A new product spotted at Walmart has drawn praise in one corner of the internet, and criticism when that praise was posted on the r/anticonsumption subreddit. The product in question is a pack of "disposable cutting boards" from Dixie.
"I forgot what I was reading and thought there was going to be anything speaking against this," the original Reddit poster, who has since deleted their account, wrote in the August post. "But no, every single comment in the article was praising this."
The article about the cutting boards in the Daily Dot references a TikTok from Dan Oliver (@founder_dan), who describes the cutting boards as the "best new product." The Daily Dot further explains that it "helps prevent cross-contamination."
@founder_dan Best new product
♬ original sound - Dan O
Of course, there is a way to prevent cross-contamination with nondisposable cutting boards, too: by washing them.
The Redditors of r/anticonsumption could hardly believe what they were reading.
"I suppose anything is disposable if you're willing to pay to throw it in the garbage," wrote one commenter. "Regardless, this is disappointing."
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"Dude I feel like everyone around me is obsessed with disposables and too lazy to wash things," wrote another. "Even at home these people use paper plates and bowls for stupid things like chips. Takes seconds to rinse a bowl that has salty chips in it. I can't wrap my head around it."
"When I saw this one I thought it was sarcasm," wrote a third. "All the people saying 'gReAT fOR CaMpInG!!!!' Just bring a regular cutting board??? It takes up the same amount of space! Are we all not washing dishes when we camp??"
Although the article repeats Dixie's claim that the disposable cutting boards are recyclable as long as your local recycling program "accepts food-contaminated paper and plastic waste," just because something can be recycled, that doesn't necessarily mean that it will be.
According to statistics from the EPA, cardboard is recycled at a higher rate than any other material — yet 31.8% of it still ends up sitting in landfills. That means that literal tons of it are taking up space and releasing planet-overheating gases as it breaks down.
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According to the University of Colorado Boulder Environmental Center, the United States produces and uses 70,000 tons of cardboard every year, and more than 17,000 tons ends up in landfills. Indeed, as the Daily Dot notes, reusable cooking tools are more environmentally conscious than disposables, per conservation organization Sierra Club.
"Every day we stoop to new levels of rampant destructive consumerism," another Redditor commented.
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