Keith Shirley

Todays post was going to be about a non tech invention that I thought was a maximum of 10 years old. From the company website I find out it’s been around since the sixties and has sold over 200,000,000,000 units. Then why oh why don’t we know how to use it properly?

What am I talking about?

The simple Tetra Rex package is something we are all familiar with from milk and juice cartons. It’s much easier to use than the old cartons where you had to squeeze the “wings” just right to get it open. With this package you just unscrew the top and pour.

So what’s wrong with that?

Well – The milk goes glug when the air goes back into the package and regularly causes some to splash over the edge of the glass. The reason is we’re doing it wrong. Special thanks to PomeGreat for printing the correct way on their cartons. We need to turn it around so the pouring spout is on top / away from the glass. This allows the liquid to flow and the air to get into the carton. No glug. No mess. Happy people.

Why was I not taught this in school? Didn’t my teachers realise how much hardship and wasted paper towels this lack of knowledge has caused me?

My scientific study (I asked 3 people) shows me that I’m not the only person that did not know. So – for the sake of humanity as we know it – I wrote this post.

Below is a very rough sketch of what I mean about turning the carton around.