Poundland
Makes you think - a very high percentage of what's sold there must end up in landfill almost immediately, having been manufactured in the far east and transported across the world to be thrown away.

Imagine - there's a factory in China producing plastic knick-knacks and novelty items for inside crackers... and all they're really producing is litter. When all the world's fossil fuels have gone, we'll look back on those plastic bits and bobs with something more than regret.

But not me. I've stockpiled 100,000,000 crackers in my attic. Take that global warming!
(frankspencer, Mon 7 Jan 2008, 12:55, 1 reply)

"all they're really producing is litter"
I'm not a yoghurt-knitting eco-warrior by any means, but over the holidays I found myself starting to get irritated by the whole concept of Christmas crackers.

There's this paper/card/ribbon/tinsel thing that you tear up and throw away; a piece of printed paper that you read, groan at, then throw away; a 'hat' that you wear for half an hour and then throw away; and a 'surprise' that is generally of such appalling quality that it, too, is immediately thrown away. Even my kids -- who are both under five and generally allergic to throwing anything away -- couldn't be arsed to hang onto the crummy plastic shite on offer this year.

Even if you spend a bunch of cash and get the 'posh' ones, chances are you'll get yet another keyring bottle opener, nail clippers or magnifying glass -- which you either already had, or didn't need in the first place. So they'll just get stuck in a drawer and forgotten about.

What a fucking waste of money, energy and resources...Christmas in a nutshell.

Bah, humbug.
( reallywittyname veraciously conspues lexiphanicism on, Mon 7 Jan 2008, 13:34, closed)