Greenies! What is your least favourite consumer product.

dewsbury

This is more a gut feel thing than a scientific matter.

My pet hate is those instant yogurt drinks.

A 10 second drink results in a throw-away drink contain headed for landfill - to remain there for hundreds of years!

Anybody else got a nominated product??

mike65

Easter Eggs/Batteries/Razor Blades a miserable mix of plastics and cardboard.

Mike.

SeanW

Bread that comes in plastic packaging - only has a shelf life of a couple of days, yet so many bakers feel the need to use plastic shrink wrap instead of waxed paper. It's completely pointless and it gets up my nose big time. But there are some bakers who do use waxed paper and I tend towards these products when buying bog-standard white bread.

Non-rechargeable batteries. I tend to avoid these too.

silverharp

imported bottled water.
air freighted "fresh" fruit from Africa and South America
most of the cosmetics industry, a triumph of marketing over utility

simu

Deodorant and anti-perspirant cans, air freshening sprays and gadgets

Plus all the stuff mentioned above!

BendiBus

Heavily packaged fruit.

Grizzly 45

Stupidly huge amounts of packaging around electronic goods.At least the plastic peanut is slowly disappering.That and styrofoam boxes for burgers and pizzas.At least Burger king uses cardboard.

lostinsuperfunk

Foil-backed plastic for food wrapping. Metal bonded to plastic, that stuff isn't going to biodegrade in a hurry.

Run_to_da_hills

Kenco singles leaves a definite footprint. A bulky plastic capsule and sheet of printed aluminium foil is used for every spoonful of coffee or drink. I would boycott these in preference to bean to cup dispensers.

dewsbury

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

That and styrofoam boxes for burgers and pizzas.At least Burger king uses cardboard.

I am not one to champion McDonald's but I think they use cardboard too now.

Grizzly 45

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Kenco singles leaves a definite footprint. A bulky plastic capsule and sheet of printed aluminium foil is used for every spoonful of coffee or drink. I would boycott these in preference to bean to cup dispensers.

Absolute CRAP coffee as well:eek:

tampopo

Yacult.

dewsbury

Grizzly 45 wrote: »

.At least the plastic peanut is slowly disappering.

Plastic peanut ? Cád é sin?

Glowing

It annoys me to see people in the supermarket buying something like 1 onion, and putting it in a plastic bag! WHY!!?!?!!?

Run_to_da_hills

Glowing wrote: »

It annoys me to see people in the supermarket buying something like 1 onion, and putting it in a plastic bag! WHY!!?!?!!?

You dont have to, you can get a barcode sticker from the scales and place it on the onion or get the item weighed separately at checkout (Tesco) .

blackbox

dewsbury wrote: »

Plastic peanut ? Cád é sin?

Is it going to become a collector's item - where can I get one?

blackbox

Hybrid SUVs

It's not the machine - it's the hypocrisy!

Capt'n Midnight

The whole consumer mentality that once you have consumed you are supposed to consume more.

Goods that just don't last they way they used to :mad:

Tomk1

Plug in air fresheners, "give you the smell of outside/forrest/etc", (Double jeopardy burn-fossil-ESB & usless-waste), why not open the freckin window.

dewsbury

I concur with most of the points made in this thread.

I am also wondering if anybody else feels somewhat alienated from the consumer society.

..do perhaps you feel people consider you mean because you are less inclined to purchase items? Do some of your greener habits make people think you are a bit odd?

...anybody else feeling alienated.... if so, in what way??

gerky

dewsbury wrote: »

I concur with most of the points made in this thread.

I am also wondering if anybody else feels somewhat alienated from the consumer society.

..do perhaps you feel people consider you mean because you are less inclined to purchase items? Do some of your greener habits make people think you are a bit odd?

...anybody else feeling alienated.... if so, in what way??

I'm from a rural area and a fairly big family and they drive me bloody mad, I try to do my bit and most people in my area undo it a hundred times over.

dewsbury

...

