Trend of excessive cardboard packaging.

Chrysalis

I do struggle with breaking down boxes, especially industrial strength one's with massive thickness, but will do it in the name of recycling, however wastage I feel is getting worse.

Some recent examples.

Ordered two light weight storage box seat things from amazon, on checkout I had the option to have no external packaging which I selected.  Both of these came in their own boxes which should have been fine for a courier, but they were placed in a huge thick cardboard box, and if that wasnt enough all of the excess space was filled with lots of brown paper as the box was way too big.  The waste filled up 3 recycling bags (with a struggle to get it down to that).  The cardboard was thick enough I had to saw though it with a sharp knife to break it down, which also meant hoovering up all the small pieces afterwards as well.

Ordered some new clothes, which were admittedly thick material stuff for winter season, instead of a convenient plastic shipping bag, it came in a very thick cardboard box, and I mean thick, its ridiculous, and even though clothes are not fragile, a amazon shipping box was placed inside to fill an excess gap.  First time I have had clothes delivered in a box.  What happened to paper bags or thin cardboard if plastic was a no go?  Note all the clothing items were still in their own plastic covers.

I would like cardboard to have a maximum allowed thickness for a set weight, and for it to have a easy designed break down process.

ButterCheese

The trouble is, if companies use packaging that is too lightweight then people complain about damage and they have to refund them and pay for the return postage.  In terms of the environment then we could make more impact my not ordering online at all and walking/cycling to the nrearest outlet to pick it up.  It is a pain, but we just take it to the recycling centre or we burn it in the garden.  Each and every way you look at it has an environmental pro or con.  We can't even gurantee these days that are recyling will even be recycled - it could be burnt or shipped to Malaysia where it sits and pollutes the place. 

I know it is annoying but big buisness will prefer to spend more on packaging if it prevents damage claims further down the road

eddddy

It will be interesting to see the impact of "Extended producer responsibility for packaging" (or "Packaging Tax").

Will it make businesses reduce the amount of packaging they use, or will they use the same amount of packaging and pass on the increased cost to consumers?

Slinky

It took 4 deliveries to get us an unbroken toilet pan. The first was part of an order with other bathroom items, it came shrink wrapped on a pallet of other boxes, except the pan was chipped. They sent another one, literally in a cardboard box with no other protection at all. It was properly broken. The third one was worse, so badly broken you couldn't tell it had been a toilet pan it was in so many bits. Finally at the 4th attempt and using a different courier, we got a complete pan.

Our experience was the opposite end of the scale to yours. The company using way too little packaging in order to be environmentally friendly. But in the meantime 3 toilet pans that had been made in the UAE and shipped to the UK went to waste.

sheramber

If you have seen videos off how parcels are chucked around during the livery processes you would realise why strong cardboard boxes are used.

Since these come at a cost a company is not going to use them if it is not thought to be necessary.

Using standard sizes means bulk ordering , rather than  ordering lots of different sizes ,cuts down the cost of  buying them. .

molerat

I have had the exact opposite from Amazon, fairly delicate item in a thin retail box delivered in a paper bag - luckily item not damaged although box looked like it had been in a scrum.  Fairly expensive t-shirt just in a paper bag.

Coffee pods in bulk where they removed the retail packs from the strong outer box and put them in a thin cardboard box with brown paper filler to rattle around and get crushed - they used to put the retail outers in a delivery box but have stopped for some reason.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Tend to find most of the time stuff is under packaged, had a delivery of MDF panelling strips today 1200mmx100mmx9mm, 60 lengths so as you can imagine some fair weight to it all.

Looks as if it was wrapped in a bit of bubble wrap but most of that was gone, end result was a load of bashed up strips, answer from retailer, sorry we are OOS for a replacement but have your £70 back. 

A cardboard box would have done them well on this occasion but I think most know the majority of customers don't bother complaining so the cost of packaging is more than refunds. 

If you get any oversized boxes OP local nursery or neighbours with kids might be happy to take the odd one, kids sure do love a big carboard box to play in  

Chrysalis

eddddy said:

It will be interesting to see the impact of "Extended producer responsibility for packaging" (or "Packaging Tax").

Will it make businesses reduce the amount of packaging they use, or will they use the same amount of packaging and pass on the increased cost to consumers?

We kind of have a precedent for it with plastic bags, I think it would be a bit of both.  Many supermarkets went heavy on it now delivering orders with no bags at all, when they do supply bags they now charge you for it.  So basically as an example the extra packaging option on Amazon would be default off, and have a fee if chosen.

Albermarle

A more positive point is that cardboard is easy to recycle, and that does happen in large quantities.
Although some plastics are also easy ( and economic ) to recycle ( milk 'bottles', Fizzy drink bottles etc) plastic bags/film packaging  are not. 

Chrysalis

Albermarle said:

A more positive point is that cardboard is easy to recycle, and that does happen in large quantities.
Although some plastics are also easy ( and economic ) to recycle ( milk 'bottles', Fizzy drink bottles etc) plastic bags/film packaging  are not. 

It may be, but it isnt necessarily easy for someone to send it off for recycling, we have to remember that, and waste is waste, recyclable or not.  I am ok with making an effort, but I think the effort should be elsewhere as well, minimising the use of cardboard.  I do sympathise with the above posts, and I do agree some stuff can be under packaged, but the things I ordered were not fragile or heavy.  They wouldnt be damaged chucked around a van.  The ways they could be damaged, the cardboard used wouldnt have protected them.

EnPointe

Albermarle said:

A more positive point is that cardboard is easy to recycle, and that does happen in large quantities.
Although some plastics are also easy ( and economic ) to recycle ( milk 'bottles', Fizzy drink bottles etc) plastic bags/film packaging  are not. 

exactly this