These are an abomination.
Last night I was watching television and I saw a commercial that made me downright angry. It was for the Reynolds wrap non-stick pan lining paper, which is right up there with disposable hand towels for your home bathroom on the scale of horrifyingly wasteful products.
If you stepped into my kitchen right now you’d find some tinfoil that I’ve kept to reuse, and perhaps a paper towel that I’m keeping to get one more use out of. I use these things sparingly — and in the case of tinfoil, I try to recycle it. I once had to lecture a roommate about the different uses for paper towels and regular towels. Paper towels are for cleaning up messes, I told him, and regular towels are for drying your hands and dishes. He honestly seemed as if this had never occurred to him before.
Don’t even get me started on paper plates.
Not only do I despise the complete laziness that leads to this kind of wastefulness (honestly, you can cook a whole dish but can’t be bothered to clean up after yourself?) but the germaphobia inherent in the Kleenex towels is ridiculous. If you can’t even share a hand towel with the members of your family you may need to consult a doctor about your OCD.
But what does it say about these American companies that they only new products they can come up with are these hideously wasteful products. They’re like the Oreo Cakesters or Hummer of the paper product world…completely unnecessary and disgusting. It also says something sad about our culture that we buy these things. Are we at a point where we want to expend absolutely no effort on anything? Do dishwashers not make life easy enough?
I’d boycott these products, but you can’t stop buying something you never bought in the first place.
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Exactly! I hate the ‘plastic pile’ I accumulate merely from unwrapping the fruit and vegetables I buy. Why should natural products have to be ‘unwrapped’?
Good post!
I agree with your post-I think many people are becoming too lazy and comfortable with the idea of creating such massive amounts of waste and uselessly spending money on items that are not only unnecessary-but-they are also useless and do not make much sense nor logic. I do not understand what is wrong and unhygienic about using a towel to dry your hands? Obviously, one needs to hang it up right in order for it to dry properly and one has to wash it-Hm, wait…I thought these things were a natural and normal part of everyday life? I do not understand what is the big deal about using a towel or using a dish rack to dry the dishes. The American companies will invent, advertise and come up with a million and one excuses in order to try to convince people/society that they need these useless, wasteful and ridiculous products-the only sure thing about these products is-they allow the companies to make money-the companies benefit and make a profit from them rather than the ones who buy it-the consumers/customers are making a mistake.
What a ridiculous world we live in. Why can’t everybody figure out how to reduce, reuse, recycle? It’s honestly not that hard. Our city has integrated ‘blue bins’ for the entire population to throw our recyclables into so that more people are recycling. A compost one is in the works. And then we have wasteful products like this…
I can’t tell you how much I wish I’d been there to witness you giving your former roomie a dressing down for his misuse of paper towels.
Thank you! I hated this paper product when I first saw the commercial. What’s wrong with changing your hand towel once or twice a week? Besides, your hands are clean once you wash them, right? What is it about the bathroom or kitchen that makes people want to be hospital-sterile?