A recent magazine article sparked my attention. Its title read: "7 Things To Make With Toilet Paper Rolls." What a crafter's challenge! Just what can we do with those empty rolls after the toilet paper is fully used?
It appears that toilet paper wrapped on rolls is a relatively recent invention, tracing roots to the last half of the 19th century. Frankly, the technology has not advanced much since then. Basically, as most of us know, segmented long sheets of thin and often abrasive paper are coiled around a cardboard roll. Thus, after all the paper is removed for use, one is left holding the cardboard roll.
The magazine article offered some creative uses for the empty roll. For example, it could be used to hold wrapping paper together-a roll on roll, if you will. Or, it could be used to contain an electric cord; or seed could be glued to the outside of the roll, and it becomes a bird feeder.
Inspired by these examples, I conjured up some other possible uses:
* Several empty rolls could be strung together to make a garland for a Christmas tree.
* Rolls could become containers to hold candy treats to be given to Halloween trick or treaters.
* Rolls could be used to hide jewelry and other small valuables from would be thieves.
* Horizontally, rolls could be used as napkin rings at more formal dinners, when cost is an issue.
* Vertically, they could be used for place names at the dinner table, when guests are deemed unimportant.
* Rolls could be made into home made English Christmas crackers, when the real things are too expensive.
* Roll could make fine beverage holders on airplane trips, for those who drink their wine or spirits straight from the small bottles.
* Following current trends, rolls could become virtual currency for various transactions.
Because empty toilet paper rolls may have a carbon footprint, and could clog landfills or even sewers if discarded inappropriately, perhaps the best solution is regulation by a federal governmental agency. The Toilet Paper Empty Roll Control Act (TPERCA, for short) could be enacted by Congress to authorize EPA to regulate the size, composition, use and disposal of empty rolls. Rolls and their uses would have to meet strict compliance standards. Users of toilet paper would file monitoring reports with the agency. Any use or disposal of a roll would require a permit.
Accordingly, regulation again would provide a happy solution, for we all certainly would know what to do with our rolls.
No comments:
Post a Comment