A very INconvenient product

As a British citizen, I thought I should bring this to your attention as I feel it is quite an interesting issue.

I have had a couple of incidents with a new milk product called Dairystix. I say only a couple as I wasn’t prepared to use them again afterwards! If you are not sure what I mean they are an alternative to the little plastic pots you get on trains/in service stations etc. Shaped like sugar sticks but with plastic packaging they contain a portion of milk to put into your tea/coffee etc. Despite the not-so-helpful hint on the pack to ‘tear off here’, the milk squirted out of the tube and all down my clothing, over shooting my cup by a mile. On the second occasion the milk still went everywhere and the ripped off top fell in my drink forcing me to put my fingers in scalding tea – which is not what you need on a Monday morning!.

This is not just some aimless rant, I am not the only person who feels this way. After encountering such irresponsible engineering I had a hunt on the net to find out if it really was just me. It turns out that I am not alone. On YouTube I found 3 videos of people documenting their disastrous experiences with Dairystix – all of them ending up covered in milk, for example:

If someone has an issue with anything you are bound to find something about it on Facebook and this is true when it comes to Dairystix. Search for ‘Campaign to get Dairystix banned from all office environments’.

There is even a petition on Number 10’s website to abolish the “modern menace” that is Dairystix. However, it is apparently not in the Prime Ministers power to do anything about, so sadly it was rejected, but still displayed on the website.

A rather interesting point is raised when it comes to their environmental efforts. On the newer packaging, Dairystix states, “50% less packaging than plastic pots”. While this may be correct in terms of amount of packaging used it is not really an advantage as none of it is recyclable. The plastic pots on the other hand are fully recyclable apart from the foil lid. So in terms of what ends up on the landfill, there is going to be more space taken up by Dairystix packaging than plastic pots! Not the message you get from the Dairystix website I might add!

Anyway I feel I have vented my spleen and just wanted to highlight this issue others. If it is in your power to bring it to the attention of a wider audience I would urge you to do so!