Bill Kearney

This is not progress

I drink coffee. I happen to like it, as New Yorkers would say, light and sweet. That's half-and-half and a teaspoon of sugar. About a decade ago I started using the Cinnamon flavor of the International Delights creamers. This ends up giving me the taste I wanted as well as cutting back on a bit of the calories. They even sold it in the same convenient cartons which fit so nicely on my fridge's short shelves. Until now.

Now they've decided to switch to using a plastic container. This is bad enough as the old paper carton was recyclable and based on renewable resources. Now they're forcing non-renewable plastic on me. And for those who don't know it, plastic is (by and large) based entirely on OIL. So it's not just those gas guzzling SUVs wasting the oil. It's stupid packaging maneuvers like this as well. As if that wasn't bad enough, they've also changed the height of the container. Now instead of being able to sit nicely alongside the regular half-and-half, this damned monstrostity has to get moved to the taller shelves. Anyone who knows the phenomenon of not-awake-until-coffee will understand, moving stuff around on me is NOT a good idea in the wee hours of the morning. Now I have to rummage around for it on the shelf with the milk, oj and other taller containers. Call it picky, but I like what I like.

I'm sure the folks marketing this stuff are well intentioned. But why am I left thinking it's all about the money? It's probably a lot cheaper for them to make these planet-wrecking plastic bottles. It's probably easier to crank them through the production lines. I don't care. I like the old size container. I like the old container's use of RENEWABLE paper resources. I hate the switch to plastics. And since recycling is nowhere near a reality in most states don't bullshit me with that excuse. I recycled the old ones.

I'm sure they've got far too much invested in the switch to plastic containers. So it's probably unrealistic to think they're going to switch back. I'll do the switching instead. I'll go back to using plain half-and-half with sugar. If we're lucky some other enterprising dairy company will recognize the market opportunity here and start selling their own product in regular paper containers. When they do I'll be sure to buy it. Meanwhile, International Delights is more like international disappointments.