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Pringles Can Designer Dies, Buried In a Pringles Can

Posted by kdawson on from the can-you-hear-me-now dept.

n3hat sends along an item from the Cincinnati Enquirer: "Dr. Fredric J. Baur was so proud of having designed the container for Pringles... that he asked his family to bury him in one. His children honored his request. Part of his remains was buried in a Pringles can — along with a regular urn containing the rest... Dr. Baur, a retired organic chemist and food storage technician who specialized in research and development and quality control for Procter & Gamble, died May 4 at 89... He developed many products, including frying oils and a freeze-dried ice cream, for P&G... But the Pringles can was his proudest accomplishment, his daughter said. He received a patent for the package as well as the method of packaging Pringles in 1970."

4 of 261 comments (clear)

  1. Environmental Impact by bazald · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I remember visiting a recycling center when I was in elementary school. One particular item that they picked on as being very difficult to recycle was the Pringles can. A bizarre combination of metal, cardboard, and plastic, it is almost impossible for them to get the components apart.

    So, no thanks for failing to consider the environmental impact of your design.

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    Insert self-referential sig here.
    1. Re:Environmental Impact by Scruffy+Dan · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Actually it does. Designers should realize what the general public (aka: unthinking Joe Sixpack) will do with their products, not what some idealized consumer will do. Also while I don't eat that many pringles (no more than 5 cans a year at most) I can't figure out what to so with that many cans.

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      Just another crappy blog
    2. Re:Environmental Impact by khallow · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Recycling is the classic example of why just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should do it. Even if one ignores the difficulties of seperating the components of a Pringle's can, I doubt there's anything in a Pringle's can that is worth recycling now much less then. Nor do I see the point to making the can out of something more recyclable. More goods are wasted with shoddy packaging. More time is wasted when people have to sort trash so that some money-losing recycling center can pretend to save the environment and landfill space.

  2. Re:It could have been worse by vidarh · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You wouldn't like this then. A Swedish company is offering freeze drying of corpses as a more environmentally friendly alternative to cremation.