Ready for a Challenge? We triple-dog dare you.....

The folks over at Rodale.com have put it out there for us....well not for PlayNetwork specifically, but you know "us" as citizens of the world. If you don't know about Rodale, take a few minutes and check them out. They are the brainchild behind magazines like Prevention, Men's Health, Women's Health and Runner's World.

Their challenge? 

Give up plastic for the whole month of February; or at least try your very best to do so. Some of us still have to drive, and luckily (I suppose) they aren't asking "us" to give up all petroleum products entirely. Going plastic free or even consciously cutting down will reduce the use of our already mentioned underground buddy, petroleum and it's neighbor, natural gas. Both are great resources that most of us use everyday, but they are also both non-renewable. Boo. Worse, the process used to extract them from the earth pollutes our air and water.

If those are not good reasons to cut back, how about this: Plastic manufacturers add chemicals to certain types of plastics that can be highly toxic, like bisphenol A and phthalates. And although many companies are taking great strides not to add these chemicals, very few types of plastic are widely recycled. It's not even that they can't be recycled, they just often aren't. 

Here are the plastic-free ground rules: 

1. No buying or acquiring new plastic. 
2. No cooking with plastic or storing food in plastic. 
3. Minimize all other plastic use. 

Rodale invites "us" to share our experiances, tips, suggestions, questions and comments with them on their Facebook page. You can also get real-time description of their plastic-free trials and tribulations on their Twitter feed. 

They will be posting daily updates from those participating on their blog as well. 

So....if you think you can do it, and you're up for the challenge...PlayGreen will pay $50 at the end of the month to the first 5 people who complete this task. I know it's totally crazy. We're losing our marbles over here, just giving away the farm. So how do we know who's finished? What do you have to do to satisfy our desires?

We need a log of the following things at the end of the month:

1. A list of all plastics you were using prior to starting this process and what you were using them for. Both at work and at home. 
2. What were you able to substitute out? 
3. What was the most difficult to give up overall? Why?
4. What was the easiest to give up overall? Why?
5. What will you never ever go back to? Why? 
6. What will you for sure be going back to? Why? 

(Format for the above is totally up to you. So long as it's typed, not handwritten, and the answers to the above questions are clearly identifiable.)

In addition, every Friday, please email playgreen@playnetwork.com and tell us what has been easy and what has been really hard about the challenge this week. We are happy to create a distribution list and send out reminders to those of you that sign up. Just reach out and let us know youre participating. 

Start date: TODAY!

End Date: all completed submissions must be in by Friday, March 4th at 4pm. 

Please have fun with it! Send in pictures if you like! We'd love to see them! Also please remember all submissions are the property of PlayGreen and we can (and probably will) use them on this blog as well as feature your smiling plastic-free story and pictures in our newsletter. 

That's it! Are you ready? 

Set? 

GO!!!!!