Puzzling Packaging
Why, oh why to firms insist on over packaging parcels?
I’ve had two parcels this last week, one from a Natural Heath company and the other from a well-known kitchen supplies chain. Both packages were far larger than they needed to be.
The once from the health company contained three bottles of vitamins. Two were approx 4″ high and 1.5″ diameter, the other 2.5″ high and 1″ diameter.
The box they came in was 18″ x 12″ x 9″. At first I thought I’d received something I hadn’t ordered, the container was so large. Having dug down through the crumpled brown paper, I found the three bottles. Each of them was well covered in bubble-wrap. As I tried to extricate the bottles I realised the bubble-wrap was sticky on one side, making easy removal impossible!
It look me over 10 mins to cut everything free. I was left with yet another box to crush and recycle, the packaging going the same way. A task I delegated to Jill, the lovely volunteer who helps me with food shopping and tidying up. She used a full recycling sack with all the boxes I’d accumulated recently.
I expected the butter knives I ordered from the kitchen company to come in a Jiffy bag or similar. They are not sharp, but with their moulded handles much easier to use than ordinary knives. They came in a box too, it was about 12″ x 8″ x 4″, just for four knives!
Again, more crushed brown paper and the knives themselves inside moulded clear plastic on cardboard.
Surely such a large box was unnecessary in both cases? The crushed brown paper was clearly new, and even if it was itself recycled, a waste of resources and adding cost to my shopping.
We are encouraged not to use non-recyclable shopping bags, surely mail order companies should be expected only use enough packaging, not too much?
Buy on the High Street, I hear you say. Not easy in a wheelchair. The only shop where I could order the vitamin supplements is not wheelchair accessible and neither is the local shop selling (rather expensive) kitchen impedimenta.
So until I can access local shops, I have to buy on-line.
Using the local post office and sorting office is another story for a different blog.
Life from my Wheelchair 
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