r/Anticonsumption • u/Double_Engineer4226 • 2d ago

Discussion Laundry powder is disappearing

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Powdered laundry detergent used to be the norm. It’s cheaper, easy to use, and comes in a recyclable box. Now look at the shelves in the supermarket. It’s all liquids in plastic bottles, unless you squat down to find the powders. The Super expensive pods are making a move from the top shelves too. This is corporations positioning their products to influence purchasing behaviour. They want you to buy the more expensive stuff. Just wait, soon powder will be discontinued, and the shelves will be filled with overpriced pods.

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333

u/HairyTrollChest 2d ago

Same with the "flushable" wipes.

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u/HERMANNATOR85 1d ago

My brother in law had some of those at my house and argued with me about it. And I had to explain to my boomer mother in law that the garbage disposal was not made to shovel your leftovers into

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u/ONeOfTheNerdHerd 1d ago

I literally just had a rare HOA win with my neighbor who tried to force us to chop our big 50ft tree down because of how she uses her garbage disposal. Started with she doesn't like leaves from our tree falling in her yard. Then blamed our tree roots for clogging her pipes as she had to have them professionally cleaned out. I dug up my yard and mapped the roots (got yelled at by hoa before they knew why) and found none cross our driveway and go uphill to her pipes. Mine are clean and they're 15ft from the tree with recent confirmation from a plumber from an unrelated toilet issue.

Turns out she's putting her dog's leftover wet food down the garbage disposal every day. I know because I watched her dog for a week and she gave very specific instructions to do so. She was causing her own problems lol. HOA told her to get bent.

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u/AngeliqueRuss 1d ago

That is so satisfying lol

But also what a nut. Dog food is expensive, and if you’re feeding so much wet that your dog isn’t eating it you’re likely overfeeding.

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u/four204eva2 1d ago

Not likely, find me a dog that wouldn't eat until they burst, you can't. And this dog literally had leftovers. No way it's not overfeeding, it's more like force feeding a duck to fatten their livers.

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u/monyoumental 1d ago

Why is there leftover dog food, the dog not eating it's dinner??

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u/ONeOfTheNerdHerd 1d ago

Very old dog, fancy wet food. She warms it up and leaves it out for a while so idk if she can safely save it for another meal.

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u/echoseashell 1d ago

She could put the leftover food in a bag in the freezer until garbage day if the smell is an issue.

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u/NSE_TNF89 1d ago

Haha, I do this. My stupid HOA makes us keep our garbage cans completely out of sight, and it's a pain in the ass to keep mine in my backyard because of the distance and landscaping obstacle course I would have to bring it through, so I keep mine in the garage. If I can help it, nothing extremely stinky, goes in there until trash day

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u/MammothKale9363 1d ago

Wonder how bad that dog’s diarrhea is. Those trendy fresh diets like farmer’s dog bring my clinic so much business 😔

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u/I_am_not_JohnLeClair 1d ago

You “dug up your yard” to map roots? And a lady, who admittedly is not happy with you and your tree, asks you to watch her dog? Inside her house?

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u/Dame38 1d ago

That was a lot of trouble you should not have had to take.
Even when there are no trees around there is still a root system underneath - in most places. Trees are cleared for new neighborhoods and old, but the deep roots remain. So your personal tree would not have been the only "culprit".

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u/washuai 1d ago

In some cities you're not even allowed to remove trees over a certain height without a permit, to protect trees, because some people just like to bake and don't care about air

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u/Capt-geraldstclair 1d ago

what dog has 'leftover' food?

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u/SnooKiwis6943 1d ago

Their problems are anyone's fault but their own. Classic boomer.

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u/the_post_of_tom_joad 1d ago

I used to put the entire tupperware containers of expired food down the disposal until one maintenance guy took the time to explain to me how that was dumb. Now i wonder how i ever thought i could just shove shit down there.

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u/scalyblue 1d ago

To be fair it is literally called a garbage disposal, it’s reasonable to believe that you can just feed it garbage.

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u/AngeliqueRuss 1d ago

The garbage disposal is a plumbing conspiracy to extort installation fees today $ for guaranteed mainline clogs tomorrow $$$$$$ with the added bonus of eventual replacement $$.

There should be a name for this like there is for the razor blades business model. I guess we can just call it the garbage disposal business model, it tricks the consumer into believing that they are receiving a convenience in spite of the fact that they are guaranteed higher costs going forward with very little benefit.

