to give up.

What lifestyle change(s) might be necessary to reduce my plastic consumption?
I can start bringing my own bags to stores like how I do back in my dorm and stop using single-use plastic water bottles and instead use a bottle that I can wash and reuse.

What one plastic item am I willing to give up or replace this week?
I am going to try to replace plastic water bottles and plastic bags this week.

What other conclusions, if any, can I draw?