Hearing Aid battery packaging. Used to, you’d punch out the battery at the top and spin the wheel to drop the next one out that same hole. Now, scissors are required to cut each battery out.

I already vented about my struggle with everyday packaging. My other gripe off-hand is the amount of commercials on TV. I might date myself but back in the day an hour show would have a commercial, at the 30-minute mark, and one maybe at the end. Today it's five minutes of a show and two minutes of commercials. I don't sit through them as I record every show I want to watch and zoom through the unrelenting commercials. When I watch a 90-minute show like Survivor, I start watching 25 minutes after the beginning and end up finishing on time.

But Elmer, don’t you see, a ”gripe” isn't meant to be a serious subject.... merely on an aggravation an irritent . Posting about them is a lighthearted way to seek assurance thst you’re not alone. . Perhaps sharing and finding others equally bothered can be satisfying and even help ease feeling quite so irritated.: as in, ’oh well, we’re all , or many of us, in the same boat.’ It can also just be amusing. I’m sure you do see that. C’mon, admit it…I know you can. Just this once…maybe For me? :)

marti , yr. Ca. neighbor

As for urinals in port a pottys: Never have I ever. I’m most famillier with them at the annual Pasadena Show House. The visitors are primarily women, hence the lack of a urinal, I suppose. Having one close is an ugly picture.

At the moment my gripe is the way companies discontinue or reformulate products that I have been using for years and LOVE...then the battle starts with buying something else to replace the product then hating it and then returning it to the store if they will let me! UGH!

lily, you reminded me of the old days when all the TV stations would have a commercial break between TV shows. It was always rumored that the water pressure in NYC dropped dramatically at the end of ...can't remember which popular night time TV show now Disney? Ed Sullivan? Gunsmoke? .... because everyone took a bathroom break when the show was over, all flushing at the same time.

arkansas girl, there are a whole bunch of products that, as soon as I found them and started enjoying them, they'd pull. Entenmenn's used to make this cheese-filled pastry puff that was wonderful. They pulled it...the replacement product was not the same. Hood used to make reverse chocolate chip ice cream....chocolate ice cream with white chocolate chips. They pulled it. I was addicted to TJ's chocolate meringue cookies, but haven't seen them in years. So it goes.

Another gripe as I sit here eating breakfast. Why add a twist cap to a dairy carton? A waxed carton is designed perfectly to form it’s own spout. There is no need to add a plastic twist cap.

LOL, my husband just told me that he prefers the twist cap. 🤷‍♀️

It’s not that I find one easier to open, I just think for recycling purposes one doesn’t need a plastic cap on a perfectly fine milk carton.

I had to think about the twist cap and came up with two guesses. The first, is that a closed twist cap might be (IDK) more secure when closed in a house with children who might accidenrally knock the carton over especially if the knockover occurs on a refrigerator shelf, a major inconvenience if milk leaks out. The second, is that even counting the cost of the cap, the automated process to make the carton might be less expensive to insert the cap than to make the fold, a complete guess.

Lucille, good points!

The carton with the cap can be opened just like the one without the cap, though.

I was thinking about the recycling process of the containers. We get a refund when dairy containers are taken to the recycling depot. Does that little bit of plastic in the screw part attached to the carton, even when the cap is removed, contaminate the recycling of the waxed carton material?

eta I know that one product is cheaper in price than the other but don’t ask me which one.

Twist-off caps in my area have historically been most commonly seen with more expensive product brands. A store's house brand of cream or half and half may have a traditional" open the edge" container while the organic brand has a cap. That's changing though, twist caps (whether on traditional containers or now, more frequently-seen plastic bottles) seem to be in the majority.

My assumption on why the twist of containers have been used is that they provide an airtight seal. Unsealed items in a fridge can acquire unwanted odors and flavors. This can be especially true for dairy products that can spend many days in the fridge. A tightened cap prevents such exposure.

Arkansas girl, not just consumables, but changing any product so that parts no longer fit. We need a new gasket for our disposal, but they don’t make the necessary size anymore. I have a shower scrubber, they changed how the scrubber goes on, so when I had to replace the scrubber arm, my backup supply of scrubbers don’t work. And the other day when I went to Target to get new some fresh scrubbers, they don’t carry the same brand anymore, and Clorox’s are different. Aargh! I really don’t want to drive around looking for the srubbers, maybe I will just head to the Big River.

roxsol -- You are absolutely correct! Did someone in the *plastics* industry create a need where none exists? I think they are actively trying to kill the planet.

jrb -- Thanks for that bad news. I just bought a card of 312's and had to go look. Yep, no more clever 'spin and drop' access. The card now says "Child-Resistant Packaging", which must be the reason for the change. A few more 'safety' measures and my goose is cooked. When I bought aids I was told -- hint, hint -- that some seniors prefer rechargeables because it's difficult to manage replacing the teeny batteries. Back then, I scoffed. Wouldn't a "Keep Away from Children" message mollify the lawyers?

Dear neighbor marti,

I've encountered chemical toilets with a urinal feature in them at two locations - so-called "cell phone waiting lots" at two different coastal SoCal airports. Far enough apart from each other that I wouldn't assume they were supplied by the same company, but it could be.

I have hearing aids and much prefer the rechargeable ones that I have now!! No more batteries in the landfill. Win-win Drop them in the charging unit each night and I never have to worry about low batteries.

Our revycling no longer takes milk cartons which is very frustrating. When they did, I would just use a sharp knife to cut out pour spouts. I buy organic and if I get it at the small supermarket I use, Organic Valley has a spout, but the same brand and size at my food co-op has no spout. So I try to buy there or at trader joes, becuse theirs has no spout.

You can act in a manner consistent with your other inconsistent environmental practices by burning milk cartons in your wood stove. That way, you can feel the satisfaction of keeping them out of the local landfill and ignore what you did to accomplish that.

Re: Relief stations. What's the purpose of toilet seats that have two sections and are open at the front? I see his style in hospital toilet rooms. Even if Ignatz raised the seat and lowered it again, I still have to try to avoid contact wth that area of the porcelain.

Olychick, we get a $.10 refund on all milk and plant based drink containers that of course we have paid a deposit on when purchased. We return bottles, cans, and certain dairy containers to a local depot. We donate the return fees to a local youth group. I’m a terrible shopper and really don’t pay too much attention to the container. I just noticed it this morning when opening the new container. It was a momentary gripe.

I admire that you make the effort and take the time to think about what you buy. Every little bit helps.

@roxsolid The easy recycle options available in US are dictated by local household waste disposal / pickup contrators. Here in WA state, our trash pickup is contracted to a large company based outside of WA so it’s not a city or county department. I lived in King County which Seattle, WA is part of & now live in Clark County which Vancouver belongs to. My guess is Olychick lives on the Olympic Peninsula which has 4 other counties & I don’t know which entity manages their trash. But, what I want to say is that our options for recycling are dictated by our waste pickup services. Apparently, the processing equipment needed for each type of recycle is determining factor. If the locale doesn’t have the right equipment they don’t take certain things.

Since this is a gripe zone, I do have one about recycling which Olychick’s comment made me think about. When I lived north in King County, our trash pickup company was the same one that’s here in south WA Clark County. But, recycling requires more thought here in Clark County because the local waste processing doesn’t have the same updated equipment King County has. In King County we had a green recycle & blue recycle. Green was for yard waste, grass/cut to pieces tree limbs/shrubs & the like. We could also dump our compostable food waste as well as meat products, bones, grease & all. The blue recycle bin was for cans/ glass bottles -(no window/mirror/drink glasses) - & also for all paper products - newspaper/milk cartons/yogurt like tubs & also plastic bottles & jugs for milk, spout or twist top & plastic bags (must be all contained in bag, not loose in cart). Here in Clark County we have to separate the glass into a smaller bin & we cannot put compostable waste into our Green Yard Waste bin & we take our plastic bags to grocery store collection bins. I had to retrain myself how to recycle when we moved here. Boo hiss!

BTW, our neighbor to the south, Oregon, still charges deposits on bottles & cans. WA doesn’t. That practice has given birth to a huge gripe of many about finding people rummaging through their recycle bins for cans & also taking the glass from smaller bins. They take their haul right across the river to Oregon & redeem for deposits. It’s assumed the people doing this are mostly homeless or really down on their luck. This goes on through the dark hours since trash pickups start at the crack of dawn so most put their trash bins at curb the evening prior. The waste pickup company is annoyed about that too since they have a revenue stream from the recycling they process.

KW, in California, the container deposit is 5 cents for single serving sizes made from aluminum, plastic or glass. While at one time most stores accepted returns, I'm not sure any do now and many of the recycling centers were closed a few years ago as the value of the recycled materials declined. Drop off places to receive payment are limited in number.

The 5 cent add-on is almost like a regressive tax on low income people. The amount is so inconsequential that I think for many, it does not provide a financial incentive to encourage people to go through with the inconvenience. Judging from the banging and clanging I hear if I'm home when the bins for recyclable material are picked up, I'm pretty sure that what's going into the trucks IS NOT simply paper and cardboard. I think compliance with the refuse sorting rules is pretty high (excluding the new state-wide no-food in the garbage bins rule) but I'm not sure many bother to return containers to recover deposits.

Circling back to Annie's gripe on large toilet paper holders in public bathrooms that are impossible to use - can the installers put them higher on the wall so we can see where the toilet paper is?? They hang them so low you have to somehow get your head below your knees, while sitting or squatting, to see where the paper starts.

Elmer, I lived in North Bay Area for @20 years & I didn’t remember about the container deposits we paid. A sibling lives in Sac area & I’ve noted in their home they recycle plastic bottles & cans so I didn’t think about any container deposits. I’m surprised a deposit is still being charged. WA does now charge for grocery bags used from retail & grocery stores. Personal reusable bags are the way to avoid the bag charge. I wouldn’t be surprised if OR & CA have adopted the same practice with the West Coast usually adopting the same environmental practices & often with CA leading the way.

@justmyopinion - I’m with you on your gripe! It’s even harder to access the TP with most stalls being so narrow! It’s sometimes challenging & I’m not a size that takes up much space.

@KW PNW Z8 I live in Olympia but outside the city limits. Our waste service is Lemay. They pick up glass but its’s separated from other recycling. In the city limits there is NO glass recycling pick up anymore, which seems like craziness to me. I think the city might accept milk cartons - more craziness because of the proximity of the two entities. I have posted nefore that I contract with a private recycling service, too, that recycles things our ither service doesn’t take. Mostly plastic bags, but also what they call multi layer plastic, textiles, batteries, light bulbs, electronic cords and small electronics. For an extra fee they take styrofoam and a few other things. They take corks and plastic bottle tops and every pick up they have a featured category, last week it was Christmas string lights . Sometimes it’s bread tags or metal bottle caps. The company started in Seattle but are expanding rapidly around the country, so people can check their website to see if they pick up in your community. I can’t seem to link them here. They are Ridwell.

@Olychick I‘m sure I have heard of the private recycling business you’re writing about. Wasn’t it started by a very young man who is also neurodivergent? I may be thinking of someone else but that story had a lot of news play awhile ago. We do have places here where we can take electronics & styrofoam block & bubble wrap type plastic to free of charge. We gather them up in garage until we have enough or get tired of looking at the pile! Not convenient but seems many use these places because they’re always busy with drop offs when we go. Batteries we can place in a bag on top of our recycle bin & oil in plastic jugs placed beside recycle also picked up. Hard to believe our capital doesn’t have glass recycling with trash pickup! BTW, I am also outside city limits of Vancouver & there are some differences in trash pickup which seems odd since it’s all going through the same processing here in Clark County.

@KW PNW Z8 Yes It was a young man and his father who started Ridwell. I love their success and the convenience of not having to run different items all over the place. I was saving oil fro deep frying turkeys to take to the recycle center for use as biofuel, but they suddenly shut down that option so now I have like 10 gallons of used peanut oil in my garage. Apparently Tacoma still takes it so I might have to impose on one if my friends up there to take it for me.

