Cardboard vs. plastic

I was getting ready to pour myself a large glass of juice the other day when I realized just how extraneous some "improvements" on products can be. What am I talking about? The plastic pour spout on 1/2 gallon cardboard juice or milk containers. I'm not quite sure what the thought process is behind this improvement; perhaps the developers felt it makes pouring juice easier, I don't know. What I do know is that it makes it so the container is not recyclable. The joining of plastic and cardboard make it so they can't pe put in the cardboard bin and they can't be put in the plastic bin either.
My other problem with this improvement - you can't get all the juice out. There is always some juice sloshing around on the bottom and no matter how you tilt the container, it stays stuck in it. Now you can just open up either side of the cardboard, but that would be the old-fashioned way of doing things. Next thing you know, we'd be back to opening the container in this fashion from the very start which would send the manufacturer into a tizzy. There might be an uprising with consumers demanding that the old way be returned. Think of the savings if they didn't add that piece of plastic to each container! True, we would still have those individuals who open both ends of the container because they forget to follow the directins of "open this end", but overall it would be an improvement. Admit it, we've all had that plastic seal break off in our hands at least once, or pulled so hard that some of the juice sloshed out onto the floor!

Yup, back to the old ways for me. Either that or I can just stick to coffee as my morning beverage of choice.