Sunday 26 April 2009

EUROPEAN TISSUE SYMPOSIUM

www.europeantissue.com

You might think tissues aren't all that important. They're just tissues. But according to the European Tissue Symposium:
One of the most important factors for the development of our modern society is hygiene. Good health and high and improving quality of life is directly related to good hygiene.
And also:
One of the most important products for good hygiene is tissue paper, developed for all kinds of wiping and cleaning.
So therefore, I think it's safe to say that tissue is one of the most important things in the modern world.

But what is tissue? This is tissue. And here's a picture to represent tissue:



If you're interested in the properties of tissues, which you're not, but I am, there's a nice little section on product properties:
The first tissue handkerchiefs were introduced in the 1920, immediately making a genuine contribution to hygiene and cleanliness. The products have been refined over the years, especially for softness and strength, but their basic design has remained constant. Today each person in Western Europe uses about 200 tissue handkerchiefs a year, with a variety of 'alternative' functions including the treatment of minor wounds, the cleaning of face and hands and the cleaning of spectacles.
This study comparing the efficacy of various hand drying methods is quite fascinating (shorter summary available here). It's the sort of thing Nicholson Baker would have produced had he been scientist rather than a novelist. This is what Baker says about hand dryers in The Mezzanine:
Are people truly content to be using the hot-air blower? You hit the mushroom of metal that turns it on and, as the instructions recommend, you Rub Hands Gently under the dry blast. But to dry them even as thoroughly as a single paper towel would dry them in four seconds, you must supplicate under the droning funnel for thirty seconds, much longer than anyone has patience for; inevitably you exit flicking water from your fingers, while the blower continues to heat the room. In case you do decide to stand for the full count, the manufacturer (World Dryer Corporation) has provided a short silk-screened text to read to pass the time. It says:

To Serve you better --- We have installed Pollution-Free Warm Air Hand Dryers to protect you from the hazards of disease which may be transmitted by towel litter. This quick sanitary method dries hands more thoroughly prevents chapping --- and keeps washrooms free of towel waste.

In the corner of this statement, World has printed the small Greek letter that looks like a hamburger in profile, the symbol of the environmental movement. But does the environmental movement have anything to do with the reason why the Wendy's restaurant that I stood in on September 30, 1987 had installed this machine in its men's room? No. Is it, in fact, an efficient, environmentally upright user of the electricity produced by burning fossil fuels? No - there is no off button that would allow you to curtail the thirty-second dry time - you are forced to participate in waste. Does it prevent chapping? Dry air? Is it quick? It is slow. Is it more thorough? It is less thorough. Does it protect us from the hazards of disease? You will catch a cold quicker from the warm metal public dome you press to start the blower than from plucking a sterile piece of paper than no human has ever held from a towel dispenser, clasping it in your very own hands to dry them, and throwing it away. Come to your senses, World! The tone of authority and public-spiritedness that surrounds these falsehoods is outrageous! How can you let your marketing men continue to make claims that sound like the 1890s ads for patent medicines or electroactive copper wrist bracelets that are printed on the formica on the tables at Wendy's? You are selling a hot-air machine that works well and lasts for decades: a simple, possibly justifiable means for the fast-food chains to save money on paper products. Say that or say nothing.
Interestingly, in the two decades since Baker wrote that, the World Dryer Corporation has changed the message on their dryers, now it says:
Dryers help protect the environment. They save trees from being used for paper towels. The eliminate paper towel waste. They are sanitary and help maintain cleaner facilities
I'm not sure if the change represents a wider social change, with environmental concerns now more common, or if people weren't really convinced by the hygeine argument.

Anyway, I think Baker is talking about the World Dryer Corporation Model A series (shown here). This model has since been been updated to the XA series, which starts automatically, thereby removing Baker's objection to touching the "warm metal public dome" to start the dryer.

Also, the performance of electric hand dryers has improved, with the introduction of "jet air dryers". In the study linked to above, jet air dryers perform equally well as paper towels in terms of drying efficiency. They are also more hygenic than standard warm air dryers, by only producing a relatively small increase in bacteria after use (although only paper tissues saw an actual decrease).

Because of the power of jet air dryers, they do however have the potential to spread contaminants further within the washroom environment, so maybe they're not as hygenic as paper towels, but then how hygenic is it if you reach to get a paper towel, brush your fingers on the underside of the dispenser and then discover that it hasn't been refilled, so you have to wipe your hands on your trousers?

And anyway, what difference does any of it really make when you're just going to have to open the door using the same handle that everyone else who didn't bother washing their hands anyway has just used?

Thursday 23 April 2009

AUTOMATIC VENDING ASSOCIATION

www.ava-vending.co.uk

Slightly odd URL - if AVA stands for Automatic Vending Association, I'm not quite sure where the extra Vending comes from. I don't care too much though because it's vending. I love vending machines.

