Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Thrown Away

Has anyone else noticed the absurdity of disposable products?

A few months ago I saw a comercal for paper plates. The point was you have more important things in life than doing dishes, so just throw everything out. Brilliant, right? Never mind that most people have dishwashers, and if you don't doing dishes only takes about 20 minutes anyway. Because really, watching tv or checking email is way more important. Sure, they make it seem like you're going to spend time with family, but let's be honest, if you have time to be online you have time to do dishes.

Things like that frustrate me a lot. Ben and I work really hard to not use dispible products. Because really, buying something with the intnet of using it once and throwing it out, especially when there are other re-usable products that accomplish the same thing, rediculous.

We use rags instead of paper towels, wash cloths instead of napkins for the kids, microfiber instead of swiffer, cloth diapers and I have a Diva cup. I figure we save at least 50$ a month (altho Hana is in disposables right now because she refuses to potty and I can't afford bigger diapers for her right now, but we're working on potty training) just by doing a two extra loads of laundry a week.

Yes, extra laundry, which does mean extra water and extra power. However, when you take into consideration the resources used in manufacturing as well as the wast from the packaging and the products themselves, we're still coming out ahead.

The only downside I can see to reusable products is that they don't really benefit the economy any. Well, except for reusable bags. I buy one of those a month when I forget to bring one with me.

5 comments:

Dena said...

On my first missions trip to Peru I spent two whole days pounding used, rusty nails straight so we could use them again. In may places overseas they wash and reuse zip-loc bags, plastic wrap, etc. I must admit, I came whole and began washing EVERYTHING. It drove my mother nuts. I have calmed down a bit, but we also steer clear of most disposable products. And I am working on Elliott to go cloth of this next baby.

Elizabeth said...

I never remember my reusable bags.

Anonymous said...

Elizabeth- you've got Bagnesia (a person's forgetfulness to grab their reusable bags). There is a solution- go to www.bagnesia.com and see their great system of reminders so you never forget then again. Economical, effective, cool!

Sheri said...

Yes, we also try to avoid disposable items. Recently my husband bought a huge package of the stuff, and I'm thinking it's going to last us forever, b/c one can easily last us over a month.

Dena said...

re: hulu in Canada. We bought a VPN. We can watch hulu, and I can watch Grey's and Desperate Housewives on abc.com, too. It's wonderful! If you want more info on how you can do it, let me know.