re: #26 Love-Child of Cassandra and Sisyphus

So I need to buy some laundry detergent, my current box getting low.

For years I have used unscented soaps, as I can’t stand the scents added (of any kind, especially perfumes.) “Fresh scent” being among the most obnoxious.

Anyway, for years I have used Tide Free and Gentle.

So I go to buy a box and behold, P&G discontinued it earlier this year.

The excuse I found online via Reddit:

The reality is this: the powder form is too efficient. I can make a 95oz box last an entire year.

So P&G can sell roughly twice as many PODs or liquid containers equivalent to a single box of powder.

And getting back to our carbon budget: twice as many things shipped, and heavier (the water in the liquid form) means more energy consumed per load of laundry detergent.

I looked on Amazon a couple of months ago for a box of said Tide and it was a bit expensive, but I should have bought it then, because now the powder boxes are being treated as collector’s items, with an asking price of $46/box ! And even with Prime, not arriving until Christmas week.

Oh, and of course the smaller box (which P&G hadn’t made for some time) is even more expensive:

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Fortunately the Henkel Corp. still makes powder form of All fragrance-free detergent. But even then, Amazon only has the liquid form in stock (thankfully Walmart will come to my rescue here.)

Point being: “pods” are a pricing scam, but too many consumers are just too lazy to measure out detergent so they’ll pay multiples of what a box of powder cost.

And returning to the issue of climate change: this is why I am confident we will not avert from the worst case scenario for climate change - because people will want convenience over efficiency every damn time.

Arm and hammer fragrance free powder is also still available. From Amazon, even. It’s the one I’ve used for years.