Five Alive

Here's a totally random tip for making your life a tad more green.

You know those plastic gravity tubes? The ones that stand upright on their lid, which is usually a flip top? I think they're most commonly used for things like lotions and hair goop, but I've also seen them used for kitchen herb pastes and various other things. I know they're a great way to dispense small amounts of whatever, and they're much more portable that pump dispensers and all.

But do you ever get annoyed that you can't squeeze the last of the contents out? If you do, you need this neat trick that Ann taught me: When gravity has done what it can't and you can't force any more product out, but you know it's in there, you can laterally cut open the tube. (Regular craft or kitchen scissors work fine for this task.) This gives you easy access to the contents, and you can use the top portion as a "lid" for the tube until it's truly empty. 

At first I thought this was a little extreme, but a few weeks ago my abused hands really needed some lotion and only had a depleted squeeze tube. I went ahead and cut it open more out of necessity than ecological concern. And it turned out I had a couple weeks worth of lotion left that I would've thrown out otherwise! Who knew?

Give it try! Save yourself a couple bucks here and there, throw away less of what you buy, and use less packaging, all with one cut!

Filed under: Five Alive, the environment