The grams of waste per teaspoon of ketchup seems high.
What else has a super high packaging waste per consumable volume?
Noone wants to hear this one because… we are spoiled and the alternative fucking sucks…
Diapers and wet wipes. Most are not biodegradeable. That one is the one I am guilty of that bothers me the most.
I would expand that and say small kids in general are super wasteful. They consume a lot of resources, produce a lot of trash (and noise) and are a significant source of stress and sleep deprivation, both of which are suspected of causing cancer. 😅
The good news is they are biodegradable.
Sort of. Bones take a long time to degrade.
As someone who chose to be child free for many reasons, faeces everywhere, noise, trash and sleep deprivation are high on the list.
My daughter is coming in 8 weeks…and now you tell me?
Oh, best get all the sleep you can now! You need to stock up!
Almost 6 months with my daughter, nobody told me these babies get teeth?! Now she’s crying at me because she bit herself and it’s my fault!
She is hungry but doesn’t want to eat? That’s your fault. Tired, but doesn’t want to sleep? Your fault.
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There’s still time to run out to the store for a pack of cigarettes.
Not to leave out the methane.
Wet wipes are a ridiculous waste.
Bidets are very accessible.
and after overdoing it on the spicy foods, bidets are a true life-saver
sent from my bidet
It took me years to finally get a bidet. Now I’m a bidet enthusiast! The only bad thing about having a bidet is using a toilet without one.
We use reusable nappies for our toddler, and the washing machine is powered by solar so I only really need to feel bad about any excessive water use. But then we still have to use disposables when they’re at their nursery for a few days a week, or the staff don’t smell anything and they get bad rashes we spend all week dealing with. At the very least though the nursery deals with nappies as a specific form of waste that they process separately, though I’m not sure to what end.
Biodegradable wet wipes are a thing. They are a bit rougher but not bad.
Biodegradable nappies/diapers exist too but they are awful. Similar to try cloth or reusable (with a changeable lining). Awful.
Individually wrapped slices of cheese have always seemed pretty egregious to me
That’s actually an oxide layer of plastic that naturally forms on Kraft singles after the manufacturing process.
“cheese”
We have actual cheese in europe individually wrapped. It’s a thing.
I worked in the grocery department of a major retailer and Kraft singles came in on unrefrigerated pallets.
I’ve never seen that. They always come in with the refrigerated dairy. Maybe the boxes of Velveeta loaves, but definitely not the singles.
For that reason, alongside the important aspect of taste, I always recommend deli-style American. Kraft Deli Deluxe, or Land-o-Lakes, or any number of other brands.
Deli-style often comes in a brick, pre-sliced and offset for quickly peeling slices away from one another (like how restaurants do it). It’s firmer, due to a reduced milk content compared to the Kraft singles, and holds its shape better under heat while still being the perfect, melty sandwich cheese that American is. There’s a reason some of the best burger chains use deli-style American as their main cheese.
This is the best advice I’ve received all day, and I had a meeting with a mortgage advisor earlier.
Especially because wax paper works fine
Maybe, but they last a lot longer in the fridge
I mean they used to. These days I definite prefer cheese to “cheese”
One of those coffee pods.
I know some companies recycle them - the aluminium ones. Not sure how that factors in to the waste equation though.
I use the nestle ones. And I’m pretty sure they’re made of single use plastic. I hope I’m wrong though. I have since just used regular beans
Nestle and evil, name a better dastardly duo.
I know!
Afaik all Nespresso pods are recyclable.
At least in NA, it’s either through Nestle facilities or via community recycling facilities. Each order comes with bags for either mail-in (red bags), recycling bin (green bags), or store drop off (I believe black bags).
Costco sells some (San Francisco brand?) made of paper and mesh which are biodegradable.
They make biodegradable pods now that you just throw in with your food waste.
Coffee grounds is also bio degradable.
I don’t really understand the need for the pods. Coffee is best fresh roasted and freshly grinded, which the ones in pods are absolutely not. Once i saw an ad where they sold “vintage coffee” nice rebranding to sell old ass pods, this isn’t wine.
Then they made these coffee balls that fit in a new machine, what are you doing?? Instead ob buying beans and grind them in your machine that can grind all the coffee, people rather buy some pre-ground weird ass coffee balls?Some people don’t care about the flavor of their coffee, only how much of a buzz it can give them and how quickly. Either that or they’ve been conditioned by Starbucks marketing to think that stale, burned coffee actually tastes good.
You have the wrong comparison: k-cups == convenience
– compared to instant coffee, k-cups make much, MUCH better coffee
— if you’re going to fresh grind, yeah I don’t know why you would use that machine. Probably just the inconvenience of having more than one.
— My compromise is a Keurig for when I want convenience or variety, and a French Press for when I want something nicer
I have a Kcup adapter to put in fresh coffee. No waste at all.
There are also podless pods. That are just compressed coffee balls.
Packets of mustard
Packets of mayonnaise.
Packets of salt.
At least the salt (and pepper) are usually in a paper pouch and not foil/plastic like the others
Packets of Soy-Sauce
This one’s done to death, but kCups.
Also, plastic water bottles.
A more novel pick would be those plastic ez floss picks.
Other than just flossing with string, is there a good reusable floss holder?
Some people may have motor limitations that make flossing difficult. Or just find it gross
They are a bit more expensive than the plastic ones but they make plastic free ones.
My ADHD effectively does not allow me to floss regularly with standalone floss. It’s either those or I’ll do it maybe once a month.
This one has a reusable handle, it’s just the little C shaped piece of plastic that the floss stretches across that is disposable. I’m sure it’s not ideal, but I can get several uses out of each one before changing the floss. I just rinse it in hydrogen peroxide when I’m done. https://www.amazon.com/Listerine-ULTRACLEAN-Flosser-Refills-Flavored/dp/B00PG59X2K/
Looking for a link to the one above, I found this one, which seems to replace the floss each time with a pretty nicely engineered system, I haven’t tried it though. https://www.orthomechanic.com/easy-flosser/ After watching the video I feel like I would drool into the floss spool compartment and or get it wet when rinsing the thing.
Get a 3d printer and make one I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Could those be bamboo?
Kcups are less wasteful than a coffee in a disposable cup from a gas station or drive thru every day.
Those are separate problems. Kcups are wasteful vessels for producing coffee. The disposable cups are wasteful vessels for storing the coffee. it’s twice as wasteful to use kcups with disposable cups.
You also waste time and gas (if you drive) buying coffee outside your home.
I also don’t get kcups in general. In what situation are the soft and paper-based Senseo pads not superior? He holders are easier to clean, they store better since they’re squishy and they come in smaller packs anyways. Plus they’re cheaper.
Why would someone go for those cups instead? 😒
Those are cool, never seen or heard of them before in my part of the US. We use reusable kcups, so we put a filter and grounds in mesh/plastic shell. We like them because we can choose single servings of anything, like our local beans or herbal stuff like teeccino. But yeah Senseo pads look pretty great.
Oh that’s weird, ty. I wasn’t aware that Philips hadn’t actually spread their senseo machines worldwide. 🤔 Somehow always assumed they must have, considering how many years they’re around.
I see those types of coffee packets in almost all hotels across the us, so they’re around but I’ve definitely never seen them outside of that.
The coffee from nespresso cups is definitely better than Senseo. Not sure about k cups as I don’t have experience with them.
I tried to look up senseo, and the first hit said they were discontinued 11 years ago. Since the rest of you are claiming they are current, I’ll assume it’s either just a single of mnany providers or is country specific, but I didn’t actually read it.
However the reason k-cups are better is because they are more of a success. A bit of a tautology, I know, but I k ow I can find a good selection of them anywhere
It’s country specific. They were discontinued only in the US, but they still operate in multiple European countries, and in my experience like 70% of households here in the Netherlands have one of those things.
Those little plastic floss things are my weakness seriously. Nothing is better to floss with, objectively. I cannot use traditional floss to save my life. It’s the only wasteful thing I use maybe besides straws
There was this very popular kickstarter for this reusable floss pick (you just tie on new floss). I’m not sure how well they fulfilled kickstarter orders but i ordered one on their website, pre launch, and basically got a bounced email when I tried to contact them about it. Pretty unfortunate.
Tying floss onto one of those little picks sounds like an incredibly frustrating experience.
Eh I can see it being fine. Have a thin slot the floss clicks into on each side, click in the first, wrap around post, bridge the gap, wrap around the second post, click into thin slot. If it had some wag to cut the string after that’d be fine but the floss container usually has it already.
I got one off etsy, it’s just 3d printed. Works fairly well, but the floss can get a little loose towards the end. But it’s easy enough to fix.
Not quite as convenient as the individual picks, but FAR less waste. A trade off I’m happy to make.
I am on the fence about k-cups. I use to make a partial pot of coffee at work in the drip machine. Sometimes I would drink it all, often they would be a cup of two left. As well it would sit hot for at least three or more hours each day. I did a calculation at one point the energy used and wastage of a k-cup vs drip machine. It was not even close over a year. I had to estimate the energy for the cup itself but the k-cup used about a quarter of the energy as it was only on during the making of the coffee and you would only make what you wanted. No wastage.
Simply put, the k-cup resulted in about 1/4 the carbon footprint of drip coffee in my situation. Personally I think people didn’t really think this thru well and just jumped on it as being wasteful without doing any calculations.
Alright but the one time use kcups accumulate tons of plastics
What is worse? Creating far more green house gases or reducing your plastic usage by a small percentage?
Personally if using a k-cup decreases my green house gas emission by 75 percent, then it only takes a bit of critical thinking to use it.
A wasted pot of coffee doesn’t produce a shitload of plastic
But it produces far more greenhouse gasses. Which is far worse.
Nothing beats a fully automatic espresso machine when it comes to efficiency. Want an espresso, large coffee or any of the other things it can prepare, and it is made with the parameters you want. The only non organic waste is the packaging of the coffee beans, which isn’t too bad, as they usually come in 500g of 1kg packs.