@Olychick Just looked at Ridwell site - amazingly low price options. I could get their services. I checked availability for my address - I could join the ”…Portland community of 25,000 members wasting less…”

So - here’s another gripe - that Vancouver, WA is always lumped in as a suburb of Portland, OR. 😆

Oly and KW, I’m very impressed with you two knowing all that stuff.

We have a black bin and a green bin. One week the county picks up the green bin and the next week the county picks up the black bin. We are given the option for large or small bins (240 litre/ 120 litre) and are charged accordingly. Everything goes into one or the other. (Whether that’s perfect or not) We chose the small bin option and often don’t have enough stuff to fill either one. Included in the cost is a twice a year large item pickup that you can set out furniture, appliances,…that sort of stuff. The service from the county is not mandatory but I think most people use it.

The county also has a recycling centre where you can drive to and unload your garbage if you opt out of a pickup service. It is broken down into different categories such as motor oil, paints, plastic, glass, yard debris etc.

My husband saves used batteries in a large container and drops them off at Staples every couple of years even though we could just toss them into the bins.

eta I just remembered, with the county pickup, you can bundle your newspaper and cardboard separately and leave it with the bins. I just put that in the green bin, though.

Another gripe of mine is straying off topic.

Sorry, Annie

mea culpa

And while we're in the restroom, can they possibly put hand towel dispensers lower? I hate washing my hands and then having to reach up to work the dispenser only to have water drip down my wrists. I try to grab the towels first before I wash my hands, but don't always remember to.

Shake the water off your hands over the sink, there will be less to drip.

An increasingly seen alternative in public facilities is no towel dispenser at all and and an electric dryer instead. NO!. Bring back the paper towels, I'll be happy to have water drip down my arms rather than use an electric dryer. (Actually, I don't experience that, I shake them off first. I do the same at home)

"Just looked at Ridwell site - amazingly low price options. I could get their services. I checked availability for my address - I could join the ”…Portland community of 25,000 members wasting less…”

Yes you could join to feel all warm and fuzzy, or you could take some of your stuff to 6161 NW 61st Ave, Portland, OR 97210 for disposal. Target and Walmart also have recycling bins for plastic bags, plastic films and bubble wrap. Target also takes small device electronics and ink cartridges. Goodwill takes old clothes and what they can't sell they are cut up and sold as rags or sold to salvage vendors for recycling. Eventually they will be trashed so I cut my old threads up for rages. Got a sheet set from the wife last night to cut up and use in the garage.

I don't know how backward Oregon is but Minnesota has a hazardous waste drop off in Every county in the state. Most auto parts stores and service stations will accept used oils, and if they won't they must provide the locations of those who will. My little city outside of Minneapolis accepts two dozen items normally not accepted at the county locations during one Saturday a month. Some Items you must pay for, but many are free like tires.

There isn't anything I use that I can't find a place to recycle or dispose of responsibly with no need to pay someone to pick the stuff up. IMO Ridwell is just another for profit service catering to the lazy. This is my gripe, lazy people. Yep, to lazy to sort their trash and dispose of it properly. Lazy lazy lazy.

What I love about Ridwell, besides the fact that they take items no one else here takes, plus saving me and my neighbors and my gas tank from driving large distances between the places that DO take some of these things, is the environmentally responsible disposal of what they take. They partner with Trex to take the plastics, they partner with cork flooring manufacturers to take corks, they vet an select recyclers who are actually recycling and not just dumping stuff in undeveloped countries.

The stuff offers people in undeveloped countries work opportunities, it's not wasted.

I don't mind electric hand dryers and not much of an inconvenience when I have pants to finish the drying, but I do miss the paper towels to pull open the door when leaving. So I'll grab a few squares of toilet paper to grab the handle to get out of the rest room. Yep another gripe, doors that open the wrong way.
FWI public restrooms with low toilet paper dispensers with the direction facing outward is because people waste it and they end up taking extra long pieces who wad up 20 squares to make one wipe over and over until the toilet plugs up. I use 4 squares folding it for a second wipe, then I'll use another 4 squares. Usually the most I ever use is another 4 squares for a total of 12 squares. People don't know how to wipe their cracks and yet another gripe I have. Wiping should be required education in grade school and a proficiency test given. Imagine how many trees would be saved teaching people how to wipe.

