The first thing I think about every morning is my iPhone alarm. The second? Plastic pollution. I cofounded Grove Collaborative, a brand making consumer products more sustainable, so my notifications are from colleagues working with me to move our industry beyond plastic. I read the messages, then acknowledge my own reliance on plastic as I reach over and take a pill from an orange single-use plastic prescription bottle.

Heading into 2024, living without plastic feels as impossible as living without water, medicine, or clothing. Plastic is everywhere—from the depths of the oceans to our blood-brain layers. Despite needing ~1,000 years to decompose, we rely on plastic for its durability, pliability, and low cost. Recycling plastic at scale is a giant myth due to industrial constraints—and regardless of how much we put in the blue bin, it mostly ends up in landfills, oceans, and eventually groundwater and fish. This new year alone, the world will produce about 400 million metric tons of plastic waste with no sustainable plan for what to do with it. It’s no surprise that there’s an increasing call for living “without” plastic. Can that be done?

Not today. I could not live without plastic. I write this on a plastic-filled device, and you’re reading it on one. Americans consume about 286 pounds of plastic per year, and we trash nearly a pound per day (that’s one 16.9 ounce water bottle every hour!). And even to the well-intentioned majority, a “zero plastic” lifestyle feels like an elitist fantasy of farmers markets, bulk bins, wool sweaters, and homemade soap. This is the danger in making the case for “zero plastic”: We focus on an impossible absolute at the expense of an impactful, achievable plan for plastic.

Could we pursue progress over perfection in 2024?

On plastic, we should. Essentials like infrastructure, cars, electronics, and medicine rely on plastic. But single-use plastics—like water bottles, giant laundry jugs, blister packs, and pallet wrap—make up a staggering 91% of plastic waste according to the United Nations. Going “zero plastic” may be impossible, but cutting down our single-use plastic consumption? That is achievable and high-impact.

So, I went a day with even more of an attention to plastic, particularly single-use plastic, to see just how I might make some changes in 2024:

My alarm goes off as usual. Emails answered, I kick off morning rituals: brushing teeth, showering, taking medications, getting dressed. Admittedly, there’s some plastic in my toothbrush and those prescription bottles are unavoidable. But toothpaste tabs, shampoo bars, and zero-waste deodorant make this part of the day pretty easy. Plastic in clothing—especially fast fashion—is a real issue, but I’ve got a slim closet and my jeans are nearly a decade old: far from single-use! A good start.

At breakfast, my kids willingly skip their (plastic) jug of orange juice—but it’s probably a onetime thing. We skip cereal (plastic bag) in favor of toast and eggs that come from paper-based packaging and peanut butter in a glass jar. No salt though! Thankfully, bananas and apples are unpackaged (I’ve read those stickers are biodegradable). Preparing their lunches, I feel a twinge of annoyance popping my own popcorn, but the pre-popped bags have plastic. Some of these goods, like peanut butter in a glass jar and bread in paper aren’t accessible to everyone—I’m well aware of that—but this was progress for me today.

Off to school we go! The kids’ clothes, backpacks, and car seats contain plastic, but all are well-loved and many are hand-me-downs. The office, however, is a sea of plastic: desks, chairs, power cables, and protein bars encased in plastic packaging. The biggest source of single-use plastic is the kitchen. Our snacks and coffee are in bulk communal bins, but I know they arrived in plastic bags. I do take comfort that most of the plates, bowls, and mugs are reusable, and the ones that aren’t are recycled paper from Repurpose or similar brands focused on sustainability. It makes me proud that we’ve curated these young, sustainable brands on Grove’s marketplace that are trying to solve the plastic problem.

At lunch, I pat myself on the back for choosing a food truck that uses paper sandwich wrappings exclusively. But I pause to wonder about their big plastic bottle of oil for the fryer, plastic-packaged rolls, and rainbow of single-use condiment packets. In those moments, a flicker of anxiety creeps in. But then I remember that I’m going for progress over perfection.

Back home, my daughter greets me with her art made with . . . glitter (which is generally made up of tiny pieces of PET or PVC plastic). Ooph! Although they’re also plastic, I think the Legos on the table are OK, as we’ll get lots of use out of them and therefore I don’t consider them single-use. From there, it’s smoother: glass hand soap dispenser, spaghetti from a paper box with pesto (glass and metal) and broccoli—all easy. Dinner for our fighting fish, Rainbow Bowy, still comes in plastic, but he doesn’t eat all that much. Kitchen clean up again with reusable glass spray bottles and dish soap that we refill from aluminum bottles. (Aluminum recycling works exceptionally well: 75% of all aluminum produced since 1880 is still in use while only 5% of plastic is ever recycled, the rest bound for oceans and landfills.) This is a good swap we made a few years ago, and I’m feeling proud!

After getting the kids down for the night (the bath is plastic free with Peach soap and shampoo bars but toothbrushes, toothpaste, and gummy vitamins are all in plastic), I’m glad wine comes in glass bottles. The day hasn’t been that different than usual, and our single-use plastic footprint was probably under 0.1 lb per person, about 10% of the national average.

How can we scale this across millions of people to create the impact that we need? We have to make it easy, affordable, and desirable. Our goal at Grove is to make sustainable swaps simple around the home. Companies across industries are innovating to make reducing plastic waste easier than ever. I resolve to try more of them, and lower my single-use plastic footprint.

Each swap seems small, but small daily choices across each of us is the plastic problem. If we all resolve to make plastic progress daily in 2024, we can all be part of the plastic solution.