For me, when I think of vending machines, I think of the machine in the lobby at Cheam Baths. Or rather, I think of the machine that was in the lobby at Cheam Baths when I was about nine or ten years old.

My friends and I would go swimming most weekends, especially when they had the Cheam Scream (an inflatable slide) and the Wobstacle Course (an inflatable wobstacle course). Afterwards, we'd wait in the lobby, my friends would play Double Dragon and I'd get a packet of Wheat Crunchies from the vending machine.

Buying crisps from a vending machine is more exciting than playing any arcade game. Even Double Dragon. The lightweight nature of the crisps, plus the size and shape of the packet, means there's a possibility of snagging on what I now know to be called the "helix coil". A Mars Bar is unlikely to snag, its relatively heavy weight means it drops down cleanly into what I have just decided should be called the collection bay. I consider this possibility to be an added thrill, a sense of danger, of risk. Others are traumatised by the experience. But for every crisp-snagging disaster, there is the joy of finding a vending machine where a packet of crisps has already snagged and as a result, you can double up and get two for the price of one.

It's not just crisps and snacks you can get from vending machines. You can get cold drinks, hot drinks, CDs, DVDs, video games and mobiles, books, umbrellas, shoes, pizzas, memory cards, pies, Bentleys, lobsters, underpants but not used underpants, eggs, coat-hangers, worms and pornography.

Quite a lot of those are from Japan, where according to Wikipedia, there is one vending machine for every twenty-three people. Very impressive. The AVA don't seem so concerned with such esoteric vending items, though, they seem to concentrate more on refreshment vending:
Consumers in Britain annually spend some £1.5 billion through the slots of more than 418,000 refreshment vending machines. Every day, 8 million cups of coffee and 2 million cups of tea are vended.

Almost anything can be automatically vended, but the principal food and drink products are:
  • Hot and cold beverages
  • Cold drinks in bottles, cans or cartons
  • Confectionery and savoury snacks
  • Sandwiches and snack foods
  • Cook/chill dishes (for heating in an adjacent microwave)
  • Plated meals
  • Ice cream
Pfff, that's boring. "Sandwiches and snack foods", whatever AVA - live lobsters, worms and porn are much better.

You can get water from vending machines. Look, this diagram shows the process water goes though from raincloud to vending machine.



I hope some of the stages have been abbreviated in that diagram, it sort of looks like the rain travels along some pipes until it reaches that bloke's office.

Saturday 11 April 2009

TETRA PAK

www.tetrapak.com

I like Ruben Rausing. He seems like a cool guy. Studying economics in the 20s and seeing the coming changes in society caused by industrialisation and urbanisation and the problems of feeding a crowded city:
Ruben Rausing started to build up a packaging industry, which considerably contributed to the restructuring of Swedish retailing, a modernisation, which led to self-service, convenience shopping and supermarkets. A primary objective was to replace bulk selling of unpacked goods with consumer adapted packaging for flour, sugar and salt. Another product, which was both perishable and demanded a lot of management, was milk. How could bulk milk and the unpractical glass bottle be replaced?
Rausing's idea, inspired by his wife, was to create a continuous paper cylinder filled with milk which was then sealed, eliminating trapped air and improving shelf life. Think of those sausage machines, where the filling is fed into the casing continuously and sealed at fixed intervals. Think of that, but milky:



The original Tetra Paks were tetrahedral in shape, which I guess is where the name comes from, and looked quite neat:



Now, Tetra Pak offer nine different packaging forms:



Left to right:
  • Tetra Recart "Beef stew, or macaroni cheese? Now you can pack food you would normally pack in cans or glass jars in the environmentally friendly Tetra Recart"
  • Tetra Fino Aseptic "The no-nonsense package specially designed to pack all kinds of milk, juice and teas"
  • Tetra Rex "Probably the world's most popular and widespread carton package"
  • Tetra Gemina Aseptic "Combines modern, eye-catching looks and a fresh image with the convenience, safety and nutritional benefits of aseptic packaging"
  • Tetra Wedge Aseptic "A great way for young people to express their personality through what they drink"
  • Tetra Prisma Aseptic "A premium package that's ideal for high quality fruit juices, flavoured enriched and cultured milks, iced teas and organic products"
  • Tetra Brik Aseptic "Easy to store, safe and hygenic" (A non-aseptic version for chilled products is also available)
  • Tetra Top "The package that adds real shelf confidence to your products"
  • Tetra Classic Aseptic "Stands out from the packaging crowd"
The machines used to process and fill these cartons are very impressive. Look at this:



Who could have imagined a machine as huge as that would be simple enough to be operated by a woman?

I love watching footage of industrial production lines.



The clips here are beautiful too. I especially like the last clip ("Paketering i Tetra, Brik och Pure Pak, ca 1965") with that jolly little background music which about halfway through sounds like it's about to mutate into the instrumental version of (I've Got A) Golden Ticket used over the titles of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. Think of that, but milky.