Ouch! I was injured by impenetrable packaging

Another casualty of too much packaging! I wish stuff just came in brown paper and string 🙂

Packaging can be a real challenge away from home, without a knife or scissors to hand.

I recently bought an SD card and wanted to put it into a camera straight away but it was encased in tough plastic – no doubt to prevent shoplifters removing the card and leaving the packaging with its security tag. I did manage to extricate the card using a key, the only tool available, but it was a real fight.

I find the most impenetrable packing is saved for children’s toys. We spent a huge amount of time over Christmas hacking into multiple layers of wrapping, followed by tags, binding the toy to the excessive packaging, that were almost impossible to remove.

Cinderella Barbie (I didn’t buy it!), for example, came in a cardboard box with cellophane that was impossible to open as the interior packaging was fastened to the main box, so you had to literally rip the box apart. Once I was in, the doll was attached by 9 separate pieces of wire to the back of the packaging, some of which actually went through the doll itself (into the head and back out again, meaning that the very elaborate hairdo was spoiled in getting the wire out).

Baby toys were similarly packaged. I imagine that there isn’t much of a market for stolen unpackaged small toys costing under a tenner, so there is really no need to wrap and fasten them so excessively. Ironically, the more expensive toys such as the leappads were much easier to get in to.

Sticking plasters in individual packets with a tear-away strip on one side – that is too small to grip with your fingers as you bleed away.

Sainsbury’s plastic olive oil bottles – the ring-pull to get the seal out of the stopper can take your finger off!
Dettol antiseptic kitchen wipes – how to find the edge of the transparent self-adhesive flap to open the packet?
What about all the products you can’t completely finish? The wine box – dismantle completely, get the bag out with the tap to the bottom corner and empty as much as possible (about half a glass usually that won’t come out when in the box), then cut the top corner off the bag, turn it upside down and tip another quarter-glass out.
Or V8 juice – open the tetrapak top corner flap and cut the end off: you get at least 50ml more out.

Not so much the hazards of opening packaging, but why is that when you open a pack of say sliced meat, it’s always the bottom slice that is closest to the opening? That means you have to open the whole packet to get to the top slice, which in turn makes the packet less resealable. A little forethought from the manufacturers/packagers woul make it so much better.

The sort of flexible plastic bottles and tubes that shampoo, moisturiser, toothpaste etc come in – you cannot see when they are empty, and you cannot squeeze them efficiently to get the last drops out. I usually end up taking a serrated bread knife to them at great risk to myself. There is usually quite a lot left at the bottom.

Most tin openers will open corned beef tins so these should not be too much of a problem. One thing I find irritating is that plastic windows in packaging are not currently recyclable (at least in my council area). This means dismantling the package to remove the window before recycling the cardboard. Why can we not have a recyclable window too? It would save a lot of bother.

I too am elderly with arthritic fingers. I struggle with M & S chilled fish and meat packaging although I have not really injured myself yet. It often has an over large tray and shrink wrap. Once I get through the first layer of shrink wrap with a sharp knife, there is another underneath. I have tried cutting the tray with scissors to get to the under wrap directly but it is too stiff mostly because of the tray raised edging. The desired object especially fish is not a pretty site by the time I have released it from incarceration. eg Kipper fillets with butter and also cod fillet bought at the same time

Sainsbury’s resealable envelopes for their wholemeal wraps although a good idea pose a real challenge. After having cut off the top along the dotted line there is very little plastic edge left to get a good enough hold to part the reseal strips. Sometimes these strips are so strongly fitted together the plastic envelopes get torn. The best way seems to be to get a small knife to part the strips at one end. I’m open to any suggestions for a safer way.

Lipstick – when you think you’ve used up your lipstick, you will find that there is often about as much in the base of the screw up part as there was on the top. A fiddly tip is to prise out with the handle of a teaspoon all the left overs in your lipsticks, put in a egg cup and melt in the microwave. Stir the melted lipstick and choose your best lipstick containers, unscrew them down to the bottom leaving quite a lot of enpty space on top, carefully pour in the melted lipstick and put in the freezer to set. You will now have one or two new lipsticks.

Shrink packaged fish, pull off seals on milk bottles, CD wrapping, all impossible for arthritic fingers. But the most dangerous in my book: pull off lids on cans. Call the pull off tabs, because how often do the tabs break off? How often does the lid open halfway only to get stuck, leaving one to complete the manoeuvre with one’s own fingers (and or a knife, or a screw driver or whatever is at hand) whilst trying not to cut the same fingers on the sharp side of the lid – or the tin? What was wrong with tin openers? They at least, allowed one to control the speed and to open the lid comletely, making it easy to remove. I have resumed opening tin with… and tin opener.

Reading through previous comments I’d like to add the pumps that now automatically come with the packaging of shampoos, face creams etc. They are unnecessary and wasteful. If the packaging is hard, take a breadknife and you’ll find another week’s or two weeks’ supply.
Tubes of toothpaste, suncream etc are very easy: using an ordinary shaprd knife, cut them into two roughly equal halves, then insert bottom part into top part. It’s a perfect seal and usually gives you another week’s supply.

The lids of jars of jam, pickle, etc. have to be pierced if the vacuum makes it impossible to remove them. I have never injured myself, but stabbing a lid with a small knife or other sharp object is potentially dangerous.

