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The Way of the Toothpaste Tube Essay |
I have noticed something weird and wonderful when trying to get the last little bit of toothpaste out of a toothpaste tube: there is really more than one squeeze in one squeeze. Think about it. You’re faced with an almost spent tube of toothpaste. You can really go at the tube and get one more toothbrush full of toothpaste out of it, or you can say, “The hell with it.” and throw it away and start a new one. If you throw the tube away and start a new one, you’re already one squeeze into the new tube, but if you take the time to get the last squeez of the toothpaste out of the old tube, then not only do you use rather than waste that toothpaste, but you don’t start using the new toothpaste, so you keep from using the first squeeze of that toothpaste. It’s really like getting another free squeeze worth of toothpaste. In math, we might say this is a “multiplicative” effect and not just an “additive” one. (And if you’re really intense, you can cut open the tube open and scoop out the very last of the toothpaste from the inside.)
The same thing goes for hair conditioner. If you’re at the end of the bottle and you unscrew the cap and hold the container under the shower head for a bit, then screw the cap back on and shake it, you can get another “treatment’s worth” out of the bottle. It may be a bit watered down, but it gets that way anyway once you put it on your wet hair. The same goes for plastic bags. If not used for meat or other troublesome contents, plastic bags can be rinsed out and reused instead of tossed. Then there are paper bags, gift bags, bows and ribbons, old bubble wrap, old sponges, old clothing for rags, padded envelopes, scrap paper, etc. All these things can be reused.
This “toothpaste tube” effect exists in other places as well. Let’s say, for example, you have a choice between eating leftovers or going out and buying something new to eat. If you eat the leftovers, you not only cut the cost of the original food purchase in half (a ten dollar sandwich, half of which is eaten as a leftover, has now become two five dollar meals), but you also don’t waste the leftovers (you don’t have to put the leftovers in the trash; they don’t go into a landfill; they don’t participate in the cost of any trash pick-up). Also and most obviously, you don’t have to take time and energy to cook or pay for something new. It’s like you’re both saving and making money, while reducing waste at the same time.
Then there is recycling and compost. I had always thought recycling and composting were good ideas, but I was lazy. Then I went on an international business trip to a profoundly polluted city. As soon as I got back to the U.S., I started recycling my plastic and cans and glass and paper, and I made myself a compost heap in my back yard. I’m not really that great at making compost, but my organic trash now goes there and the rabbits and squirrels probably eat it. The recycling isn’t that hard to take every once in a while to the recycling center, and I combine that trip with other trips I make into the city so it’s no big hassle. What’s interesting about the recycling and composting is that it has surprised me with advantages in other unanticipated ways. I’ve used a few shovelfuls of the bottom stuff from the compost pile when I plant things, and the plants really seem to like it. The recycling has reduced the amount of my trash so much that I have downsized my trash bin (and my trash pick-up expenses), and I could even pony up with a neighbor and cancel my pick-up completely if I wanted. When I need a glass jar for flowers, or a metal can for grease, I have some around in the recycling bin. What started as a duty has become a ritual – one that bestows unexpected benefits.
I realize now that I learned much of this behavior from my mother, whose frugal Greek-American efficiency made it possible for our family of four to be supported by my father’s one modest salary, and for us to have more time together than we would have if she’d had to take a job outside the home. I also realize that not everyone has been exposed to this way of taking pleasure. But isn’t it a good way to try to excel? Wouldn’t it be nice if more of our lives could be spent in cultivating this “way of the toothpaste tube”? It can bring great pleasure to find new ways to extend the reach of one’s resources and reduce one’s negative impact on the planet. Especially in today’s economy, being frugal may be a really good new way to get your kicks. For me, it’s fun to find a bargain at the Goodwill–to give a skirt or shirt a second life. It’s fun to get an extra mile out of an old envelope by pasting a new address over an old one. It’s even fun to rinse out a bag and hang it from a hook because I know that I’ll have a bag if and when I need one and that it’s one less new bag I’ll be needing or using.
So the next time you face that tube of toothpaste moment, think of the benefit that you and others will get if you just squeeze that thing one more time. There really is more than one squeeze in one squeeze.
