Women at work and their tips, challenges, advice, complaints, and experiences

Those of you who get the Sunday paper and peruse the coupons probably saw the redplum coupon insert touting Unilever's "Making Life Better" marketing program and their efforts to raise $100,000 in donations for the National Park Foundation.  Basically, if you make a donation, Unilever will match it, up to $50,000.  All well and good, especially since the coupons are on items that a lot of folks use quite frequently, and can find rockin' sales on if they are dedicated coupon queens.

The insert is also chock full of inspirational little green tidbits, such as the quote "You only need to reuse a bag 11 times before you've helped reduce the environmental impact of plastic and paper bags."

There's a bit of a conflict here for me though.  You see, in the same insert, Unilever's advertising the brand new Ragu Fresh & Simple (TM) Pasta Sauce Pouch.  Oh how much time you'l save, busy gals, by buying their pasta sauce packaged in a microwaveable pouch.  In only 90 seconds you've got Ragu ready for your meal, "leaving no messy pots to clean."  And weren't they kind to offer us a $0.75 coupon so we could try it out?

But wait just a minute here, people.  If they're trying to help preserve our national parks, and they're ever so focused (as implied by the quotes at the top of the insert pages) on helping the consumer head down the road of righteous green living, then shouldn't we AVOID single use plastic packaging - like, oh, say, PASTA SAUCE POUCHES?  

Let's examine this: if I buy this pouch of pasta sauce, I have the "convenience" of simply tearing open the bag, popping it in the microwave, heating, and serving.  I may have saved myself using a bowl or pot to heat the sauce, but I've created more waste than if I used a jar or can of sauce.   I'm not seeing anything in the press release (link above) or on the insert page stating that the pouch is recycleable - and you would think that if it were, they'd be advertising the DAYLIGHTS out of that, right?

So I say stick with canned or jarred sauce, Workerettes.  It may take a moment or two more, but you can quickly rinse your jar or pot - or you can create one dish meals in a Crock Pot or casserole.  Think lasagna, etc.  Then you can reuse and/or recycle your tin can or glass jar.

Need ideas for reusing them?  That's a post to come.  Stop back by Wednesday and I'll have a little sumpin'sumpin for you with Works-For-Me-Wednesday on that tack.