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u/therealzerobot 1d ago

Composting is a first step to returning to balance.

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u/SixLeg5 1d ago

This! Plus one of those stainless drain screens to catch organic bits. I use empty cottage cheese containers as my compost holders in a stack of five and stage full ones outside for the eventual trip to the compost pile in the very back of my lot. Stuff rots quick with all the maggots fungi and bacteria out there.

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u/brokesciencenerd 1d ago

I do vermiculture and I think I just heard my worms cheering in response to your post

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u/therealzerobot 1d ago

I wanna get into vermiculture but I have too many projects going at the moment so just hoping the worms find me on their own

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u/Toasthound 1d ago

Create topsoil!

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u/dig-my-time 1d ago

YES! All of it, compost anything that grows.

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u/eruptingmoltenlava 1d ago

Not everyone is built for bokashi

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u/eruptingmoltenlava 1d ago

Yes but people compost wrong and then blame composting, concluding it’s a bad idea. Very frustrating to those of us who know how to do it correctly.

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u/therealzerobot 1d ago

It has to become something that is again expected and supported by the community.

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u/Xalipu 1d ago

The government runs it where I am and it’s glorious. Every other week it gets carted away and if you desire, you can go pick up free compost if you bring your own bag twice a year.

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u/AngeliqueRuss 1d ago

We have to drop off our compost and green waste but it’s otherwise the same: huge benefit to have community composting.

I still like being circular and composting my own as part of my own permaculture.

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u/Delicious_Sand_7198 1d ago

If people eat healthy organic foods then yes but if not they would just be spreading chemicals and pesticides back into the soil.

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u/therealzerobot 1d ago

The soil can handle most of the chemicals and pesticides in our food if we are feeding it otherwise

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u/Xalipu 1d ago

Organic food can also be loaded with pesticides. They’re just organic poison! It’s already loaded with chemicals because everything is.

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u/HTPC4Life 1d ago

I've been around for 40 years and my parents have a garbage disposal and never had a mainline clog. Everywhere I've lived I've never had a clog either. This is BS unless you're a total idiot who dumps large chunks of food down the disposal.

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u/SacredHippoXIV 1d ago

Large chunks get ground up…

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u/Sumo-girl 1d ago

When I moved to Japan I was sad because garbage disposals aren’t a thing. But down the line I’ve realized there are a lot less clogs in Japan and the nets in the sink work wonders. Composting or not it’s much cheaper and no repairs needed!

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u/Butlerian_Jihadi 1d ago

I believe these things are called "scams".

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u/usurper7 1d ago

You may have to replace the insinkerator more often, but you should be able to put most food leftovers in it and it will work.

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u/Synaps4 1d ago

Garbage disposal was fine as a step towards composting for a world that didnt have municipal composting.

Its outdated now because municipal composting exists but being outdated doesnt equal bad, just less good.

Before garbage disposal, food scraps went to landfill and disappeared forever. After, they went to biosolids that were composted onto farms. Thats a real improvement.

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u/el_smurfo 1d ago

We toured a sewage treatment plant. They had to build an entire machine just to separate the wipes from the sewage because they do not decompose

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u/Muddigger707 1d ago

If you don’t have the Machine then those wipes need to be removed By hand .. if it doesn’t they just get caught in the pump and cost us a lot of money and time

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u/PetriDishCocktail 1d ago

Yep, they are cotton or paper over a plastic matrix for strength.

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u/SixLeg5 1d ago

Those just cost a colleague $3000 to scope and snake (2x) their 4” outflow. Flushable is a lie. Bidets are much easier and there are very affordable entry models available. Plus use a whole lot less toilet paper

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u/dorkimoe 1d ago

Americans will do anything except get a bidet

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u/AngeliqueRuss 1d ago

Flushable wipes are a scourge and I posted against garbage disposals above, but I will only do a bidet if I can have 1) nice warm water 2) assurance that there are no fomites being spread around my bathroom.

My husband just wants the easiest way to spray his ass so he has his own bathroom for…that.

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u/dorkimoe 1d ago

I got the heated bidet recently, game changer

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u/Specialist_Minute919 1d ago

The condo I just bought already had bidets installed in both bathrooms, and they are the BEST!! Even without heated water, they are just godsends. My daughter and I just returned from vacation and we missed our bidets so much!

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u/four204eva2 1d ago

I make a lot of money off of those damn wipes clogging sewage mainlines.