It has just come to me in a flash of inspiration!!

My least favourite consumer good is ....


...
...
wait for it...

the free kiddies toy that is given out in fast food places.

You go there to buy some crappy food and you end up with yet more plastic junk.... without even asking for it.

In fairness to myself I have often asked for a "happy meal with no toy" .... confuses the hell out of the staff tho'.

(Please don't berate me for being in these fast food joints. It is not very often ... honestly it's not..:)

Celticfire

dewsbury wrote: »

...



In fairness to myself I have often asked for a "happy meal with no toy" .... confuses the hell out of the staff tho'.

(Please don't berate me for being in these fast food joints. It is not very often ... honestly it's not..:)

Do you buy the meal for yourself or your kids? If it's for kids why would you deny them the toy?

DublinWriter

I wouldn't say product, but electrical appliances in general.

Recently our drier ran up the curtain and joined the choir-invisible.

A friend of mine gave me the number of, and get this, a green repairman!

He came out and replaced a faulty thermostat on our dryer that was five years old and was way out of warranty. It's been as good as gold ever since. Total cost was €100 vs. buying a new unit for €300+

Basically these days most of us get nothing fixed as it's all manufactured in China and shipped to the other side of the planet to us for peanuts. It's easier for us to buy another unit and not consider the repair option.

Again, our KiSS HD Recorder packed in the other day as the DVD drive wouldn't shut. I opened it up and discovered it was using a generic IDE 5.25 DVD unit. I grabbed an old PC from the skip at one of my client's I.T. skips, ripped out the DVD, put it in the Kiss player, and hey-presto!

dewsbury

Celticfire wrote: »

Do you buy the meal for yourself or your kids? If it's for kids why would you deny them the toy?

I deny them the toy because;

1. I have 4 kids. If I go to McDonalds once a week then I will end up with over 200 junky plastic toys each year. This clutters up my house and is a mindless waste. So after 5 years I will have over 1,000 toys ! Yeuch!

2. My kids don't expect toys in McDonalds. They know that they are going there for food and never get the toy. Because they are not in the habit they do not complain.

3. I try to ensure that my children appreciate any gifts that they get. The culture of free toys with a meal denies them that appreciation.

4.The Mac's toy is a cheap 5 minute thrill than is designed to ensure that the child pesters the parent to return to Macs.

KatCookie

simu wrote: »

Deodorant and anti-perspirant cans, air freshening sprays and gadgets

Plus all the stuff mentioned above!

So are we not supposed to use deodorants now??
or do you just mean the aerosols??

personally, i hate the water from half way across the world..
water from Tipparary or any other place is much nicer when you think its come from less than 100 miles away!

and i hate the fact that you can buy something off ebay or suimilar, and it comes from China and it costs less than €5..

probe

Many consumer products have become “un-green” to meet the demands mainly of the British retail chains operating in Ireland and the general incompetence of the way things are run.

Example: when I was a child milk was delivered by a “milkman”, using an electric milk truck (which made no noise early in the morning going from house to house in the early hours), and he collected the empty glass milk bottles from the previous day’s consumption as part of the delivery operation. Every householder “rinsed and returned” every day. These bottles didn’t have to go through the energy intensive glass recycling process – they were washed and re-used over and over.

In Germany today when you buy a bottle of beer or whatever, there is a refundable bottle tax on the container. When you bring it back to the shop (any shop) and put it in the refund machine, you get the tax back. The bottle is washed and reused – no energy wasting crushing and glass recycling. The system is designed to cost you a lot of money if you don’t recycle, and minimise the energy consumed in the recycling process. Basic behavioural engineering stuff.

In Ireland today, beer and wine bottles are delivered to the shop by company A. Company A’s truck goes back empty to the warehouse because they aren’t involved in the bottle recycling operation. Waste of energy # 1.

