Welcome To The Un-Green Product Graveyard
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 05.31.07
Ever try walking backwards only for a day? Or visiting a country where they drive on the "wrong" side of the road? Reversals like these are sometimes just the thing to elicit fresh insights. A decade ago, this writer attended many Design for Environment (DfE) workshops which used a similar approach for inspiring apprentice designers. Before they could practice green design techniques "from scratch", students had first to outline the drawbacks of a seemingly "un-green" product, and propose improvements to resurrect it to "green" status. The novice's choice might be a battery charger, or maybe a cell phone, or an outboard motor. What ever interested them. The process was always similar, but the outcomes generally were a surprise. Let's imagine we're in the modern equivalent workshop - the present term is "green design" by the way - and we've decided to look at disposable spice mills or "grinders": typically clear plastic bottles full of peppercorns, spice blends, or flavored sea salt, incorporating a plastic top with a grinder built into it. The screw-tops are cemented onto common looking bottles. Because the bottles and tops may contain different kinds of plastic that can't be separated, and especially because food remnants would be stuck inside, recycling looks to be infeasible. We'll nominate team leaders to lead our class discussions. See below the fold for a fictional sampling of what very likely would come out of the workshop.
From the marketing expert: "Similar in marketing concept to the unitized disposable blade shavers now widely sold in bulk packs."
From the bored business manager: "This is small stuff and we shouldn't sweat it in the grand scheme of things."
From the dedicated shopper: "Promotes waste because if contents run low, instead of bringing to a picnic, users will be tempted to buy another one "to have enough"."
From the life cycle analyst: "Resource burden per unit of functionality (servings of pepper) is high."
From the hacker in the group: "Open them up somehow and you could refill with any bulk dried spice, offering a low cost product functionality to good cooks on a low budget."
From the optimistic marketer: "Could make cap removable and sell with several in air tight envelopes containing a variety of spices, so freshness is maintained and the user can flexibly extend the useful life of the container and grinder units. This would promote the potential sales of custom spice blends that the consumer is unfamiliar with."
Back to the reality of what the market place actually offers, we found a South African commodity supplier of "disposable grinder caps" which presumably could be bought and used with, or without, the glue. Astoundingly, the pictured items are just one variation on several similar commodities.
Will our wooden based pepper mills end up as antiques? Will sweating "the little stuff" even make a difference to a problem as large as climate change? TreeHugger answer: the more we love and practice good cooking, the more likely we'll hold onto our traditional grinders and the more likely it becomes that the disposable mills will head for the graveyard of the "un-green."
Via:: tip from an interested reader.
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I haven't tried others, but the "disposable" pepper mills from Trader Joe's are actually very easy to open and refill. We currently have one full of pepper and another refilled with cacao nibs for sprinkling on hot chocolate. They're not actually very good quality pepper mills, though, so we may invest in a real metal one at some point. (the peppercorns tend to get stuck in the grinder and jam)
When I visited Louisiana and went to a Winn Dixie I was shocked that I couldn't find loose peppercorns anywhere in the store, all they had were these disposable grinders and pre-ground pepper!
What about the disposable pre-filled grinders made of glass from the Italian brand Drogheria Alimentari? They are popular everywhere & I even bought a couple expecting they could be re-filled. I almost severed my hand trying to remove the plastic top which snapped in half. It's shocking to think that all of this glass is just being tossed in the rubbish. Hopefully, some clever person will work out how to remove the tops. Until then, I won't be buying any more even though I love their herbs.
yeah I too bought a drogheria spice grinder thinking it could be reused---nice glass bottle --
i agree wont buy any more of that
Hi! I also loved the product, but the un-green packaging is a total turn off. I was looking for comments by others who might have tried to reuse this very effective pepper mill bottle. Sadly, I leave it in the trash and will buy bulk from the co-op to grind with my mortar & pestle.