I lost my beloved baby Marcel this past weekend, and what's a witch without her cat? I'll be out for a bit. Thanks for following.
Rhonda
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
When did we become too dainty to clean our toilets?
Some of these plastic products make me extra crazy when they are just completely unnecessary to our daily lives. This next one falls into that category. There's NO reason for this product to even exist. For it to be so horrifically disposable just makes it even worse.
Those little Scrubbing Bubble guys are just so cute! I've always thought so. But they've been pedalling some Earth-dangerous stuff lately. They seem to be more about plastic than cleaning these days. Here's the stuff straight from the Bubble's mouth, as it were:
" Scrubbing Bubbles® Toilet Cleaning Gel makes it easy to keep your toilet bowl clean and fresh. Simply use the Toilet Cleaning Gel dispenser to stamp a gel disc onto the inside of your toilet bowl. The discreet gel disc sits just under the rim. There's no need to touch the disc or the bowl with your hand, making Toilet Cleaning Gel more hygienic than traditional clip-on bowl cleaners.
The gel disc gradually dissolves with each flush, allowing a controlled release of clean and fresh fragrance. Each disc lasts up to one week and leaves no residue behind. Your toilet bowl will remain clean and fresh — with practically zero effort.
- One disposable, easy-to-use dispenser
- One gel holder (gel holder contains six gel discs)
- Continuously cleans and freshens with every flush
- Each disc lasts up to one week
- Leaves no residue behind
- More hygienic than traditional clip-on bowl cleaners
- Safe for septic systems "
Wow. Where to start? "Discreet". Really? It's a toilet. Why are we attempting discretion in a toilet bowl? "No need to touch" ANYTHING!! Don't touch your toilet!!! You might DIE!!! Or at least be really icky! After all, your BUTT was just on that thing. Ewwwwwww. Please tell me why we should be afraid to have to TOUCH our toilet? "More hygienic than traditional clip-on bowl cleaners": Ah. Now I get it. They are trying to replace that plastic thing you put in there with a different plastic thing that you don't have to touch. Because you know the men in your family always aimed for that clip-on. Don't touch it. It's icky. "Zero effort"... really? Is an occasional scrub of the toilet really such hard work? No wonder we have an obesity problem in this country... we can't even expend the effort to brush out a toilet.
Let's break down the physicalities of this product: each gel gob (also a lovely aiming point for men!) lasts ONE week. Maybe less, if you are a frequent-flusher (truly beyond my help and probably not reading this anyway!). 6 applications in each plastic dispenser. These dispensers are NOT refillable. You must purchase a new one every time. So... buy a new one every 6 weeks, 52 weeks in a year... so the average household with one bathroom will need to buy 8-9 of these a year. Now think about how many households might have more than one bathroom. Make that closer to 20/year or more. For one family. Multiply that by how many households Dow WISHES were using these things... mind-blowing, is it not?
All this, because we cannnot dare touch our toilets. You know, I'm pretty OK with my toilet. I'm not grossed out by it, or afraid of it. I don't DRINK out of it... but do you really want to know someone who does? I don't love cleaning behind it, but you know... We gotta do stuff we don't love to do. I still have a toilet brush. Archaic, I know. But it works. A little baking soda can do wonders for cleaning the bowl, while keeping the brush clean. Pour some white vinegar in before you go to bed. That'll disinfect it nicely. In between brushings, a tablet of fizzy denture cleaner will freshen it right up. After all, dentures have to be almost as germy as a toilet, right? If those tablets can deal with a mouth, they can handle your toilet.
So... this product is not only wasteful, it is completely unnecessary. We do not need it. Reject it. Feel free to glare at people purchasing it, or who have it in their homes. You have the Good Green Witch's permission.
Those little Scrubbing Bubble guys are just so cute! I've always thought so. But they've been pedalling some Earth-dangerous stuff lately. They seem to be more about plastic than cleaning these days. Here's the stuff straight from the Bubble's mouth, as it were:
The gel disc gradually dissolves with each flush, allowing a controlled release of clean and fresh fragrance. Each disc lasts up to one week and leaves no residue behind. Your toilet bowl will remain clean and fresh — with practically zero effort.
- One disposable, easy-to-use dispenser
- One gel holder (gel holder contains six gel discs)
- Continuously cleans and freshens with every flush
- Each disc lasts up to one week
- Leaves no residue behind
- More hygienic than traditional clip-on bowl cleaners
- Safe for septic systems "
Wow. Where to start? "Discreet". Really? It's a toilet. Why are we attempting discretion in a toilet bowl? "No need to touch" ANYTHING!! Don't touch your toilet!!! You might DIE!!! Or at least be really icky! After all, your BUTT was just on that thing. Ewwwwwww. Please tell me why we should be afraid to have to TOUCH our toilet? "More hygienic than traditional clip-on bowl cleaners": Ah. Now I get it. They are trying to replace that plastic thing you put in there with a different plastic thing that you don't have to touch. Because you know the men in your family always aimed for that clip-on. Don't touch it. It's icky. "Zero effort"... really? Is an occasional scrub of the toilet really such hard work? No wonder we have an obesity problem in this country... we can't even expend the effort to brush out a toilet.
Let's break down the physicalities of this product: each gel gob (also a lovely aiming point for men!) lasts ONE week. Maybe less, if you are a frequent-flusher (truly beyond my help and probably not reading this anyway!). 6 applications in each plastic dispenser. These dispensers are NOT refillable. You must purchase a new one every time. So... buy a new one every 6 weeks, 52 weeks in a year... so the average household with one bathroom will need to buy 8-9 of these a year. Now think about how many households might have more than one bathroom. Make that closer to 20/year or more. For one family. Multiply that by how many households Dow WISHES were using these things... mind-blowing, is it not?
All this, because we cannnot dare touch our toilets. You know, I'm pretty OK with my toilet. I'm not grossed out by it, or afraid of it. I don't DRINK out of it... but do you really want to know someone who does? I don't love cleaning behind it, but you know... We gotta do stuff we don't love to do. I still have a toilet brush. Archaic, I know. But it works. A little baking soda can do wonders for cleaning the bowl, while keeping the brush clean. Pour some white vinegar in before you go to bed. That'll disinfect it nicely. In between brushings, a tablet of fizzy denture cleaner will freshen it right up. After all, dentures have to be almost as germy as a toilet, right? If those tablets can deal with a mouth, they can handle your toilet.
So... this product is not only wasteful, it is completely unnecessary. We do not need it. Reject it. Feel free to glare at people purchasing it, or who have it in their homes. You have the Good Green Witch's permission.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
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.
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.
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