Company B’s truck comes to the shopping mall “recycling area” to collect about 50% of the bottles sold by that mall which people bother to return. An unnecessary truck roll – waste of energy # 2.

The glass collected is in smithereens and has to be melted and turned into new bottles – waste of energy # 3.

The other 50% odd of the glass bottles bought in the shop almost certainly end up in landfill – because there is no refundable tax incentive to recycle the bottles.

It would be difficult to design a better "how not to do it" system...

.probe

probe

KatCookie wrote: »

So are we not supposed to use deodorants now??

Most deodorants contain aluminium (check the ingredients list on the packaging) which is linked to Alzheimers and cancer according to some research. Many also contain volatile organics (as do most perfumed products) which are believed to be a contributory factor to the global increase in asthma.

If you want to be green in terms of your own health, you may wish to avoid products with these ingredients.

.probe

KatCookie

probe wrote: »

Most deodorants contain aluminium (check the ingredients list on the packaging) which is linked to Alzheimers and cancer according to some research. Many also contain volatile organics (as do most perfumed products) which are believed to be a contributory factor to the global increase in asthma.

If you want to be green in terms of your own health, you may wish to avoid products with these ingredients.

.probe

Is there any brands that DONT have these products?
..i dont know about you.. but i need to use a deodorant!!

KatCookie

probe wrote: »

In Ireland today, beer and wine bottles are delivered to the shop by company A. Company A’s truck goes back empty to the warehouse because they aren’t involved in the bottle recycling operation. Waste of energy # 1.

Company B’s truck comes to the shopping mall “recycling area” to collect about 50% of the bottles sold by that mall which people bother to return. An unnecessary truck roll – waste of energy # 2.

The glass collected is in smithereens and has to be melted and turned into new bottles – waste of energy # 3.

The other 50% odd of the glass bottles bought in the shop almost certainly end up in landfill – because there is no refundable tax incentive to recycle the bottles.

It would be difficult to design a better "how not to do it" system...

.probe

Technically.. you are saving glass by re-using it, but i'll take your point

and you also didnt count in the fact that the people using recycling banks -the ones that are located in town and villages - these people would most likely have had to drive with their boot full of recyclables to the actual recycling bank!! thats #4

Musha

Bottled Water of any kind :mad:

www.thinkoutsidethebottle.org

KatCookie

Sometimes you just need a bottle - eg in workplaces where they dont have any of them water cooler things with the tiny disposable cups (another pet hate) .. but i re-use my bottles so much that i think my usage justifies what it took to make it..
i.e re filling a 750ml bottle at least twice a day.. and using it 7 days of the week.. i only get a new one if i really need a drink or if theres no bottles at home..

AngryHippie

You know the way it says do not refill on the bottles, Is that gonna give me water cancer if I do refill it, or is it just to boost sales ?

Capt'n Midnight

well they had to remove the do not recharge from alkaline batteries in some markets because they are rechagable up to 20 times if you do it right and dont' let discharge too much

Húrin

It must be either bottled water, or any kind of new car that claims to be "green" (the manufacture of one car emits some 35 to 50 tonnes of carbon dioxide.)

Húrin

AngryHippie wrote: »

You know the way it says do not refill on the bottles, Is that gonna give me water cancer if I do refill it, or is it just to boost sales ?

Obvious sales booster.

KatCookie

no, actually im pretty sure ive got water cancer from reusing my bottles..

my brother doesnt have a hot water bottle.. so in winter he fills up a 2 litre bottle of almost boiling water.. i hope one day that it bursts and soaks him in the middle of the night!! .. im so mean..

probe

KatCookie wrote: »

Is there any brands that DONT have these products?
..i dont know about you.. but i need to use a deodorant!!

Yes - Vichy Homme - EAN: 3 337871 309633

No aluminum in the ingredients list

.probe

KatCookie

i stand corrected.

but im a woman..
homme=man..
im not going around smelling like a guy.. lol

gerky

KatCookie wrote: »

i stand corrected.

but im a woman..
homme=man..
im not going around smelling like a guy.. lol

Theres more natural deodorants
Here
and
Here

If there any good to you.

lostinsuperfunk

The "disposable" water bottles are usually made from PET.