Some even have 2 beans containers for when you want to have different flavors, and almost all have a chute for a portion of ground coffee for the occasional special drink (decaffeinated or so, for visitors for example)
Edit: typo
I like them but not great at work. People will plug them up in a week.
There are special versions for high usage locations, and those often come with a maintenance contract. That should keep the coffee flowing for all to enjoy.
The models intended for home use probably won’t last very long if you brew 100 coffees a day with them.
Every drip machine I’ve used has a 2 hour shutoff
Not when your drinking it periodically at work. You will reset that unless you want for coffee at noon.
The tiny, plastic, fish-shaped soy sauce bottles you get with takeaway sushi.
Not as bad as the others, but it’s been on my mind… My wife bought a box of Ding-Dongs (my daughter begged her) and inside, each one was individually wrapped. They could have put them all in one tray.
Every box of sweets in Japan are like that. There’s an outer layer of plastic, an inner layer and every sweet is individually packaged. It feels so wasteful.
I got some chineese chocolate from a colleague, and it was a plastic wrapped paper box wih 10 smaller boxes on the inside. These smaller boxes were an orb shaped chocolate wrapped in aluminium foil, wrapped in a small plastic bag.
I bought a family pack of chocolate croissants the other week and the packaging was plastic, then they divided them in 3 smaller packets and inside they were individually packed. I don’t really understand
Your not meant to eat them all in one go though, and theyd get stale pretty quick if they weren’t individually wrapped.
Resealable bag. Problem solved.
All those individually wrapped candies EDIT: MicroSD cards!!!
How’re are sd cards wasteful?
I think they mean the packaging. Micro SD cards usually come in a package that’s 10x the volume of the card, itself.
Though, I’m not sure there’s a decent way around that one. It’s really difficult to ship and stock incredibly small products like that.
Have to make sure those small products don’t get lost somehow
the large packaging is so they don’t grow legs and walk out of stores or warehouses. some retailers require larger packaging, plus those non-recyclable trackers embedded inside for anti-theft systems. some of those larger blister packs and hangers are comically large.
Why does the packaging need plastic though? It’s absurd to me that coffe cups and stuff have to be degradable and made out of wood/carton (which is a good thing). And yet for a product where it shouldn’t matter “hey let’s use as much plastic as we can for this packaging”.
I’ve been keeping SD cards in a drawer unprotected for years and I have yet to see one break.
coffee cups
You want to know the ridiculous thing about that - the coffee cup thing is a complete con. They can’t be recycled as paper/cardboard because they have a polymer coating to allow them to maintain their structure.
Mostly it’s cardboard with a small amount of plastic around the card itself so you can see what you’re buying (and presumably so you can also see that somebody hasn’t discretely opens the packet and nicked the card).
I think MicroCenter’s house brand flash media is sold “loose”, or in minimal packaging, at the register. The USB sticks are for sure, and I think the SD and microSD too (though in a plastic carry case).
Individually package candy is a Japanese specialty, like, they seemingly pride themselves on how much they’re being wasteful.
Anything sold single dose.
Condoms
You could pretty easily argue they’re among the least wasteful things made, regardless of how much packaging they come in
Condoms prevent kids though, and those produce metric fucktons of waste
Not something I’d want to be re-usable.
Carton of toothpastes
taco sauce packets at taco john’s are a lot worse in the ‘waste per packet per quantity of sauce’ category.
Thanks for noting the per quantity nuance! :)
Water bottles suck, but you do get 500g of water for 10g of plastic. For ketchup it’s more like 5g ketchup to 2g plastic. Never seen a taco John’s packet and hope I never do
Packets of tears.
Condoms
(people here really don’t understand jokes)
I feel like the net impact on carbon use makes condoms reasonable.
Also we have to question whether it can be considered waste if it’s actually necessary.
Every sperm is sacred
Wrapping straws.
I would add straws themselves. People always complain about the paper straws that are ass, because they are. But straws themselves are. I don’t think i ever drank anything and thought: you know what would make this drink better? A straw.
Same for nearly every situation except when I am driving. Hate getting them at restaurants for any drink but on the road sometimes handy.
I find it a bit funny though. I suspect that plastic lid on a drink contains 5 times the amount of plastic contained in a straw. If you get one of those large convenience store drinks, the plastic cup and lid likely contains the equivalence of 50 straws. While it is good to reduce consumption all around, I find straws are mostly just signaling. Go to a dump and you likely will be hard pressed to find a single straw but you will see tons of plastic.
Idk man iced coffee without a straw just seems weird. Really anything iced, I just don’t want ice coming up to my teeth/lips/mustache when I drink it…but coffee especially.
I use (and usually have with me) reusable straws, but I hate when I’m out and about and get an iced coffee with a sip-spout.
Also, while on the topic, as a mustachio’d man, straws also prevent the beverage from getting trapped in my facial hair, or facial hair ending up in my drink.
