When I turned eighteen, I entered my first head shop in Mattoon, Illinois. Toad’s. It was a tattoo parlor that also sold paraphernalia. I marveled at the colorful pipes and ridiculously hug bongs but also was taking aback by the prices (a pinch hitter was more than $11 in the early 1990s). Nothing I could splurge on as a broke soon-to-be college student. Plus, I didn’t want to illegally possess paraphernalia in or outside the house.

That night, we had nothing to smoke out of, so we engineered our own handmade pipes with aluminum foil and the inside wrapper from a cigarette box. We got too high and made a shitload of disposable pipes. Some worked well, most didn’t. We couldn’t understand why a company hadn’t already manufactured such a product. Well, now one does. Dispoze-a-Bowl. And I’m all smiles about it.

Photo by ILNJ

The Dispoze-a-Bowl body, made with a food-grade ivory board and a food-grade stainless-steel cup, is an inexpensive, disposable alternative to typical glass, wood, or corncob smoking pipes.

The stainless-steel cup is wrapped with a paper insulator sleeve to absorb excess heat and better seals the bowl onto the pipe.

Assembly is simple. Seriously, just square the ivory paper by pinching the sides, and then close the flaps on the end of the pipe. Firmly seat the stainless-steel cup in the corresponding (top) hole of the pipe. Load the bowl, then place a fingertip over the carburetor hole at the end. Voilà! Ready to blaze.

Unlike the homemade bowls my friend and I had made, the Dispoze-a-Bowl is surprisingly durable and well sealed for a strong hit each time. The stainless-steel cup, with a built in screen, is deep and can fit more than needed for one smoke session.

I was also curious about how many uses I could get out of one pipe before I had to discard it. The answer: several.

I also purposely hot boxed the pipe, and though the heat warmed and relaxed paper, the pipe held strong and actually less heated than metal or glass pipes would have been.

Photo by ILNJ

In the age of the Covid-19 pandemic, Dispoze-a-Bowls are also a great way to smoke with others without having to share the same pipe. Just break out a Dispoze-a-Bowl’s party pack and hand them out. Everyone gets a personal bowl. Get colored markers or create personal designs on the paper, or just claim it with your name.

Photo by ILNJ

Dispoze-a-Bowl warns to never use a torch lighter on the product and to run under cold water or give ample time to cool before discarding.

There are so many unique products available to Illinoisans to enjoy now because of legalization. The Dispoze-a-Bowl is definitely one of them.

Photo by ILNJ

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