Disposable this, disposable that. Where will it end?

More years ago than I care to dwell on, I remember being in school treated to what then passed for a visual aid, a black-and-white 16mm movie. I'm not entirely sure that it bore the above title, but it was certainly something like it. In any case, the gist of the presentation was just that. Water is one of the most versatile solvents known to man.

I was reminded of this event recently while watching yet another advertisement for some cleaning product or other. Our society has been thoroughly conditioned to the need for these products. Thanks to modern advertising, backed as it is by sophisticated psychological fine-tuning, we have become enthusiastic consumers of a vast collection of products that promise to rid our homes of dirt and grime not too mention all those nasty bacteria.

That got me to thinking about that sadly neglected, yet most miraculous cleaning product of all, water. What the promoters of all those other cleaning products neglect to tell you is that virtually all of them rely on water to do their job. In fact it is the water that does most of the work which is why most liquid cleaners at least, usually contain a fair bit of the stuff.

As you might have guessed, when it comes to disposal, the water in these compounds is disposed of without any real problems for the environment. The other components however, the chemicals in the cleaning agents, are not so benign. When they are dumped they leave their mark. We are gradually becoming aware that ultimately our earth represents a closed system. Whenever we discard anything, it eventually shows up somewhere else, even in our drinking water or in the food we eat.

That Messy Sink
In that context, let's take a look at how we do things in our modern society. Our kitchen counter or stove top has collected some messy food residue. Out comes a spray bottle containing some kind of chemical with a pretty smell and a cute name. For good measure we reach for a disposable paper towel, preferably one with additional fibers "for added strength", to take care of this nasty problem.

What exactly happens when we do this? First of all, that pretty smelling chemical had to be produced somewhere requiring raw materials and energy. The container it comes in, complete with that handy spray attachment, was made in yet another plant again using some other raw materials and energy. Then there is that paper towel. It too is made somewhere also using more raw materials and energy. Then comes the disposal problem. Every manufacturing process not only consumes materials and energy, it also produces waste products which have to go somewhere. Where does it go? You guessed it, back to good old mother earth.

Then as you use them to clean that kitchen counter, what happens to the cleaner residue and that used-up piece of paper towel? The cleaner ends up in the sink to be disposed of by your city's sewer system and that paper towel will be neatly removed by your community's sanitation department, when you take out the garbage. Deep down inside, we know it doesn't end there, so what's the answer?

One of the things that make living in the modern age kind of fun is all the technology we have at our disposal. Going back to a time when that didn't exist is not really an option nor is it even realistic. What got us here in the first place was a considerable amount of "smarts". Why not use those smarts to deal with these issues in a more clever way? As they say in the sales business, 'work smarter, not harder'. Let's return briefly to that mess on the counter. It is mostly all organic matter which means if it ends up in the sewer, there is no great harm done. But there is no need to give it a chemical chaser.

A Better Way
So let's have a go. Instead of that fancy spray, plain ordinary tap water will work very nicely. In rare instances you may need a few drops of detergent but the key here is a few drops. Speaking of detergents, what's that all about? Detergents are primarily surfactants. That's just an expensive word meaning suface tension reducer. Surfactants reduce the tendency of water to "bead" up making the water-detergent solution more likely to penetrate soil.

It's hard to know what harm is caused by various surfactant compounds, not to mention some of the other chemicals that go into making your typical household detergent. There are definitely trade-offs to be considered that we won't go into here. Suffice it to say that it's usually better to use less rather than more keeping in mind what we know, that water on its own is already a pretty good solvent.

Our little kitchen adventure may be typical but it doesn't end there. How about all the other cleaning chores that we are told require all sorts of specialized cleaning potions. Maybe not. Heavily soiled bathroom fixtures might require the judicious application of a very fine abrasive such as found in many of the cream cleaners. On the other hand some of the "industrial strength" cleaners sometimes recommended may be excessive. Remember what goes down the drain may come back to haunt you. Water should be the major part of any cleaning strategy.

One other note on bathrooms, well two actually. First of all the soap scum that is often a problem when you have hard water can be most successfully removed with some kind of acid such as the hydroxyacetic-sulfamic-citric-acid cocktail in such well-known products as C.L.R.®. Once these go to work on your calcium stains the end product is not usually too toxic to the environment because calcium and acid tend to cancel each other out. That's not to say you shouldn't be darn careful when using the stuff because it is toxic.

The other issue is bacteria. Bacteria are a fact of life. Many of them are pretty benign, some are even quite helpful and then there are those disease causing organisms that are downright nasty. It is most unlikely that we will ever eradicate them all or even most of them. Nor may that be absolutely necessary. Unless you are in a hospital with more than the usual level of bacteria content and dealing with a lot of compromised immune systems, a few bacteria here and there aren't going to do you, or your family in.

The human immune system is designed to cope with these things. In fact without some bacteria to practice on, your typical immune system might even lose some of its "edge". So lighten up already. Cleaning your immediate environment with good old soap and water should be more than sufficient. What I find personally disgusting is a home with all kinds of built-up dirt in corners and crevices and a cupboard full of anti-bacterial sprays and potions.

It All Started With Toilet Paper
This brings us to all those disposable cleaning devices. The original disposable product was toilet paper first produced in 1391 AD in China where The Bureau of Imperial Supplies created wipes for the royal tushes of the emperors. More recently, in 1879, the Scott Paper Company began marketing toilet paper for use by the general public. Since this was the height of the Victorian era, marketing such an unmentionable product required a good deal of ingenuity, tact and discretion.

