I think we still have choices. No one makes us buy the expensive stuff. I don't feel pressured, but I think it's sad people give up their hard earned money so easily because of advertising that makes them feel what they have or have used is inadequate. There are few things I will pay a little more for...my daughter gave me a magic eraser last week when I was cleaning doors, walls, woodwork and it was amazing! I looked in the store and they were more pricy than the amount of time they last, but they really cut a lot of time from my cleaning removing marks so quickly & easily, so I'll try and find they less expensive somewhere else (nothing left of them for the landfill!). I agree with your landfill statement, it seems everything has something that is throw-away, packaging hasn't really gotten less, it's gotten more percentage recycled before it gets thrown away again. I had a home ec substitute teacher way back in the 70's that spent the entire class time talking about it being our responsibility to "save the earth"..she told us many things she did that we could also do. One thing I recall was the cabbage or lettuce that came wrapped in plastic on a sterofoam tray, she would remove all that plastic and foam tray and leave it right there in the produce department of the store and complain to the manager of unnecessary packaging. I won't be buying their disposable tubes or brush heads. I do wonder how they'll sell though.

I'll bet they're going to sell like gangbusters, all those disposable cleaning supplies. I hear the women at work raving about them.

Like your home ec teacher, I am very conscious of waste. I clean with cut-up old towels and vinegar or ammonia (not at the same time) and water mostly. I don't buy paper towels (to the astonishment of many guests) or prepared cleansers.

I think people still care ... some. I think a lot of it gets lost in "the tyranny of the urgent" -- most families are so overbooked on activities and appointments that they don't feel they have the time to avoid the fast-food restaurant or the supermarket dinner and all the attendant packaging. They would just as soon pop a coffee pod into the coffeemaker each morning than measure and have to clean up grounds and a filter. Recycling is fine, so long as the bin is within arm's reach and no real effort is required to do it.

It's sad. But, as a society, we decided a while ago that it was okay to waste like this. And it was okay to have everyone pay for the problems that result. If we ever really calculated what it cost us to live like this, I'd guess many more people would choose differently.

I agree with Kathy that often it's "convenience that's not really convenience." The coffee pods are really amazing to me. You still have to clean the coffee maker if you don't want the coffee to taste horrible after a few days. So the convenience is...throwing a pod in the trash rather than emptying a filter basket into the same can? Huh? All this convenience only for only four or five times as much per pound for coffee. I know a couple people who have these machines, and they quit buying the pods after a while and got their old coffee makers back out.

A lot of this seems driven not even so much because people perceive that the products they buy are really so ingenious, but just because they want to buy something. If you regard shopping as a recreational pursuit, you wind up bringing home armloads of this worthless garbage.

Oh well, the coffee pod machine can sit on the shelf next to the salad shooter, juicer, and food processor.

I remember years ago, McDonalds served their hamburgers in little styrofoam boxes. People complained, and they switched to cardboard boxes and paper bags. Still discarded, but at least paper bio-degrades.

So the convenience is...throwing a pod in the trash rather than emptying a filter basket into the same can?

Well, in fairness, it's also not having to:
- either grind beans (and clean up the almost-inevitable static cling) or find the can opener or knife to open up the ground coffee,
- not measuring it out while you're half-asleep,
- guessing how much coffee to make

That said, I don't find the task so onerous that I find using coffee pods attractive.

I'm with you on some of the more -- um, specific -- kitchen items I've seen, like electric piping guns, etc.

Well, I doubt that the "whole bean" crowd would go in for coffee pods. That'd be sort of like getting someone in England to use a tea bag.

Does anyone here know how to spell "advertising"?

That's what TVs about - to get us sedated with the program, then hit us with the ad.

Sort of like hypnosis.

Some of us even make fun of the ads - but among that crew, some will go out and buy the stuff.

I'd say it's mainly a con game - they think up new and outlandish ideas. To separate us from our money - that they think should be in their pocket, not ours.

But - will they be around when, possibly like the employees of Enron and such, after I've been laid off and find that my company stock is worthless?

And the company has raided the pension plan, and it's broke, as well.

Have you checked "adbusters" lately? Suffix is ".com", or possibly",ca".

I get a kick out of them.

I remember the guy with a big hat, on a horse, with desert and mountain background, Like the "M Man", remember?

Had a white tube in his mouth.

That drooped.

Caption? "Smoking causes impotence".

Have a great weekend, all. It's Thanksgiving up here in Canada.

You know - that territory to the north of the U.S. (that isn't shown on most U.S. maps).

Enjoy your fall, all.

joyful guy

Yeah,I think this product is a dog.I deliberately ignore them when I see people have bought them for me to use.I know that if you read the fine print on most of the spray cleaners,they say that you have to leave it on the surface for ten minutes to actually kill the bacteria.What I am wondering is how those antibacterial wipes kill bacteria.I once read a study that said most bacteria is wiped off.What a scam if this is how the fancy wipes do it.And while I'm ranting.. how about the antibacterial dishsoap.I used to avoid it like the plague,now I can't find any that isn't antibacterial.What gives?

