Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/07/27/the-lastswab-will-keep-you-fro.html
…
Even assuming this thing is any good, I immediately spotted the modern marketing fuckwittery re packaging and pricing. To buy three of the standard and three of the beauty version I’d have to buy two times three packs at 27.99 each = $55.98. But if I buy six of one or the other I save $10.99, as it’s only $44.99 for six. But I can’t buy a six pack of three of each for $44.99.
Fuckwits. It’s the most obvious, screaming-out-loud, offer to make.
The basic model comes in 3-packs ($27.99) or 6-packs ($44.99) in colors like red, blue, green, black, peach and turquoise. Meanwhile, the beauty model features purple, white, yellow, black, peach, and red variations, but also at the same price for a 3-pack ($27.99) or a 6-pack ($44.99).
5 Likes
Next up: reusable toilet paper at $8/roll.
9 Likes
OK, the last “ear cleaning appliance” kinda looks like NASA designed it for Mars Rover duty and then said, “You know what? We gotta recoup our expenses… let’s sell these to the public as reusable ear cleaner swabs. Yeah, that’s the ticket!!”
So now we’re on to the beta mod “B” and lookee there, it’s ribbed for your pleasure!
7 Likes
Based on the news I’m seeing today, we really only need to throw away one big Cotton swab this year.
13 Likes
I’ve had these items in my bathroom for about a year I guess. Since then I’ve used ZERO cotton swabs. Great for cleaning/scratching the ear area, and my wife and I also use them for makeup application when it is cosplay season. 
1 Like
you want reusable “toilet paper” you got it buddy.
(switch to bidet)
1 Like
And it’s been heavily used–it’s got all that orange grunge smearing it.
Edit: I really wonder about the recycling comparison – so you can use it 1000 times. So 100% replacement means instead of 1.5 billion cotton swabs/day we’d have 1.5 million nylon and silicone (i.e., plastic) swabs. Seems to me cotton and cardboard would deteriorate in a landfill a lot faster than the nylon and silicone.
8 Likes
I compost cotton swabs. I figure the worms in the worm bin will eat them eventually, or they’ll break down into bedding material.
2 Likes
My ENT instructed me not to stick things in my ears. Swabs tend to push some material deeper into the ear canal and disrupt the normal shedding of debris. Keeping your ears canal dry when you shower and wiping the outer edge with a damp towel is the recommendation I received. So I throw away almost zero cotton swaps now.
Using cotton/canvas shopping bags has a HUGE carbon footprint compared to synthetic or even using/recycling disposable ones.
I recycle whenever I can, but to worry about it too much is just a distraction. Carbon is practically the only thing that counts now
I don’t want to get too distracted right now, but there are other environmental concerns besides carbon output (and they are all inter-related). Bio-diversity is a biggy, and microplastics coming from non-biodegradable shopping bags that aren’t properly disposed of is a big contributor to the death of zooplankton and larger species. All sorts of bad things will happen this part of the foodchain will continue to diminish.
5 Likes
3 Likes
Yeah, I’m pretty sure I spend about $2 on swabs a year.
2 Likes
Why is anyone still buying either of them?
You always manage to get the ones with cardboard sticks? Too many seem to have plastic sticks these days.
Not sure the ends are actually cotton, either, often.
2 Likes
But if these plastic ones won’t absorb liquids, they are no good for cleaning magnetic tape heads. Nah, I won’t buy them.
5 Likes
1 Like
Could we instead get the damned mother f*ckers who designed the COVID-19 swabs to adopt this technology instead? I got covid tested and it felt like they were pulling my testicles up and out through my nostrils. And this was in preparation for an appendectomy, so I was very, very medicated at the time and yet it felt like a wasabi nasal enema.
2 Likes
