Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Package Deal

So, I've long been fairly annoyed by the degrees of inefficiency inherent in our mass-producing, commerce-worshipping, environmentally insensitive culture. At a previous dental office, I had a sort of horrifying epiphany when I saw how much PAPER was thrown away by JUST that office. Plus how much was thrown away by the five identically sized offices in that building. Plus how much was thrown away by the identical three buildings (18 offices) in that office park. Suddenly, I felt as though I was in a film, the camera panning out, zooming ever upward to include my town, then New Hampshire, then New England, North America and the Earth. In each phase, the amount of paper increases exponentially.

Sobering.

You can well imagine my irritation upon ordering a small diamond disk (used for opening contacts between teeth) which came in this plastic case:



That, in turn, was shipped in the following box:



C'mon, dental supply companies! (I'm talkin' to YOU, ironically-named SmartPractice...) You could've shipped that in a small padded envelope!

Stay tuned...I'll keep you all posted on my plan to use corn-based plastic bags as chair covers...