Wow Kevin - please do calm yourself. My mid-sized city of Vancouver, WA does indeed have all of the recycle options you listed out so I don’t need to waste my car fuel driving the 26.8 miles & taking 41 minutes on a good traffic day to responsibly dispose of my various recycling items that my weekly trash pickup won’t accept. Since I am able to drive & have services available locally, I don’t need the special service Ridwell offers. As for getting my chance to ”…feel all warm and fuzzy…” I get those feelings from snuggling with my dog. However, I do take every opportunity to support both small businesses and local businesses when they offer a service I need & I do get a feeling of satisfaction when I’m able to do that. Ridwell business would check both of those boxes if I had a need for their good & useful service. If you read the About Us section when you looked at the Ridwell site, you learned that the business grew from a small father / son project. What isn’t stated is that the young son is very challenged because he is neurodivergent. It was his interest in disposal of batteries that created the small project to help neighbors properly dispose of their batteries….and the rest is history for how the business grew. I don’t happen to need their recycling pickup services since I have many options through my trash pickup that I already pay for plus the free recycling options a short drive away in my own city. So, I can recycle without crossing a river into another state. BTW, Oregon is not backward; their largest city is having challenges yes, but not from being ”backward” as you wondered. I do hope my reply makes you feel better. I also sincerely hope you were not calling me - and Olychick - lazy because that is not a proper gripe. The fact that we make efforts to properly recycle and put some effort into it is commendable. From what you said you do, your efforts are commendable as well. Don’t we all wish everyone was like us? As this thread is meant to be about gripes, that can be our gripe - people who make no efforts to recycle when services are available to them for it.

Okay, I’m adding an anti-gripe(?) . The doorless entries for public washrooms that seem to be in most modern buildings. Great idea. 👍🏻

I'm referring to lazy people in general. If you don't fit the mold don't assume you're included in the club. And yes when people don't make any effort to recycle, amen.

Wiping should be required education in grade school and a proficiency test given.

Would students have to attend summer school if they failed the exam? Could vegetarians sue because they have more to deal with due to additional fiber? What about the lessons, would there be classroom work and a weekly lab? I can see lectures and maybe how-to pictures, but no rational teacher would ever put their hands on a student's butt to help show correct technique.

And of course parents would claim that it is their right to teach their sons and daughters how to manage resources, and form groups to prevent schools from usurping their child's right to wipe according to family teachings.

@lucillle 🤣😂

LOL, lucille.

This thread has been so much fun.

I’d add that target practice should be included. Some of the descriptions of urine covered seats and floors have truly amazed me.

Lots of the trucking company dispatchers I work with work from home. Love that for them. What I do not love and will gripe about is when they are working from home and feel the need to call me with a screeching child in my ear. Not somewhere in the background, which is annoying and unprofessional but not really gripe worthy, though they do make Bluetooth headsets with noise cancelling mics for such purposes...... But kid on hip mid tantrum screeching into the phone, to the point that I cannot hear the actual person that called. Especially if the call is regarding something that can easily be handled over an email, which 99% of things can be. This happens WAY more than it should. Are people really of the thinking that it is okay to do that? I suppose so since it happens so often. I always just hang up on them. When they call back, if they have the audacity to ask why(most do not), I tell them I hung up in order to summon a priest to them to help with the possession problem they are having.

That really applies to any excessive noise really. Loud music or tv, dog barking, some sort of activity that makes a lot of noise. Do not call me with that blasting in my ear. When someone calls me at WORK, I turn off or mute anything that is making noise because it is rude to have all that noise in the background of a call. If I can tell you are cooking dinner because you are banging around pots and pans in my ear, that's RUDE! The screeching kid is just what happens most often and did earlier this evening so it was fresh in my mind.

