During my recent vacation in Ireland, I had one of those “what the heck” moments. One of my cousins told me she has a friend who packs disposable underwear when she travels. What? Disposable underwear? This takes laziness and convenience to new heights!

If you’re a regular reader, you know I pride myself on travelling light. I’ve managed 5-day business trips and 16-day vacations with just a carry on. (Learn how I do this in Travel packing tips to make long and short trips easier.) Even so, the idea of packing throwaway single-use underwear to save a few inches of space would never occur to me.

When my cousin told me about disposable underwear, I didn’t believe such a thing existed. So, I did a quick search on Amazon. Sure enough. There it was!

It must be popular because there were several options to choose from. You can get 10 pairs of 100% cotton disposable panties for $26.99. Or another choice offers 35 pairs of non-woven underwear for just under $40. Even worse, most of them are advertised as “individually wrapped.” YIKES!

Oh, but there’s more. You can also buy disposable bras.

Our need for convenience is getting out of hand

Sadly, we live in a throwaway world where convenience too often wins out over sustainability, and even common sense. In earlier posts, I discussed why we need to reject the big lie of convenience culture, and pondered why home appliances don’t seem to last as long as they used to.

All this has me shaking my head and wondering what our society has come to. It appears we have reached a new height of laziness!

These products were designed for use in salons and spas, but then some clever marketers decided they could pitch them to consumers. Reading the product descriptions of the disposable underwear made me roll my eyes. “For our women, it is very practical and a necessity for our women’s daily life.” Seriously? How have I managed without this “necessity” for the last 60 years?

Reasons to say NO to disposable underwear

If you’re tempted, here are several reasons to say NO WAY to disposable underwear.

• Save your money. I am sure you can find a better use for that $26.99 or $39.99.
• Consider the resources that go into manufacturing. The products I saw were cotton, or made from some type of non-woven synthetic material. Either way, it’s a fail for the environment. Cotton is a resource-intensive crop. It takes a lot of water and pesticides to produce something designed to be thrown away after one wear. And most synthetic fabrics are made from fossil fuels.
• Think about packaging waste. Anything individually wrapped creates unnecessary waste. Even if each pair of underwear isn’t individually packaged, I bet sustainable packaging is not at the top of the priority list of a company making single-use underwear.
• Consider the environmental cost of shipping these products from the other side of the world.
• Finally, it really won’t save much room in your suitcase. Even disposable underwear—especially if it’s individually wrapped—takes up space. Why not just pack real underwear? You know! The kind you wash and wear for years!

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May common sense prevail

Seeing this kind of thing always takes me back to the first of my mindful shopping questions. “Do I really need this?” When it comes to disposable underwear, the answer to that question is a resounding NO!

On a positive note, the same cousin also showed me her compact travel kettle. As a tea drinker, I LOVE this idea because it’s often hard to find a decent cup of tea, and I seriously hate the idea of paying $8 for hot water and a tea bag. For less than the cost of a package of disposable underwear, I ordered a travel kettle and will test it out on my next trip. Stay tuned for my review in a future post.

What are your thoughts on disposable underwear? What other single-use items have you heard of that make no sense? Drop me a comment below with your thoughts.