leftish:

Does anyone else marvel at the amount of packaging corporations use to send out their products?

[Here is a letter I wrote to USA Business Products today]

To Whom It May Concern ~

There was a massive box on my porch today.  I couldn’t imagine what it might be.  The only thing I had ordered was 6 packs of Glossy Photo Paper,  Surely this massive box couldn’t be that, could it?

Actually, and sadly, it was.

I received my order from your company today, and I have to tell you, I was appalled.  I ordered 6 packages of KOD 8209017 Glossy Photo Paper 100 packs.  You did not have them in one location, I guess, because there were packing slips from two different locations inside the gigantic box that housed TWO SEPARATE SMALLER BOXES, one with 5 packs of paper and one with 1 pack of paper!

The box with 5 packages measured 9x14x5.

The box with 1 package measured 9x14x8 and was stuffed with 6 air pillows!

The two boxes were then thrown into a gigantic box together (21x18x13) along with 16 more (that’s right, 16!) air pillows and shipped off to me.  So there was a total of 22 air pillows used for my 6 packs of paper!

I have been given the gift of THREE cardboard boxes, in varying sizes from small to massive, plus 22 air pillows that need to be recycled.

What if I lived in a tiny apartment?  Where am I supposed to put this excessive packaging?

But that is not my biggest concern - consumer difficulties.

I am writing to you today to open up a dialogue with whomever manages your Packaging/Shipping purchases and policies.

I want to suggest that you are WASTING MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF MONEY AND RESOURCES with your CARELESS SHIPPING PRACTICES.

I have been researching this issue for a while, and am in the middle of writing a piece about it, rife with incriminating photos of shipments I have received, similar to yours.

Here’s the bottom line.

Every time you package something in a bigger container than is needed you are incurring enormous waste.  Not only on the cost of the unnecessarily large container, but on the cost of the popcorns, air pillows or whatever that is used to fill it up, as well as the cost of extra tape that is used to seal it.  Not only that, but CARDBOARD BOXES DON’T GROW ON TREES!!  Trees are cut down to make these cardboard boxes you are so carelessly throwing about.

From there you need to look at the cost of the extra SPACE ON THE TRUCK that you are paying for.  You are paying to transport AIR!  Because your packages are so unnecessarily large, you need to use more trucks than is necessary to get them delivered, costing YOU more for EXTRA GAS, as well as EXTRA EMPLOYEE PAY.  And then there is the consumer.  You are burdening your consumer with more waste and packaging than they need, which now has to be disposed of.  Luckily, I have an online business and am usually able to re-use almost all of the packaging materials I am sent, but that is not the case with many of your customers, I’m sure.

My two separate boxes of paper packs were obviously together, in the same shipping station, at some point, since they were thrown into the gigantic box together.  The 5 pack of paper could easily have fit in the box that had the other single pack (which was in the BIGGER small box).  All your shipper had to do was open up the two boxes, and put the five packs inside the other box, and dispose of the smaller box.  Instead, your shipper elected to throw the two boxes, as is, into another massive box, and ship it that way.  That is RIDICULOUS.

I suggest that you reconsider your shipping practices, and make every effort to have your goal be as LITTLE packaging as possible.  In fact, you might offer a $100 reward each week, in each location, to the shipper who packages the greatest number of items in the smallest amount of volume!  The amount of waste your company creates must be monumental.  You could probably save yourselves thousands upon thousands of dollars by revamping your irresponsible shipping practices.

I was told by an employee in your Sales Dept that somebody would call me.  She took my phone number and said she expedited my complaint, and assured me that someone in the Purchasing and/or Shipping Department would get back to me.

I was assured that someone from your company, who is in a position to actually make decisions, and can address and correct this situation, would be getting in touch with me by phone.

I look forward to speaking with someone from your company.

Thank you. 

Sincerely,

Tara Thralls

P.S. I took photos of the boxes, and of the long stream of air pillows, however, I didn’t include them, as I am not sure if you would even open an attachment.

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Does this bother you, too?  I can’t be the only one that is astounded by the amount of Corporate Waste that is generated in the Shipping and Packaging of their products, right?

(Source: iamnotapear, via dxo)

fortheocean:

“Imagine 8 football fields covered thickly with plastic bottles: this is  the equivalent to the number of plastic beverage bottles discarded in the US every five minutes (data: 2009)

Now imagine a line of plastic bottles going around the planet five times. This would be equivalent to the number of plastic bottles discarded every week in the US.. just for water!  (data 2009)

Now imagine the waste created by all types of single use plastics put together,  by all the countries in the world (the US is only 5% of the worlds population)… This includes plastic bottles, plastic bags, plastic utensils, cups, containers and more.”

For every 6 pounds of small plastic found in the water, there’s one pound for plankton.

http://plasticpollutioncoalition.org/

(via socialuprooting)