On Tuesday, I bought two new travel mugs from Co$tco. They are aluminum with plastic spill-proof caps. I was excited because my old one tasted like coffee which I hate (Stephen used it a few times for coffee when I wasn't looking). Anyway, these are aluminum so the coffee flavour should not leech into them.

However, the most exciting thing about the purchase I did not notice until I got home.


Do you see it?

The perforated line across the top of the packaging for easy opening.


Genius! However, it did not tear open as easily as I had hoped but it was a lot better than wrestling with the scissors that don't really cut that plastic open very well anyway.


That plastic packaging is so maddening and I always manage to cut myself! Never mind that I just imagine how much of that plastic (made from oil, mostly!) ends up in the landfills.

And funny enough, later that day I opened the newspaper and read an article about amazon.com working with manufacturers to reduce the packaging and "wrap rage" that ensues from plastic clam shells and the billion little twist ties.

In the meantime, I think the little things like perforated lines in the plastic will help. As will investing in little tools like The Plastic Surgeon.