What would happen if all the plastic in your home disappeared overnight? A Swedish family found out by volunteering for one month of near-total plastic withdrawal, in an experiment conducted by researchers at KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
Toys, kitchen utensils, furniture, bedding and more were removed from the suburban house where Emelie and Walter Hesse and their two children live outside of Stockholm. Though they were allowed to keep 10 plastic items each – in addition to computers, phones and major appliances like the refrigerator and washer – the Hesse family faced up to life without plastic, if only for a few weeks.
For the course of the month, the family turned to alternatives made of wood, metal, wool and ceramics, says the project’s leader Sara Ilstedt, a professor of product and service design at KTH.
"We were surprised by how many plastic-free alternatives actually exist,” Ilstedt says.
Emelie Hesse says the family participated in the study out of curiosity, and to learn more about how to live more sustainably in everyday life. The hardest items to replace were hygiene products and kitchen appliances, but overall she found it refreshing to live without their usual things.
“We realized how much we had accumulated over time — things that weren’t being used. Changing habits was often easier than we thought,” she says.
New mattresses and furniture made from natural fibers replaced the old, and the researchers sourced second-hand shops for non-plastic things like lamps, toys and baskets.
The parents initially worried that the children would miss the things they got rid of, and that the replacement items wouldn’t suit the family in terms of function or design.
"But it turned out really well," Hesse says. "Especially the toys, which genuinely stimulated the children’s creativity.”
Though the researchers offered to return everything they removed, the family declined a number of things they hadn't missed, and kept all the non-plastic replacements. Those items will be displayed at an upcoming exhibition in Stockholm.
Ilstedt says the experiment's aim was to visualize and document the amount of plastic in a typical household, and to investigate what can be replaced with alternatives. But they also wanted to understand how a plastic-free lifestyle works in practice –and where improvements could be made.
The researchers are mapping the climate impact of the family’s plastic items. All plastic objects were photographed and a total of about 400 kilos was weighed. Climate calculations are now being carried out to estimate the carbon emissions linked to each product, and the results will then be compared with the climate impact of the plastic-free replacement products.
“The experiment shows that plastic is deeply embedded in our lives, but also that change is possible,” Ilstedt says.
She says the Hesse family’s experiences provide insights into "what we can actually live without — and what cannot yet be replaced, where innovation is needed.”
The experiment is part of the international Reduce project, an interdisciplinary investigation into how plastic use can be reduced. The Swedish part is led by KTH.