A world without plastic?

Jane here, on a day that began with torrents of rain and high winds, and has now subsided into high winds with occasional showers, still torrential. A typical Yorkshire autumn day, in fact.

I had to take the two dogs for their morning walk in the worst of the deluge; I can’t say I was keen, and the older of our spaniels, Copper, doesn’t like the rain one bit. When I opened the back door he stood just inside it with an expression that clearly said, “You cannot be serious!” Young Rosie, by contrast, ran out, tail wagging, nose to the ground to see what interesting scents were still available to explore.

I wore a thick jacket made of tough nylon, rain- and wind-proof, brilliant for bad weather. My ancient dog-walking trousers are nylon too, and on my feet were rubber Wellington boots. As we splashed along, I wondered whether I’d have kept myself so dry if I’d ventured out in a rainstorm two thousand years ago, along with my sleuth Aurelia Marcella.

Of course everybody knows that Ancient Rome didn’t have modern materials like polythene, nylon, synthetic clothing fabrics, or rubber. I’m not claiming that as a revelation! But I am claiming that life without these things takes a bit of imagining in this 21st-century world. You can make clothes and shoes of leather or animal skins, OK; but when it comes to waterproofs, give me a modern synthetic that keeps me bone dry.

When I got back from our soggy walk, I discarded my jacket and boots, and put on comfortable shoes – leather uppers but firm rubber soles – and a pair of clean trousers, polyester mix, which were washed yesterday and didn’t need ironing. Then I went into the kitchen, and wondered how I’d cope if I were suddenly transported to a first-century Roman house to provide food for a hungry family, not to mention hungry guests at an inn, like Aurelia’s cook.

Oddly enough, I’m pretty sure it isn’t the gadgets I’d be pining for; I can remember life before dishwashers and microwaves. I cooked then. And in a Roman kitchen, I’d doubtless find much to admire: pottery, and wooden items, some of which might fit nicely into the trendiest modern home. That would take me all of ten seconds, before I started yearning for plastic. Plastic strainers and cooking-spoons, polythene bags for keeping vegetables fresh, and especially easy-clean melamine cupboards and work-tops.

OK, you’re all saying, this woman is seriously old-fashioned. Everyone now goes for kitchens with wood panelling and surfaces of tile or granite. They’re too labour-intensive for me. To each her own. To me, a kitchen is a workplace, and the less time and elbow-grease I have to expend on after-work cleaning up, the better.

A world without plastic? I can imagine it, and hopefully, I can write about it convincingly. But live in it? Thanks, but no thanks.

 

 

 

Comments

[Carola]

Start talking dogs and plastic and I start thinking picking up after... Of course, that's not something the Romans would have worried about too much!