Posted by
Rich from NW Indiana on Monday, June 30, 2008 8:23:30 PM
Remember those lousy low flow toilets from the early 1990's? The ones they made the toilet makers sell after they banned the the tried and true 5 gallon models? The ones you have to flush a couple of times to get everything down. Yes those nasty things. People ended up having to bring in illegal toilets from Canada. (Isn't it insane there is such a thing as a illegal toilet??)
Today the newest low flow toilets are fine. I have one that works great. Its brand new and replaced an earlier low flow toilet that isn't very good. The other bathroom in this house still has a old 5 gallon toilet from the 1970's. It may even get replaced finally. But in many peoples minds around the U.S. now, new toilets are garbage. Why? Because the first low flow toilets were not ready for the public. But they had to sell them because the old ones got banned.
Thats the folly of the "Green" product movement. Environuts are so intent on changing something that they force things to happen before they should. They don't understand the market and how it works. People will be more then willing to replace something (even something that is fine) with something they think is better. The auto market is a great example of that.
On the flip side, they will not replace something for something that is worse. The early low flow toilets were crummy so nobody would buy them. So the environuts made it happen by having the government ban the old toilets. Instead of letting the market take the time it needed to make a better low flow toilet it had nothing but the crummy ones.
So they got a bad rap. And for good reason. But now ten or so years later the low flow toilets work far better. But many people with old toilets will not replace them, because they still work so why change for something that could be worse. So old toilets will remain far longer then they would have. And many older 1990's low flow toilets will be going to the dump early because they needed to be replaced already (like the one I took out). So how does that help the environment? It would have been better to let the free market do the job instead of a government mandate?
In today's Chicago Trib, there is a article about a new kind of milk container. Its good for the enviroment, cost less to ship etc. So whats the problem? Read about it
here. Its badly designed for the end user. So it will fail unless it is reworked. OR more likely it is mandated by the government by banning the old containers. Don't think that will happen? Ask any Canadian, who has been buying milk in plastic bags since the 1980's. It blew my mind when I saw that for the first time. They really are bad. The wasted spilled milk there most be huge!
The environuts will find it far easier if they would take a few cues from the market. Don't force lousy products on consumers even if they are "green". Make the green products better overall not just "green". Most green products end up being niche items due to being lousy or far more expensive then the regular item. I don't buy the compact fluorescent light bulbs. The light is crummy, they make humming noises, they flicker, and their pretty expensive (and have mercury in them so the green part isn't so green). I would love to use less energy but the disadvantages far out weight the advantages. A regular incandescent bulb works far better, is cheap and is everywhere. GE is (or was) working on better incandescents. That would be more "green" in my book.
The government will not bring energy saving or good green products to the market. Only private businesses will do it when they see the need. Don't make them do it before the item is ready for "prime time". It will only make things worse not better.