Thursday, December 13, 2018

Over Packing


          In the garage we have two bins.
One is for cans and bottles, the other for paper. And every Monday, like everyone else, we dutifully drag out our bottles and cans and paper so they can be picked up and then recycled and (hopefully) turned into something else.

          The last of the Christmas orders has rolled in from UPS, Fed Ex, and our trusty U.S. Postal Service, producing one more box to be mashed and dropped into our garage bin so that it too can be recycled and turned into something else. I can’t help but feel that some companies are a bit too enthusiastic about adding to the recycled heap.

          I understand the financial benefits of standardized packaging, the difficulty for a company of stocking teensy boxes and Mama-sized boxes and great big Daddy-sized boxes, but come on, folks.

          Here’s the order I received the other day.
 I don’t think I’ll give much away about the present inside since it’s barely visible in the picture – the skinny brown rectangle sitting apologetically in the left side of the box, as though it knows that it has no right to such spacious travel quarters .

          The gift is only 10 inches long and 2 inches wide and ¼ inch thick, and is made of plastic. It did not need the giant cardboard box or the three inflated air pillows to get safely to my door.

A paper towel tube would have been just fine.

7 comments:

  1. Conservatively speaking I agree about 1000000 per cent. Some of the packing is completely over the top. And cloth items do NOT need bubble wrap or air-pillows.

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  2. Yes. buy a computer or printer and you'll experience over packing.

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  3. Almost everything is way over packaged these days. I've given up buying online except for books and dvds that arrive in the appropriately sized padded envelopes.

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  4. That is definitely over the top packaging. Sometimes I think the temporary help hired for the holidays require extra pay if you also want them to think. :-)

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  5. at least it wasn't filled with styrofoam peanuts.

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  6. My husband recieved a fairly sturdy stainless steel Guy Tool a few weeks back, the kind of thing that make you grunt slightly when you pick it up. It was rolled in styrofoam and bubble wrap, and (heaven help us) tissue paper, in a box about four times the size necessary. I suspect they have three sizes of boxes, to cover all your buying needs. I do manage to find a use for most of the packing, but it seems such a waste.

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  7. I think these shipping companies pack things so incredibly fast they just don't mess around with packaging -- they choose a standard size box, throw the item(s) in and stuff the rest with air pillows. Takes two seconds!

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Thanks for stopping by and I'd love to hear what you think.