Free enterprise being what it is, however, the marketers prevailed by playing up the healthful benefits of their product. It was suggested in advertising that "over 65% of middle-aged men and women suffered from some sort of rectal disease". The solution, you guessed it, soft disposable toilet paper. In 1907 another health hazard was "discovered". Contaminated cloth towels being used in schools were thought to be responsible for spreading cold germs.

Fortunately the people at Scott Paper were experimenting with a new type of crepe tissue that was too thick for toilet paper which resulted in another fine product, disposable Scott "Sani-Towels". In what may have been an early case of successful lobbying, several states passed laws outlawing cloth towels to "prevent the spreading of disease." Meanwhile another company, Kimberly Clark had been in the paper business since 1872. They produced all sorts of paper products as well as some tissue.

Their entry into the disposable products business began in ernest in 1915 with the introduction of a creped cellulose wadding they called Cellucotton a substitute for the much more expensive real cotton. Since it was wartime and real cotton was in short supply, this nifty new product was used in bandages for the wounded as well as filters in gas masks. After the war ended, a whole new use was developed, the feminine sanitary napkin. Made of Cellucotton and fine gauze they called this invention "Cellu-Naps".

Again the marketers were dealing with a product that required a great deal of delicacy if not persistence. Yet once again the product's usefulness won the day and on September 21, 1920 the name was changed to Kotex. In still another use for a modified form of Cellucotton the company in 1924 introduced the Kleenex brand tissue as a cold cream or make up remover. Later on they were also promoted as a sanitary substitute for handkerchiefs.

So Far So good
Although these early products did create disposal problems it could be argued that they also met a real need. Can the same be said for what followed? Enter the disposable diaper! For years, babies bottoms were covered by cloth diapers, or as they say in Britain, nappies. It took a bit of practice, but most parents managed to master the intricate art of "pinning" them on. The main drawback had to do with the olfactory assault caused by diapers that had successfully done their job. What to do with the smelly things.

After a bit of a soak and a wash, they were of course ready to bend to the task once again. That all changed in 1978 when the Kimberly-Clark company introduced Huggies diapers. As company lore has it, they were an instant success. Is this where the real problems began? Diapers are not exactly small and to dispose of each of the millions of these puppies which society now generates can't help but place a huge burden on our disposal infrastructure.

But perhaps with a charitable thought in our hearts for today's hard-pressed parents, even this ecologically questionable practice can be condoned. So let's move on to some of the more recent innovations. I guess that's where we started. Mops, both wet and dry, have been around for ages. To get rid of dust bunnies and other detritus off our floors, a dry mop would usually handle the job quite nicely.

For tougher situations, a wet mop could usually be counted on to do the job. Wet mops, of course, use mostly water along with probably a judicious shot of detergent. Until recent times, these two products along with various kinds of dusters cleaned our homes pretty well without an inordinate amount of labor. I could mention vacuum cleaners here as well but, except for a really strange product, a Swiffer® with a little vacuum attached, all these new labor-saving products now being offered still require the use of a vacuum cleaner.

The point is, how really necessary or useful are all these new housecleaning tools? If they truly were a spectacular improvement on what we have already I'd be inclined to overlook the fact that each and everyone of them ends up in the garbage pail, as so joyfully demonstrated by the T.V. moms. But are they really, useful I mean? In my home, at least, a number of these gizmos languish in the closet while broom and wet mop are once again front and center.

My real concern is that many people will be pursuaded that using all these disposable products is not only essential to their welfare, but is the proper thing to do. Well it's not! My other concern has to do with the very legitimate detergent products that we can successfully use, being overused or in much greater quantities than necessary. Remember that thing about water being a pretty good cleaner on its own?

Start with that, then when necessary add a small amount of detergent. Your house and your dishes will get just as clean if not cleaner and mother nature won't get yet another load of chemical garbage tossed in her lap. Oh, by the way, you'll probably save some money as well.

In Conclusion
One final note. All those commercials you've been seeing in recent years about an impossibly thin pad or diaper being able to absorb a huge amount of "wetness"? It's not magic, it's Superabsorbent polymers. Super what? Superabsorbent polymers are materials that have the ability to absorb and retain large volumes of water and water solutions. They are made from partially neutralised, lightly cross-linked poly-acrylic acid and are the key ingredients in disposable diapers, feminine hygiene and adult incontinence products. I'm not sure what the ecological implications are, but now at least you know.

When all is said and done what are the real issues. Since the middle of the last century we've been warned by those who cared more, that our wasteful ways would eventually catch up with us. Now, lo and behold, they have. Land-fill and other primitive methods of garbage disposal are becoming saturated. Scientists are finding an alarming amount of contaminants in our soil and water. We are runnning the real risk of choking in our own waste.

We are constantly told that greenhouse gases are destroying the ozone layer and contributing to a warming trend on our planet. This in turn, threatens to drown our coastal settlements and turn our food-producing lands into deserts, not to mention exposing us to deadly radiation. We hear it and we become overwhelmed. Other than curbing our profligate use of energy, there may not be much we as individuals can do. What we can do, however, is to make some small changes to the way we live our daily lives.

I guess that was the motivation behind this piece. By using some common sense, we can drastically reduce our dependence on some of the more questionable products that clamor for our attention and our wallets. Using some of the information I've shared with you in this commentary you too can simplify your life and give the manufacturers of those products a subtle hint. Before you reach for that potential polluter consider a less harmful alternative. When it comes to detergent, try using less! Can you make a difference? You bet you can.

Other Comment Pieces