Over Packing is Hurting Our Environment?

 (Excerpts borrowed from Consumer Reports)

The rap on overwrapping.

Good things might come in small packages, but should small things come in huge ones? Spurred by readers who have complained about overwrapping, we ordered tiny items online from thirteen companies and found ourselves awash in cardboard, paper, and plastic.

Avon sent a stick of lip balm in a box just slightly smaller than a shoe box. The Oriental Trading Company encased a vial of beads in bubble wrap surrounded by bags of air. Staples delivered a single pencil in a box that could have fit about 200. Why? A Staples spokeswoman told us that the wrong-size box must have been used or that the packagers might have thought other items were to be sent with the order. Could be, but Laura Bix at Michigan State University's School of Packaging, says that shipping small items in large boxes "probably happens frequently, as you can lower the price per piece when you buy the same boxes for everything"

Not all our orders were overwrapped. Quixtar sent a pack of Kodak camera batteries in a 7"x11" envelope. Ken Davis, vice president of logistics for a supplier to Quixtar, says that the company has a computer program that analyzes an item's dimensions to find the best package size.

Cutting the use of cardboard from 100 tons to 90 tons saves 20,000 gallons of wastewater, 34,691 pounds of Co2 equivalent, and 5,372 pounds of waste, based on numbers we crunched using the Environmental Defense Fund's online calculator (see www.papercalculator.org). Smaller packages can also cut the amount of waste hauled and gasoline used because a delivery truck can make fewer trips.

Some companies, including Avon, Lands' End, and Staples, say they recycle thousands of tons of cardboard per year.  Dell offers a single box to customers ordering more than one of its servers. But, judging by our experience, too many companies still waste cardboard when mailing products.

       The U.S. Environmental 

       Protection Agency's 

       voluntary Waste Wise program offers a toll-free line 

       with technical advice to help companies cut 

       packaging. What can consumers do? Recycle, and 

       complain to a company that mails you a small thing 

       in a huge package.