Also, when someone calls me for information, which usually takes me a minute or so to find, and then when I go to relay that information, they cut me off with "wait wait wait, let me get something to write with." I'm sorry, did you not know the reason you called me? Doofus.

Also, the theme of my life recently has been "MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE!!!!!!" That's what I scream in my head in public or out loud if I am driving. I get very irritated at people blocking the aisles in the grocery store to chat with each other, play on their phones or stare at labels. Move over to the side to do all of that. I am really done being polite and patient about it. And on the road, people that make a whole production out of changing lanes. Just MOVE! You do not have to inch over and take 5 minutes. Just get over and get out of the way!

Negative nancies and debbie downers and one uppers. I turned 40 recently, and all I have heard about is how "everything falls apart after 40." I mean, the same thing was said when I turned 30 and I am still all together so, what the purpose of that? I feel great. What happened to "Happy Birthday?"

Another example, a coworker in another department recently came back from maternity leave. She was talking to the group gathered about how tired she is and how the baby keeps them up at night. And instead if any kind of support or advice, she got condescending, knowing looks and the other parents present telling her "You think THIS is bad? Wait until they start to crawl and get into everything." I have heard this sort of gloom and doom prediction about every stage of a child life. "Just wait until the terrible twos. Just wait until they are teens." etc. Is that supposed to be helpful? Minimizing the things they are currently struggling with because "worse" is to come seems very dismissive and mean to me.

I can recall when I first started at my current job. I was training 8 hours a day. One of the older ladies that was training me always loudly complained about how tired she was everyday, because of the 12 hour shifts. I did not complain about being tired ,because i wasn't. People would ask me how I was liking the job. I would answer that I was enjoying it and felt like I would do well. She would ALWAYS say "Just wait until you start working 12 hour shifts!" Like she was taking some sort of weird glee in thinking about how miserable I would be. I finally told her after about 3 weeks of it that I had been working 12 hour night shifts since I was 18 years old, and found it no harder than working 8, and was looking forward to going on shift. She rolled her eyes and said "we'll see." People like that are such losers. And they are everywhere and growing in number. And that is something I think is gripe-able.

Appointments. Why bother? If you are not going to stick to a schedule, why should I comply with it? 20 minutes behind or so is fine. But if I make a 9 am appointment and do not see who I made the appointment with until 11:00, that's a major problem. And it happens a large percentage of the time I make appointments for things.

Amylou, I always enjoy your posts, and can say I agree with this one 100%. How you deal with the phone calls with too much background noise is admirable.

Re the bathroom air dryers, i don’t mind those except please give us a choice! I brush my teeth a lot. When I eat somewhere I often brush before leaving the restaurant. I hate not having a paper towel to set on the counter and to use to wipe my wet mouth.

@outpaientzero - It's not as you've portrayed it. LINK: Problems with sending waste overseas

I just saw this and thought it fitting for this thread, lol!

i thought of another one that may have already been mentioned. it's when i'm talking to someone on the phone and another person is in the background talking at the same time. my brother's wife is notorious for this. he and i will be talking and she will holler (often from another room) "get me this" or "get me that" or "tell her this" or "tell her that". instead of ignoring her, he'll tell me to "hold on a sec" and that's when i finally have a bellyful and just hang up. then i'll text him and tell him our call must have dropped and i'll catch him later.

what i'd really like to do is tell him to tell her to SHUT THE FRONT DOOR but i'm too nice to do it. 😈

I love Jefferson Fisher and his communication advice...lots of short videos he's done on how to handle situations. One was on people who interrupt you, simply to say I can't hear you when you talk over me. So perhaps, I can't hear you with all the noise in the background.

OMG!!! yes, I call that the parrot talking in the background. Someone will call our office, on a speakerphone, most likely in the car and the 2nd person is talking in the background or answering for the person I'm talking too. I will usually say I can hear them with the other person talking so they'll shut up. It's super annoying and rude if you ask me. Now if you say hello, you're on speaker phone with me and so n so, then I know it's a group conversation. But other than that, they need to pipe down!! LOL

Worse is when I’m on the phone and someone in the room is telling me what to ask or say or asking what the other person is saying. And worse, expecting an answer.