Studies indicate that after repeated use, PET containers may leach DEHP, an endocrine-disrupting phthalate and probable human carcinogen.

- see http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/108/plastic

You can buy a reusable water bottle made from HDPE or polypropylene fairly cheaply. It's also possible to get stainless steel water bottles.

probe

KatCookie wrote: »

i stand corrected.

but im a woman..

I had sort of guessed that!

One would regard Vichy as a "womans' company" and I have never bought a Vichy product, until I asked for aluminum free deodorant in the pharmacie and the pharmacien suggested Vichy Homme.

One assumes that they have a female version of the product too.

Observing how some of my French/Swiss/Belgian female acquaintances have no inhibitions in picking up the odd clothing item in a guys boutique that they like the colour or design of and buy same, I didn't see any point in underscoring the "homme" bit of the product name, after all it is no more than a cocktail of chemicals.... -Alunimium, the 13th element in the periodic table, it can't be good for either sex.

.probe

KatCookie

lostinsuperfunk wrote: »

The "disposable" water bottles are usually made from PET.

- see http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/108/plastic

You can buy a reusable water bottle made from HDPE or polypropylene fairly cheaply. It's also possible to get stainless steel water bottles.

how much repeated use until they start leaking?

KatCookie

probe wrote: »

I had sort of guessed that!

One would regard Vichy as a "womans' company" and I have never bought a Vichy product, until I asked for aluminum free deodorant in the pharmacie and the pharmacien suggested Vichy Homme.

One assumes that they have a female version of the product too.

Observing how some of my French/Swiss/Belgian female acquaintances have no inhibitions in picking up the odd clothing item in a guys boutique that they like the colour or design of and buy same, I didn't see any point in underscoring the "homme" bit of the product name, after all it is no more than a cocktail of chemicals.... -Alunimium, the 13th element in the periodic table, it can't be good for either sex.

.probe

i wouldnt really mind wearing guys the odd bit of males clothing either.. "Boyfriend" style jeans are quite popular at the moment
but i wouldnt want to go around smelling like a man... unless i was extremely sweaty!!

Húrin

lostinsuperfunk wrote: »

The "disposable" water bottles are usually made from PET.

- see http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/108/plastic

You can buy a reusable water bottle made from HDPE or polypropylene fairly cheaply. It's also possible to get stainless steel water bottles.

That's ridiculous. Society is so paranoid about cancer these days. The vast majority of people get cancer simply by breathing air. PET plays almost no part.

djpbarry

Húrin wrote: »

The vast majority of people get cancer simply by breathing air.

Is that so?

Capt'n Midnight

Oxygen is carcinogenic. This is why there are so many anti-oxidants around. Oxygen is usually toxic to anerobes who haven't developed ways of dealing with it, on the other hand those bacteria are usually immune to cyanide, carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulphide which are fatal for us.

We also have lots of oncogenes - genes that cause cancer, which are very hard to avoid too.

And the same bloke that invented lead in petrol that we used to breath in also invented CFC's which kill off the ozone layer so he is one person you can blame for air quality. ( Thomas Midgley Junior )

djpbarry

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Oxygen is carcinogenic. This is why there are so many anti-oxidants around.

Don't you mean oxidants (free radicals) rather than oxygen?

hawkmoon269

Water in glass bottles tastes much nicer than in plastic.

I am glad to see that some shops have started stocking Perrier again, as it has always been my favourite. I had not seen it for many years in Ireland.

JIMSTARK

I suggest your favourite consumer product will be a BLANKET in the near future, because the lights will be off, the heat low and the plebs at home.

"the lights are off, but the plebs are home" could be a new version of that song.

KatCookie

its a song?:eek::eek::eek: