The grams of waste per teaspoon of ketchup seems high.
What else has a super high packaging waste per consumable volume?
The tiny, plastic, fish-shaped soy sauce bottles you get with takeaway sushi.
All those individually wrapped candies EDIT: MicroSD cards!!!
Individually package candy is a Japanese specialty, like, they seemingly pride themselves on how much they’re being wasteful.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
Wet wipes are a ridiculous waste.
Bidets are very accessible.
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.
and after overdoing it on the spicy foods, bidets are a true life-saver
sent from my bidet
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.
Anything sold single dose.
Condoms
Condoms prevent kids though, and those produce metric fucktons of waste
Not something I’d want to be re-usable.
You could pretty easily argue they’re among the least wasteful things made, regardless of how much packaging they come in
Carton of toothpastes
Packets of tears.
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
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
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
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).
Nestle and evil, name a better dastardly duo.
I know!
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.
There are also podless pods. That are just compressed coffee balls.
taco sauce packets at taco john’s are a lot worse in the ‘waste per packet per quantity of sauce’ category.
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.
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.
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
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.