The antibacterial agent used in all of the wipes I've seen is alcohol. Rubbing alcohol and a paper towel would do the same thing, if not better, for a lot less money. Basically any of the "pre-moistened wipes" are a ripoff, whether it's the germ killing ones or the ones that are moistened with window cleaner or other cleaning products. You are paying a big premium for a very small amount of actual cleaner. Plus if you don't use them fast enough, they all dry out and are worthless.

I do like the alcohol-based hand sanitizers though. A lot of public restrooms do not have soap, so it can be very handy to have the santizer in your vehicle. I have read studies that say that they do reduce colds and other infections. In one case, putting a couple of wall-mounted hand sanitizer dispensers in school classrooms and encouraging students and teachers to use them cut colds by around 30 percent.

However, as you said, they did say in the study that actual hand-washing was better, due to the rinsing effect where the germs fall off. You don't get that effect with the sanitizers, but they're significantly better than nothing.

how about the antibacterial dishsoap.I used to avoid it like the plague,now I can't find any that isn't antibacterial.What gives?

Many people think antibacterial soap is A Good Thing (TM). I buy "non-anti-bacterial" dish soap at my co-op -- Restore the Earth. Does a good job cleaning. It's not particularly cheap, but it seems fairly concentrated when I think back a few years to using Dawn and the like and you don't have to worry about what's in it. It's available by mail-order if you don't have any food co-ops/Whole Foods/Fresh Fields/Wild Oats stores near you.

Here is a link that might be useful: Restore the Earth products

We're still here- and we don't buy swiffers. or dryer sheets. or little bottles of tap water from State College, PA.

we are, for the most part, not living in houses made of particle board and chewing gum that we owe hundreds of thousands of dollars on, or driving 2-year old SUV's and talking about trading them in because they're 'just not us'...

we might have bought one of those 'fresh basil' packages- but we then potted it up, and had basil all season, instead of letting it languish in the fridge, and buying another one the next time we wanted pesto.

some of us even save the spaghetti sauce jars rather than recycle them- and then use them to store the leftovers of the huge pot of sauce, or chili, or stew, that we made up over the weekend...

that leaves us money for luxuries like hand-crafted, small-batch un blended maple syrup- in fact, it means we can buy both the buttery 'light amber' AND the smokey 'b-grade' :)

:) a very wise person observes
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Well, I doubt that the "whole bean" crowd would go in for coffee pods. That'd be sort of like getting someone in England to use a tea bag.

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brilliantly put :)!!!!! I was going to observe that anyone who drinks folgers in the first place doesn't give a rat's tail for taste, so is unlikely to clean their coffee maker with the same dedication as I clean out my french press...nor are they likely to accept a second cup of coffee at my house, since I've found that most of them think that more than a single coffee ground escaped into the pot is cause to dump the whole carafe and 'start over'

and they don't even dump it on the houseplants, who would get more out of it than they obviously do!

Well, I doubt that the "whole bean" crowd would go in for coffee pods. That'd be sort of like getting someone in England to use a tea bag.

Tea bags now far outsell loose tea in Britain; they make up 82%-90% of the market (as opposed to 97% in the US). Tetley alone sells 250 million tea bags a week in Britain.

http://www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/food/features/011004.html
http://www.globetrends.com/allabouttea/HistoryOfTea.htm

There are also lots of folks who grind coffee beans which have been flavored after the fact (amaretto, cinnamon, etc.) because they believe it's the key to better coffee. No offense to those of you who like flavored coffee; if you like it, fine. But the coffee in those blends typically is not anywhere near the best (or freshest) you can buy, and grinding whole beans really doesn't make much difference in the finished product. For those folks, pods would be much simpler and probably make better coffee, to boot.

Whether it's beans, pods or ... whatever ...

... I hope that they recycle the stuff after use.

We used to call it a "garbage" place ... or a "dump".

But now they call it a "landfill" - but, whatever the name, many don't want one near *their* property.

Better to forego some of the fancy stuff, invest the money ...

... and still be floating, six months after layoff if unable to find replacement employment.

Many folks are about three paycheques from being homeless on the street. (Yeah, Canadians spell funny).

Good wishes for health, friends - and common sense enough to provide for ongoing prosperity.

joyful guy

No dishwasher, no dryer. We use a woodstove (cut, split, stack our own wood, too!). We have a garden and provide our green needs for fully 6-7 mos./yr..

We drive used cars... no loans here!

This would be an appallingly spartan household to many. AND WE LIKE THAT FACT! Our parents grew up in the Depression; humorously "quirky" anecdotes were NOT humorous when our mothers and fathers related them. Young spendthrifts ought to read the letters sent to my husband's grandfather in the late '40s... about how much is sucked to live in Germany then with NO money and kids who lacked mittens and coats... get a CLUE, America, and GET REAL.

I've NEVER "bounced" a check. And I'm proud of that! If more people took their finances more seriously and INSISTED THEIR ELECTED OFFICIALS did the same our country wouldn't be in the dire cicumstance it now is!

Thank goodness there are still some sensible people left in the world. What a great thread! I cringe at what people around me buy and use, and have to have, and think is so great. (I do things myself that make me cringe.)
Keep up the good work, be an example to others, and spread the word. Maybe we need a little 'mother-earth-types' re-make and resurgence. If it became cool, more people might do it.