Low Prices, High Waste

I certainly don't consider myself any sort of environmental activist. I don't burn tires on my lawn but I also don't do a very good job recycling. By that I mean I still have not bought a recycling bin for our house. And we moved in 10 years ago. Oops. I do however know when something is a colossal waste and it's annoying no matter what my level of environ-mentality.

Also, as a preface to this story I want to state that I'm not much of a Wal-Mart shopper. There are a dozens of reasons why someone who isn't strapped for cash should take their business elsewhere, I'm not going to get into that. I don't go there because it's not convenient to me and the service there sucks. Also, there is a whole faction of people who shop there that think it's OK to take a toddler out at midnight wearing only a diaper and let them scream and cry while they shop for $8.00 DVDs. If I wanted to look at the bottom-feeders then I'd look underneath a whale. Or a fishing boat.


I also realize that if you search hard enough there are reasons to avoid/boycott/trash talk every corporation. I love shopping at Target and maybe underneath their facade there is a guy who diddles small Asian boys, who the fuck knows. But I do know that when it comes to the one item I regularly buy at Wal-Mart, the environment is getting screwed. Hard.

Every three months I venture out to buy my prescription meds at Wal-Mart. I do this because Wal-Mart's regular price is actually cheaper than getting them using my insurance company's mail-order system. Plus, I hate that mail-order system more than I hate Wal-Mart.

I am currently taking 40 mg of Paroxetine a day. Paroxetine is a generic version of Paxil, which is a general anti-depressant. Don't boo-hoo me, I've been on anti-depressants longer than I *haven't* been on them. It's called a "chemical imbalance", Google it!

At Wal-Mart Paroxetine is very cheap. For the 20 mg pills they charge $10.00 for a 3 month supply. I take double that amount so for a 90 day supply it costs me $20.00. The same amount from my insurance company costs about $36.00 and it comes via the post man, one plastic bottle with one sticker on it, one bill with return envelope, all in a tidy little bubble wrap package.

So I save $16.00 by schlepping over to Wal-Mart and this is what I get;





Well now...that's not so bad. A little bag with 2 different receipts on it. Looks pretty standard so far. Let's open that sucker up....







What the heck are all these plastic cases? And three sheets of paper with blah blah blah all the writing on them.....yadda yadda yadda...telling me all this stuff I already know about this medicine. I've only been on it for-freakin-ever. And these plastic cases....what are they all about? OMG! You have to press down on a little tab in order to pull the blister pack out. What if I only had one hand? Or what if one of my hands was busy being stuck in a near empty jar of Nutella? This little tab system wouldn't be very convenient then. OK, now I see...each blister pack holds 30 pills, guess that makes sense...






Well wouldja look at that...each pill has a day of the week by it....yeah...now why is that again? You're supposed to take the pills every day right? And they are all the same? And it's suggested you take them at the same time each day so you wouldn't really need a reminder as to if you had taken one. And for crying out loud, they aren't birth control pills. And...wait-just-a-gosh-darn-minute....this doesn't even make since. There are 30 pills...but only 28 are noted with a day of the week. The other two say "Last Dose" and "Order Now."


Let's give them the benefit of the improbable and say I started the pack of pills on a Monday and followed the days in order. So...I get to the last Sunday...then take the one labeled "Last Dose" on Monday, then take "Order Now" on Tuesday. Then I need a new pack....and the next pack is just like this one and it says to start on Monday but it's Wednesday, not Monday. Do I skip ahead? Do I take Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays pills all to catch up? WHAT THE HECK AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?


And why do I need them in this big plastic case again? What happened to the pretty golden brown bottles medicine used to come in? The ones with the lids that were hard for kids open? I don't need the packaging of prescription drugs to evolve and become all complicated. Is this packaging why drugs cost so much? Are precious metals being used in the packaging of these drugs? Screw this...all these little cases won't even fit in my nightstand. Maybe I'll just take the blister cards out.....







IS THIS A JOKE?!?!??! It's all in capital letter, they must be very serious about this. There must be a good reason for it. *Think...think...think* Forget it, send the DEA or the FDA or the CDC after me, I totally don't care. I want these pills out of these stupid blue cases. Right. Perfect. Between the bag and the receipts and the cases and the stickers I have a giant pile of garbage left over.







(Yes, I did block out my address, thank you very much. If someone wants to know my address then can look it up in the G.D. phone book. Let your fingers do the walking lazy bones!)


So all that trash and waste for the end result of this:





(Funky diamond shaped reflection off my napkin dispenser-in case you're curious.)


Way to go Wal-Mart. And before you get all furious with your keyboard and tell me that I should be blaming the manufacturer, take a look back at the close up of the outside of the case. "Distributed by Wal-Mart." So there. Wal-Mart hates the Earth. Case closed.