World's Worst Product Goes to....

When it comes to needless pointless most wasteful product ever, I can't see much beyond the Colgate Wisp. (Copyright-patent-registration-trademark-whatever stuff inserted here.)

 Here's a great quote directly from their website:

Q: "Can I use it more than once?"
A: "No, it is not recommended. Colgate WISP is designed for a single use. Keep in mind, each pack comes with four brushes, so you can freshen up multiple times a day."

(Oh... all those bolds and italics and colors are theirs. Not mine.)

OH GOODY!!!! So not only are these designed to be used ONCE then thrown away, they are encouraging me to use MULTIPLE ONES per DAY!!! WOW! Think of all the packaging I'm going through on TOP of that! That's so cool!!!!

Yeah, no it's not.

It's discreet! It doesn't need water! It's plastic!!!

This product actually horrifies me. I completely fail to see the point. Someone once told me it's great for travelers in other countries because sometimes the water is sketchy and it's nice to brush with these. OK... MAYBE that's a TINY remote pass on these things; but, really, we've managed without them for centuries, so I'm gonna say no. Too evil for the good of the planet.

Besides, they market these things to the cool peeps out in clubs. "Oh my gosh, I need fresh breath NOW!!!" Ever hear of gum? Mints?? Mouthwash????? Even those breathstrips are less of a waste of plastic than these things! During my braces phase a few years back, I had serious yuk-mouth a lot. I took to carrying around a small travel-glass bottle of mouthwash. It did the trick, and I just refilled it when needed.

I'm just sayin'. The less waste, the better. Yes, mints come in containers that get thrown away. But think about the ratio of product to packaging, and pick according to that. I'll say it again and again: if we reject these products, if we DO NOT BUY them, the companies will get the hint and stop making them and no other competitors will come out with their own version.

Stop. Think. Shop... smarter.

Medicine... Anytime, Anywhere!

To even begin talking about the new crop of single-serving super-convenient no-muss-no-fuss on-the-run go-anywhere over-the-counter medicines, I have to put aside the logical thinking that, if you are or beginning to feel sick, you can just take something on the go and continue working/shopping/hiking/whatever. It's hard for me to put logic aside. If we were all ruled a bit more by logic, we'd be a lot better off. To me, logic dictates that you get yourself the hell home and in bed if you feel you are coming down with something. Society would rather we pop some meds and keep going, keep being productive, keep running the rat race. I cry out, WHY????

So, yeah, I have to choke all that back down and stuff it back into my brain where logic lives but doesn't get out to exercise much anymore... to focus on the other point: needless plastic waste. Feel a cough coming on? No worries! It's OK that you don't have insurance and can't make it to the doctor, or that you have to stay at work because the economy sucks and you have to hold onto your job through sickness (it's OK to spread the germs, too, because we have products to kill germs too and antibacterial hand stuff in more little plastic containers) (but I digress), because you can just whip out the little plastic spoon with the perfect dose in it, and then throw the little plastic spoon away and wait til you need the next dose. It's far too messy and cumbersome to carry an entire BOTTLE of stuff anywhere, since you HAVE to keep going with your life, rather than take a needed day of rest keeping your germs to yourself (how foolhardy is THAT??). This is one of those times I have to ask, do we NEED this product? This is when I say, REJECT what these companies are trying to sell. If we do not buy into these so-called conveniences they are peddling, they won't make more. This isn't a necessity. It's some marketing scheme someone came up with in a desperate attempt to keep their job and seem cool and cutting-edge and somehow get above other companies. We need to tell them this is not the way, and we do not want it. We realize we don't need this kind of waste in the world. We can send this message.

Concious consumerism. If we don't stand up to reject these things, they will never stop. It's up to us.

To Floss or Not to Floss - That is NOT the Question

I never used to floss. See, I hated my teeth. Hated. I was a tetracycline baby. When I was born, I was very sick, and they stuffed me full of the common antibiotic, tetracycline. They don't give that to babies anymore, because it has an effect on developing bones and teeth. I and many many other people therefore have "tetracycline-stained" teeth. They aren't really "stained" because it's IN the tooth, but our teeth are grey or brown or look like marble or like we smoke 10 packs a day with tea and coffee. So my teeth looked dingy, and I hated them, and there was nothing I could do short of re-doing my whole mouth with lots and lots of money. I didn't care if they fell right out of my head. I brushed them, but that was it. Dentists warned, but I didn't care. I didn't pay any attention to dental floss.

But now, I have a mouth full of pearly-whites. Well, porcelain whites. Every single tooth I have is covered in a beautiful little snug jacket of porcelain. And I love them. I love them so much and I want to protect them. They are pretty pretty pretty and they were EXPENSIVE. So now, I floss! I never had a lot of practice at it, and maybe I'm not that good; but, darn it, I am not the idiot that apparently most of us are when it comes to using floss.

Oh, we've all seen the commercials. I'm talking about FLOSS PICKS here. You know, those little plastic prong-fork-handle thingies with a tiny bit of floss threaded on them? SO handy! SO helpful! SO EASY TO USE!!! Screw regular floss! That's far too hard to use! We can't be bothered by that! We've become too stupid to possibly handle using regular floss!!

Come on, they didn't really say that. Did they? Yes, they pretty much did. We have to simplify floss because we are now at risk of getting tangled up in it if we try to use it. We're just that dumb... and in they came. I have friends who swear by those things. I see people using them ALL the time. Well it's just so darned convenient! We might not think of flossing in public, but gosh dang it these are really just fancy toothpicks and those are publically accepted, right? Um, eww! And then I see them discarded on streets and sidewalks... little plastic grossities with tooth-junk on them. I feel the same as if I saw a discarded condom.

This is yet another example of how we simply adopt a so-called convenience without really thinking of the environmental consequences. Do we NEED these floss picks? No. We DO NOT. We can go into the bathroom after lunch and do a proper flossing with regular floss that, sure, comes in a plastic container, but is really much much less plastic over the life of the product. There are natural flosses out there... my good friends at Radius Toothbrush have a delightful floss, and their company is very green. There is nothing good or redeeming or necessary about plastic floss picks. They need to go away.

There is ONE company I saw while researching... among the Oral-B and Crest products, there is a pick made by Den-Tek that is a compostable material made from starch, NOT plastic. That's better. Not the best, but much better. There are still problems to be addressed with the starch products, in that they can be mistaken for plastic and ruin a batch of recycling. But it's a step anyway. Maybe if you cannot figure out how to use real floss, you can try those instead of the plastic ones. Just please dispose of them properly. It's really gross when they are just laying there on the ground.