1y ago

packets of ketchup are super wasteful

The grams of waste per teaspoon of ketchup seems high.

What else has a super high packaging waste per consumable volume?

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113 comments

This one’s done to death, but kCups.
Also, plastic water bottles.
A more novel pick would be those plastic ez floss picks.
- Other than just flossing with string, is there a good reusable floss holder?
  Some people may have motor limitations that make flossing difficult. Or just find it gross
  
  They are a bit more expensive than the plastic ones but they make plastic free ones.
  https://a.co/d/fVLvJES
  
  My ADHD effectively does not allow me to floss regularly with standalone floss. It's either those or I'll do it maybe once a month.
  
  This one has a reusable handle, it's just the little C shaped piece of plastic that the floss stretches across that is disposable. I'm sure it's not ideal, but I can get several uses out of each one before changing the floss. I just rinse it in hydrogen peroxide when I'm done. https://www.amazon.com/Listerine-ULTRACLEAN-Flosser-Refills-Flavored/dp/B00PG59X2K/
  Looking for a link to the one above, I found this one, which seems to replace the floss each time with a pretty nicely engineered system, I haven't tried it though. https://www.orthomechanic.com/easy-flosser/ After watching the video I feel like I would drool into the floss spool compartment and or get it wet when rinsing the thing.
  
  Get a 3d printer and make one I guess ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯
- I also don't get kcups in general. In what situation are the soft and paper-based Senseo pads not superior? He holders are easier to clean, they store better since they're squishy and they come in smaller packs anyways. Plus they're cheaper.
  Why would someone go for those cups instead? 😒
  
  Those are cool, never seen or heard of them before in my part of the US. We use reusable kcups, so we put a filter and grounds in mesh/plastic shell. We like them because we can choose single servings of anything, like our local beans or herbal stuff like teeccino. But yeah Senseo pads look pretty great.
  
  Oh that's weird, ty. I wasn't aware that Philips hadn't actually spread their senseo machines worldwide. 🤔 Somehow always assumed they must have, considering how many years they're around.
  
  I see those types of coffee packets in almost all hotels across the us, so they’re around but I’ve definitely never seen them outside of that.
  
  The coffee from nespresso cups is definitely better than Senseo. Not sure about k cups as I don’t have experience with them.
  
  I tried to look up senseo, and the first hit said they were discontinued 11 years ago. Since the rest of you are claiming they are current, I’ll assume it’s either just a single of mnany providers or is country specific, but I didn’t actually read it.
  However the reason k-cups are better is because they are more of a success. A bit of a tautology, I know, but I k ow I can find a good selection of them anywhere
  
  It's country specific. They were discontinued only in the US, but they still operate in multiple European countries, and in my experience like 70% of households here in the Netherlands have one of those things.
- Could those be bamboo?
- Those little plastic floss things are my weakness seriously. Nothing is better to floss with, objectively. I cannot use traditional floss to save my life. It’s the only wasteful thing I use maybe besides straws
  
  There was this very popular kickstarter for this reusable floss pick (you just tie on new floss). I’m not sure how well they fulfilled kickstarter orders but i ordered one on their website, pre launch, and basically got a bounced email when I tried to contact them about it. Pretty unfortunate.
  
  Tying floss onto one of those little picks sounds like an incredibly frustrating experience.
  
  Eh I can see it being fine. Have a thin slot the floss clicks into on each side, click in the first, wrap around post, bridge the gap, wrap around the second post, click into thin slot. If it had some wag to cut the string after that'd be fine but the floss container usually has it already.
  
  I got one off etsy, it's just 3d printed. Works fairly well, but the floss can get a little loose towards the end. But it's easy enough to fix.
  Not quite as convenient as the individual picks, but FAR less waste. A trade off I'm happy to make.
- Kcups are less wasteful than a coffee in a disposable cup from a gas station or drive thru every day.
  
  Those are separate problems. Kcups are wasteful vessels for producing coffee. The disposable cups are wasteful vessels for storing the coffee. it's twice as wasteful to use kcups with disposable cups.
  
  You also waste time and gas (if you drive) buying coffee outside your home.
- I am on the fence about k-cups. I use to make a partial pot of coffee at work in the drip machine. Sometimes I would drink it all, often they would be a cup of two left. As well it would sit hot for at least three or more hours each day. I did a calculation at one point the energy used and wastage of a k-cup vs drip machine. It was not even close over a year. I had to estimate the energy for the cup itself but the k-cup used about a quarter of the energy as it was only on during the making of the coffee and you would only make what you wanted. No wastage.
  Simply put, the k-cup resulted in about 1/4 the carbon footprint of drip coffee in my situation. Personally I think people didn't really think this thru well and just jumped on it as being wasteful without doing any calculations.
  
  Alright but the one time use kcups accumulate tons of plastics
  
  What is worse? Creating far more green house gases or reducing your plastic usage by a small percentage?
  Personally if using a k-cup decreases my green house gas emission by 75 percent, then it only takes a bit of critical thinking to use it.
  
  A wasted pot of coffee doesn't produce a shitload of plastic
  
  But it produces far more greenhouse gasses. Which is far worse.
  
  Nothing beats a fully automatic espresso machine when it comes to efficiency. Want an espresso, large coffee or any of the other things it can prepare, and it is made with the parameters you want. The only non organic waste is the packaging of the coffee beans, which isn't too bad, as they usually come in 500g of 1kg packs.
  Some even have 2 beans containers for when you want to have different flavors, and almost all have a chute for a portion of ground coffee for the occasional special drink (decaffeinated or so, for visitors for example)
  Edit: typo
  
  I like them but not great at work. People will plug them up in a week.
  
  There are special versions for high usage locations, and those often come with a maintenance contract. That should keep the coffee flowing for all to enjoy.
  The models intended for home use probably won't last very long if you brew 100 coffees a day with them.
  
  Every drip machine I’ve used has a 2 hour shutoff
  
  Not when your drinking it periodically at work. You will reset that unless you want for coffee at noon.

113 comments