Reduce?
As is the trend, I’ve lately been a lot more conscious about my levels of consumption. Usually just simple things like saying no to a plastic bag when possible and just carrying things home with me, or choosing produce that’s travelled a few less miles to get to my fridge. Nothing terribly significant on a one-person scale, but stuff that makes a bit of difference if a lot of people are doing it.
Of course I’m aware that there’s waste occurring behind the scenes in the retail channel. Goods need to be manufactured, byproducts need to be disposed of, items need fuel and containers for shipping, etc. Okay, that’s a given. But when stores order in bulk it’s an opportunity to cut down on some of that, whether that means making less trips, using less boxes, or otherwise.
Today really threw that into sharp relief. A couple of weeks back Apple came out with a new keyboard, and due to the local Mac retailers not receiving their shipments immediately, I decided to order direct from Apple. I picked up the box today, and expecting something vaguely keyboard-sized, I nearly choked when the receptionist pulled out a rather large box. Inside of which was another box. Inside of which was another box. Not to mention the plastic. Observe:
Figure: The seven levels of hell product packaging.
That a box needs to be protected by another box seems mad enough, but this is Apple after all; we wouldn’t want to damage the pristine cardboard. It’s the next level of the shipping container and padding that really makes my brain hurt. I’m chalking it up to standard-sized shipping boxes, and this was simply the one that happened to have enough room to house the factory box. But you’d think the factory box ought to be good enough for the sake of shipping, no? Looks like I have yet another reason to avoid ordering tangible objects off the web.
Don’t even get me started on those evil Space Devil plastic packages.
