The Low-Tech Times

My dad tells stories of how his family would put out two empty glass quart bottles on their back porch and the milkman would come to deliver two new quarts of milk and take the empties.

Those days were well before my time, but I do remember when Gatorade was sold in glass bottles instead of plastic.

The move to plastic bottles was due in large part to the fact that plastic bottles are significantly lighter than glass bottles. With less container weight than glass, plastic bottles have lower associated shipping costs versus glass.

However, concerns are now emerging with the safety of plastic bottles. Lisa Farino of MSN Health & Fitness reports:

Responding to growing consumer concern, sports-bottle maker Nalgene announced today that it will be phasing out the use of the chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) in its plastic containers over the coming months.

BPA is a common building block of hard polycarbonate plastics (such as sports bottles, baby bottles, and eye glasses) and is also found in the resin lining of metal food and beverage cans.

Because BPA mimics estrogen, there has been increasing concern that exposure, especially by fetuses, newborns, and infants, may cause long-term health impacts such as early puberty in girls, reproductive problems, and cancers later in life.

The article makes me wonder, in addition to bisphenol-A, what other potentially harmful chemicals are in hi-tech plastic bottles? In a health conscious society, will old-fashioned glass bottles make a comeback?

I enjoyed reading a recent post by author and blogger Seth Godin.  In his post, he points out that making toast with his hi-tech toaster requires ten steps, while an old-fashioned toaster requires just two steps.  Here’s an excerpt from Seth’s blog:

We recently acquired what might be the worst toaster in the history of the world. It’s pretty fancy and shiny and microprocessor controlled. And it makes toast.

The Low-Tech Times offers this simple advice when you see a hi-tech gadget item for sale:  Ask yourself, does it make sense for me to buy this?

There are four good reasons to choose a manual can opener over electric can openers:

1. A manual can opener works when the power goes out.
2. Manual can openers do not require a great deal of time or effort to open a can.
3. Manual can openers easily fit in a kitchen drawer, thus saving valuable counter space.
4. Manual can openers generally cost less than electric can openers.

Here’s a link to a manual can opener that leaves no sharp edges with good customer reviews available from Amazon.Com: