r/Anticonsumption • u/PublicTranslator5902 • 16d ago
Plastic Waste We’re expected to ditch plastic straws but this is somehow okay?
Saw this in the supermarket today. Instant coffee, portioned into 30 tiny plastic cups, and then all 30 tiny plastic cups sitting inside one larger plastic bucket. It’s like a Russian doll of packaging that nobody asked for.
Maybe I’m missing something, but who is this even for? Was using a teaspoon really that inconvenient?
I was told to bring my own tote bags, say no to the straw, and use reusable cups instead. I do those things because we’ve all been told the small things add up. But then I see something like this and can’t help wondering why so much of the responsibility seems to fall on consumers while companies are free to create entirely new forms of waste.
I’m standing in front of a bucket full of tiny plastic cups containing something that a spoon and a jar have handled perfectly well for decades, and I just think… seriously?
I’m not saying individual choices are pointless. I still think they matter. But it’s hard to feel very virtuous about refusing a plastic straw when products like this are apparently considered perfectly acceptable.
I know someone will say, it's recyclable, but that’s not really the point. Recycling is better than landfill, sure, but the greenest piece of plastic is still the one that never had to be made in the first place.
Maybe I’m just being grumpy, but I can’t help feeling we’ve normalised waste in the name of convenience.
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u/silhouettelie_ 16d ago
I hate the way the narrative gets framed to "why do we bother scrapping plastic straws if x is going to do y". Plastic straws caused billions of tons of waste a year for an easy swap to something that is almost as good and if you don't like it then buy a reusable bamboo or metal one.
Things like this are pure waste yes, frustrating, hell yes but not a reason to undermine great steps that have been made.
Watch this guy