Perhaps we should be giving examples of packaging that is easy to open. Let me start by commending Duerr’s preserves, which have clever lid design that takes little effort to open. I suppose that there is some risk of interference before purchase but as with other jar lids, this can be checked by pressing the button on the lid.

Microwave packs — they are supposed to be “convenience food” but far too often they’re “inconvenience” foods. Some are good, with film that protrudes from the edge and comes off quickly and cleanly in a single piece with a quick tug so your hand is away before the steam rises and burns your hand. Others just tear around the outside, leaving the film firmly in place. You have to hack it with a knife and then put your hand right over the hot food to be able to pick up the film which has by now fallen *into* the food.

On the way to an event, I remembered I had forgotten to take the scissors. No problem, I thought, as there was a supermarket on the way. But at the checkout, it became clear that the only way I was going to be able to use them was to find another pair of scissors to open the packaging. The cashier couldn’t help with that either.

Waitrose orange juice packs with the plastic pulls are awful. If the pack opens it is impossible to pour without splashes eveywhere around. Packs with screw openings are fine, except that thay cost more. Why? Solution – buy the cheaper packs and cut the corner off.

I bought two Papermate pens in a pack today. Standard cardboard back with a hard plastic front. The problem was that the plastic met the edge of the card exactly all the way round so there was no way to separate the two, and the card was too tough to puncture without tools. In the end I had to cut the packet open. I hardly think that two biros costing £1 need that level of protection!

I find bubble packs (glues, toothbrushes etc) very hard to open, usually requiring a Stanley knife!

I find that most packaging these days is overdone and impossiblr to get into withoug the risk of self injury. Most times the packaging in not necessary and is a complete waste to the environment.
As regards pening tins, I have an excellent tin opener that seale the top and sides so it is impossible to get any splinters if tin or dirst into the contents and also stops you from cutting yourself. it is a “KUHN RIKON” tin opener. It is wonderful, stays clean and smell free, as it does NOT come inyo contact with the food. You can then use the lid to use again if only needing to use half of the contents. As for opening jars, I find that using the slilicone glove end of oven gloves great to open them as they do not slip and you have a better and larger grip space than you do with the normal sized jar lids using the ridged rubber type.
As for the other things that need a bomb to get into the tings, I an still working on that one.

Although my hands are only slightly arthritic And I am a heathy 65 year old, I find most products a problem to open. My husband opens most things for me now. I love the ring pull cans and manage the jams, etc by stabbing the lid a couple of times with a corkscrew. Like many others I find CDs virtually impossible. My husband has strong hands but often struggles to remove lids, etc.

Most packages of almost anything are difficult to open. I had a mega problem with opening cans/tins so bought a new tin opener but know where in the instructions did it tell you that you have to hold the tin and opener up off the bench. Having found this out after returning my first new opener, it is now not a problem. I am disabled and obviously manufacturers have never thought of this. People with arthritic hands must have real problems (like myself) getting into 90% of any type of package.
Hope the Tin Opener hint will help a lot of people, as it worked for me.

The type of bottle tops which have to be squeezed from the sides are a pain – literally -particularly when you have arthritic hands

It has to be those clamshell plastic packages. I now wear kevlar chainsaw gloves when opening them because the edges which are left when I cut them open with the kitchen scissors are very sharp and I’ve had countless cuts across the backs of my fingers as a result. We used to joke about opening corned beef tins, but I reckon they’re a lot safer than this trecherous plastic.

My mother recently gouged a chunk from her hand opening a box of Twinings Everyday Tea. I was there and confirm that the edges of the tabs are sharp and must have caused many an injury as it is quite a battle to get into the box.

I’ve written and posted a letter to Morrisons Customer Services Department in Bradford today because I cut my finger on a very sharp plastic lid (on the underside of it) which should be smooth and not sharp because it’s dangerous like it is. My finger was bleeding but is ok now and healing. I initially emailed Morrisons who sent me an automated, computer-generated response to say that they’d get in touch with me within 24 hours. They got back to me in 3 days! So I hand-wrote them a letter and moaned about how p****d off I am that all of their plastic tub containers have a sharp underside on lids and that I am concerned that children could cut themselves if they accidentally touch the underside of any plastic lids or a person with haemophilia won’t stop bleeding if they cut themselves and that as a writer, if any of the nerves in my hand had been damaged, I’d be getting my solicitor to speak to Morrisons bosses and Trading Standards officers.

The tub I opened was a prawn cocktail one but even my plastic tub/punnet of grapes from Morrisons has an equally as sharp an edge all around the lid. I feel better moaning about it in the letter I hand-mailed to Morrisons and if they don’t alter the design of their plastic tub lids then be it on their own head if kids, elderly people or anyone with the medical condition haemophilia hurts themselves grabbing any of plastic tubs from their store and accidentally running their fingers across the underside of the plastic lids. Ouch! They are razor sharp!

The emailed reply I got at first from a Morrisons rep was: ‘I hope your finger feels better now. and I shall be speaking to the factory who produces the tubs.’ Hardly any help that is it, just speaking to them? I’d rather the rep reassure me and promise me there and then that they will do all they can to make sure that their designers will smooth the sharp edges so that no other customer ends up cutting their finger on any lids!