There have been a lot of bad products invented over the years, but there has to be one product at the top of the list that can be classified as the worst product of all time. Lately, one product has been really aggravating me and I'd like to nominate it to be the worst product ever invented. While it may not be as mindlessly pointless as other products (pet rocks, etc), its widespread use puts it over the top.

The product that I'm talking about is polystyrene (more commonly known under the trademark Styrofoam.

So what is it about polystyrene that I hate?

1. Most places do not accept it for recycling. Even though polystyrene often has a recyclable number on it, many municipalities do not accept it. This means that many people are forced to send it to the dump.

2. It's big and clunky. The polystyrene that you get from packaging materials are intended to protect the contents of the package. They do this very well, but those large chunks of packaging are hard to fit in a garbage can. They can't be smashed down like packing paper. And if you do try to smash it down, it leads to reason number 3.

3. It breaks into a million tiny little pieces. If you've ever tried to break this stuff up to fit into a garbage can, you know that it doesn't break/smash cleanly. The breaking action lets loose hundreds of little tiny pieces of the stuff. This leads to issue number 4.

4. The pieces are charged with static electricity. After covering yourself and your surroundings with little pieces of loose polystyrene, you will be hard pressed to get them off. Try to throw them away and they just stick to your hand. Try to wipe them up and they stay stuck to whatever they are on. About the only good way to get rid of them is to vacuum them up which is not always practical.

5. Lastly, the main reason that this should qualify for worst product ever is because it is so widely used. It is used in packaging just about everything under the sun which means you have to deal with it a lot in your lifetime.

Well those are my reasons why polystyrene is one of the worst products ever made. Sure it has some good qualities (it floats, it protects, it insulates), but it is a huge pain the way I see it.

If you have other nominations for worst product ever, leave a comment.