Rethinking Product Design

The other day I was at the Supermarket in St. Louis when I happened upon something rather innovative, a composite plastic bowl. It was even called the “Garbage Bowl” and I thought to myself, now there’s someone doing something good, selling 50s style plastic wear made from recycled plastics. WRONG…. Upon closer inspection the bowl is absolutely NOT made from recycled plastics and the name “Garbage Bowl” has absolutely nothing to do with the environment. Sadly this “innovative” new product is for food scraps while prepping. “It keeps you chopping and cooking, rather than running back and forth to the garbage can.” What a load of garbage. In my humble opinion, if you, dear product innovator, are going to try and convince me that I need yet another bowl to save me the hard work required to move 2 steps towards my garbage can while cooking, you can at least do the world a favor and take the additional step of making your already speckled, composite plastic design out of truly composite plastics from the recycling center. Please, dear world. Please consider that right now we do not need another plastic bowl. What we need to do is rethink the stuff that we buy, and why we buy it and how often we buy it.