> Each sensor also used a ludicrous amount of plastic for its applicator, like a tennis-ball-sized hunk of hard plastic, that you just chucked in the trash, every week.

Erm, let's be a little defensible here.

These sensors have to be stored in sterile packaging--that means thick enough to be a barrier. That means it also has to hold the sensor in such a way that a palette can be gamma irradiated. It also needs to be resistant to drops, crushes, and other accidents.

The sensor has to not be harmful with organisms irrespective of the understanding of the person using it. Any change to that packaging has to be re-evaluated for effects on that sterilization.

And while I understand people having concerns, if the only reason we needed to use plastic was to treat folks with diabetes--I think the world would somehow manage.