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Saw this on my feed today: A relatively painless guide to cutting plastic out of your life https://www.fastcompany.com/90312169 https://www.fastcompany.com/90

Saw this on my feed today: A relatively painless guide to cutting plastic out of your life https://www.fastcompany.com/90312169 https://www.fastcompany.com/90312169

xfitm3 8y ago
The article suggests glass shampoo bottles? No thanks. Plastic is a great material, it is just abused.
- sykic 8y ago
  Plastic is not a great material for the environment and your comment illustrates the crux of the issue for humanity. We tend to optimize for local maxima and not global ones. As other commenters have pointed out pricing in externalities would be a great step forward. Plastic shampoo containers may not be so great in your eyes if their cost became prohibitively expensive.
  - triplewipeass 8y ago
    Plastic is a great material for some uses, but it’s also a very durable material. I’d love to purchase shampoo in the form of a refill of the plastic shampoo bottle I’ve already purchased some months ago. Why buy a new bottle every time? That’s the part which doesn’t make sense.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - emiliobumachar 8y ago
      What would the refill package look like?
      - kalleboo 8y ago
        Same way a glass shampoo bottle refill package would look like?
      - 205guy 8y ago
        A large vat at the store, with a spigot to refill the bottle you brought with you. I've seen this for cooking oils and honey, not sure it exists for cosmetic products.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- michaelt 8y ago
  The article suggests glass bottles and refilling them from bulk packages. No reason you shouldn't refill plastic bottles from bulk packages if you're worried about dropping the glass. Getting a bulk supply that doesn't use plastic (or send you to some funny store that you have to drive further to and that costs more) is presumably the hard part...
- darkpuma 8y ago
  Shampoo is a scam anyway. I've started using a bar of soap on my hair and it's just as clean and soft as it ever was. Just lather it in your hands before scrubbing your hair.
  - linuxftw 8y ago
    Shampoo should be illegal. That stuff is crazy toxic, we shouldn't be systematically dumping all those chemicals into the water supply. Natural soap does work well on hair.
    - dragonwriter 8y ago
      > Natural soap Soap occurs in nature?
      - linuxftw 8y ago
        In small quantities, sure.
      - darkpuma 8y ago
        It's hypothesized that soaps originally formed accidentally when basic rain runoff from expired camp fires chemically interacted with animal fats. Roman sources certainly document the production of soap from tallow and ash, which is a circumstance that could conceivably arise by chance in aftermath of a camp fire. Perhaps that's not natural, or maybe we can theorize some sort of wildfire scenario causing the same circumstance. Regardless, I think his point is that shampoo as we know it today is very much a product of the modern marketing/industrial complex.
- therealdrag0 8y ago
  Aren't these sort of bottles the kind of plastic that recyclers actually make a profit from anyway? Plastic avoidance should first target plastics that can't be recycled.

Saw this on my feed today: A relatively painless guide to cutting plastic out of your life https://www.fastcompany.com/90312169 https://www.fastcompany.com/90312169

xfitm3 8y ago

The article suggests glass shampoo bottles? No thanks. Plastic is a great material, it is just abused.

sykic 8y ago
Plastic is not a great material for the environment and your comment illustrates the crux of the issue for humanity. We tend to optimize for local maxima and not global ones. As other commenters have pointed out pricing in externalities would be a great step forward. Plastic shampoo containers may not be so great in your eyes if their cost became prohibitively expensive.
- triplewipeass 8y ago
  Plastic is a great material for some uses, but it’s also a very durable material. I’d love to purchase shampoo in the form of a refill of the plastic shampoo bottle I’ve already purchased some months ago. Why buy a new bottle every time? That’s the part which doesn’t make sense.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - emiliobumachar 8y ago
    What would the refill package look like?
    - kalleboo 8y ago
      Same way a glass shampoo bottle refill package would look like?
    - 205guy 8y ago
      A large vat at the store, with a spigot to refill the bottle you brought with you. I've seen this for cooking oils and honey, not sure it exists for cosmetic products.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
michaelt 8y ago
The article suggests glass bottles and refilling them from bulk packages. No reason you shouldn't refill plastic bottles from bulk packages if you're worried about dropping the glass. Getting a bulk supply that doesn't use plastic (or send you to some funny store that you have to drive further to and that costs more) is presumably the hard part...
darkpuma 8y ago
Shampoo is a scam anyway. I've started using a bar of soap on my hair and it's just as clean and soft as it ever was. Just lather it in your hands before scrubbing your hair.
- linuxftw 8y ago
  Shampoo should be illegal. That stuff is crazy toxic, we shouldn't be systematically dumping all those chemicals into the water supply. Natural soap does work well on hair.
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    > Natural soap Soap occurs in nature?
    - linuxftw 8y ago
      In small quantities, sure.
    - darkpuma 8y ago
      It's hypothesized that soaps originally formed accidentally when basic rain runoff from expired camp fires chemically interacted with animal fats. Roman sources certainly document the production of soap from tallow and ash, which is a circumstance that could conceivably arise by chance in aftermath of a camp fire. Perhaps that's not natural, or maybe we can theorize some sort of wildfire scenario causing the same circumstance. Regardless, I think his point is that shampoo as we know it today is very much a product of the modern marketing/industrial complex.
therealdrag0 8y ago
Aren't these sort of bottles the kind of plastic that recyclers actually make a profit from anyway? Plastic avoidance should first target plastics that can't be recycled.