Inefficient consumption
First off, thank you for your comments on my last post – it gives me some comfort that you all acknowledge that I have some difficult decisions ahead of me, it’s not just some ridiculous issue in my head. Life and love, eh? Still, I wouldn’t ever opt to have the future made far easier by not having met the Gilb…
Anyway, today’s topic is something that although arbitrary, has disturbed me for years. Perhaps I have a somewhat Calvinist inclination, but I like to believe that anything you buy for consumption can indeed be consumed in entirety.
There are quite a few things, however, that you buy and acknowledge that some portion thereof, will not be used – ever. If I had a day to myself, I’d sit down and find a way to overcome this shortcoming and become a millionaire in patenting improved, more efficient designs.
Below, a list of some of the things that annoyingly can’t be used until finished. Feel free to add to this list of poor functional designs (or submit ideas for improvement that I can pilfer. Be generous, folks, you know I’m going to be jobless at the end of next month J). And in brackets, my estimation of the percentage of the product that can’t be used:
1. Clutch pencil lead refills (20%)
2. Normal pencils (20%)
3. Erasers (10%, depending on original size)
4. Soap (5%. If you’re my father, you glue the 5% sliver of soap to the new soap bar by squishing them together when they’re wet and then using them as a single bar. Looks like it’s clear where my Calvinistic tendencies come from…)
5. Any expensive facial product in a plastic tube (up to 10%, depending on the size to volume ratio. This, I’m convinced, is no accident – the less you’re able to use from a tube, the quicker you’re going to have to replace it. With my expensive eye cream tube, I now cut the bottom end off the tube when I can no longer squeeze more product out, and then proceed to extract the remainder of the contents as needed. It lasts about 4 weeks extra that way!)
That’s all I can think of off-hand; strange that everything I listed has a stationery/toiletry theme…
posted by Third World Ant @ 9:44 am
8 Comments:
What about the little tubs of grated parmesan from woolies ? OK I'm sure you grate your own, but we mortals buy them, sprinkle some on one plate of pasta, and throw the bulk out in disgust just as we prepare another plate of pasta a week (ok two or three weeks) later. *sniff*
I'd be interested in knowing what percentage of a tank of fuel gets burned while idling at traffic lights, or during the bumper-to-bumper rush-hour crawl.
I HATE Clutch lead pencil refills. Mine break incessently in meetings and then i sit like a doos *shaking it like a polaroid picture* trying to make the other ones slide neatly into the gap so i can continue taking notes while everybody else looks and me and tries to ignore the noise my stupid pencil is making...arrrgh (but for some reason, I can't switch to bic pen...they just won't write in the cold)
Toothpaste, computers, cellphones, fashionable clothing (though if you buy from YDE you can use it until it's in rags because it doesn't take that long).
Thomas... keep the parmesan in the freezer - it doesn't freeze, but keeps the bacteria at bay!
Kyk - ah, the trials and tribulations of De Waal Drive/M5/N2/N1 traffic!
HPF - I hate them too. I only ever use the old-fashioned kind...
Anon - I hear ya! Cellphones are the devil incarnate (but then, my Dell D600 has a will of its own, too...)
just to let you know that this xhosa girl has started reading your blog.
Is that a valid use of "Calvinism", to mean thrifty? Besides the religious meaning, I thought that as a world-view it implied predeterminism or fatalism, a lack of control over future events. Just wondering.
How about the actual containers themselves? Once their content is consumed, they're never re-used unless explicitly recycled. I can't stand yoghurt containers without proper lids: you can't put your leftovers into them. They're high-grade plastic that is used once.
darkchocolate - well hello there, or should I say "Molo!"
teasnob - I'm purely using the word to mean 'thrifty', as you gathered, with no other overtones. It's kind of like using the word 'catholic' to mean varied/worldly/univeral, without refering to the religion in question. As for plastic containers, yes, they're highly wasteful (as are the wrappers around chocolate bars, or wine bottles etc). The marketing of products appears to revolve around expensive packaging...
Post a Comment
<< Home