unnecessary

As I occasionally shop for cold medicines, one thing always comes to mind. Why, exactly, does every single liquid medicine come with a dosage cup? In the first place, there should at least be a universal dosage measuring system so you could use one cup for any medicine. And for the argument that you either lose the cups or you need more than one, I feel like you should just be able to buy replacement dosage cups as necessary. If people just throw them away when the medicine is over, then medicines need to carry “Please recycle this dosage cup” labeled on it.

I live on my own and I’m on bottle 2 of my nighttime cold medicine and bottle 3 or 4 of my sore throat medicine. And in my bathroom cabinet is 5 dosage cups. I am but one person. What am I going to do with 5 dosage cups? Line up shots and call it a party? As much fun as that sounds, I do have to go to work in the morning.

Why can’t medicines not come with a dosage cup by default and replacements be sold separately? That way, they would be used more on an as-needed basis and lots of plastic could be used for something else. Is there an actual, concrete reason every bottle of cold medicine comes with its own dosage cup, or is it just a standard practice?