For the past few months, we’ve been using one of those Ecoegg laundry things – a plastic egg, filled with pellets, that you put in with your clothes instead of other washing liquids or powders. It has been… okay. That isn’t the most glowing review but it certainly hasn’t been so awful that we’ve given up on it. We’ve now reached a point where (a) we have pretty much finished up our supply of laundry liquid (which we tended to use for larger or more soiled washes) and (b) the pellets look like they need replacing. For some reason, the instructions suggest disposing of the old ones and I am wondering why?

I check the FAQs on the Ecoegg website, which didn’t help so I pressed on with the next part of my discovery strategy and sent them a message. Unfortunately they have almost the worst kind of contact system (apart from a brain-dead ‘artificial assistant’ that is just a dodgy interface to a pre-built FAQ list): a contact form that doesn’t even email you back what you asked. So, for my own reference, here is the question I posed:

Why is it recommended to throw away the pellets once they have shrunk in size, rather than just topping up with new ones? The white ones appear to be a homogenous material throughout (yes, I cut one in half) and I suspect the black,tourmaline ones are too. I expect it may be to avoid them getting out of the ‘egg’ and causing blockages in the washing machine but, in that case, is there any reason why old ones can’t be kept and used for handwashing applications, minimising landfill waste even further?

I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of answer I get but at least, now, I will still know exactly what I asked.