Tassimo, Tassimo Pods

While at my cousin's house the other day, I noticed that he had purchased a Tassimo machine. Now, these fancy contraptions are for those people who are time-starved, and only want to make one perfect cup of a beverage, whether it is coffee or tea. Holy waste, batman! Making a perfect cup involves pouring in water into the machine, as well as placing a coffee/tea disc (there are options for organic and fair trade coffees and teas) into the machine and your "one perfect cup" is made. However, the coffee/tea disc is made of plastic as well as containing a layer of foil on top - and there is no possibility to recycle these discs.

My assumed rationale behind this amount of packaging: For the pods, likely it is convenience, the nicety of having a gadget, and keeping the tea or coffee "fresh". There is a certain futuristic Jetsons feel to it also.

Alternative considerations: Whatever happened to just boiling a bit of water in a kettle and just using a conventional tea bag, or even instant coffee?

The Tassimo discs are made by Kraft, contact Tassimo here:

Email Tassimo US here.
Email Tassimo Canadahere
Call Tassimo US and Canada here, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week: 1-877-TDISCS1 (1-877-834-7271)

Razor blade packaging

Although it doesn't seem like it, summer is coming up soon, and society kind of frowns upon women who have Sasquatch type legs. While I was in the razor section of the drugstore the other day, I couldn't help but realize how grossly overpackaged razors are. The above, Gillette Venus, is just an example - the package is about 4 times the size of its contents, and I did a bit more research and found out the plastic package is made out of PVC, the most toxic plastic you can find. Oy!

The Gillette Venus is not the only offender. Other examples include:

Gillette Fusion (5 blades!?)
Gillette M3Power
Gillette M3Power Nitro
Gillette Mach 3
Schick Quattro
Schick Quattro for Women
Schick Intuition


My assumed rationale behind this amount of packaging: A number of reasons - first is aesthetics and marketing - razors were a commodity item that used to be purchased in cardboard boxes. Now they seem to be accompanied by splashy advertising (and splashy packaging to boot) and need to have that presence on shelf. Second, is theft - I hear razors are a favourite to steal - not sure about the actual razor, but I heard that razor blades are definitely stolen often and it is the reason why when you purchase refill blades, they are behind a plastic case with an alarm system. The rigid plastic container likely makes it hard to remove the razor blades from the package.

Alternative considerations: First, replace the plastic with perhaps a #1 or #2 plastic that is less toxic. Reduce the package size a bit and double face them. There is so much that can be done that is much less harmful!

The two big offenders of these razors are Schick and Procter & Gamble:

Schick:
Schick Consumer Affairs
P.O. Box 537, Neenah, WI 54957
Phone: 1.800.SHAVERS (1.800.742.8377)
Web:
http://www.shaving.com/feedback.asp

Procter & Gamble:
1 800 879 8433
Web: http://pggillette.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/pggillette.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php