Is excess packaging out of control?

The photo is the best illustration of overpackaging I have ever seen. Well done! And like Musset said, “lorsque l’on vient d’en rire il faudrait en pleurer.” When you have just laughed about it, you should cry about it.

And do something. Whoever is responsible should be tackled about this misleading practice. My guess is that manufacturers are more responsible than anyone else.

I once received a RAM memory chip in a similar sized box from CPC Farnell at work (NHS)

Not only that – but NHS stores took all the packaging out to check it and then the anti-static envelope too.

I got a tiny static sensitive RAM stick rattling around in the box.
It actually worked too!

Totally agree with everything above. The only plus, for me, is that bubble wrap is expensive to buy and I’m quite pleased when someone sends me lots of it ready for Christmas and birthdays. Plastic chips also come in handy for the lucky dip stall but there are substitutes that are less wasteful.

I love the Simon’s Cat in ‘The Box’ cartoon! It is so lifelike and funny. I have saved it as a Youtube favourite and will definitely show it to my cat 🙂

We must be careful about reducing packaging. I am old enough to remember the wholesale removal of goods from store shelves because of tampering claims (e.g. cyanide in Mars bars, glass in baby food). Most of these were extortion attempts but some were protests against the company concerned. As a result tamper-proof packaging was introduced. With the number of people who now want to do serious harm to other nationalities extortion is not likely to be the main problem should we remove ‘excess’ packaging and make tampering possible again.

Oops! I just received the new addition of The Good Food Guide in a parcel that was almost twice the size of the Guide. You might want to have a look in your own back yard??

I have to take an iron supplements everyday. My wife gets them form either boots or tesco. We’ve just done a test as we are so appalled by the lack of contents in each. The Boots bottle holds 6 times the standard quantity in one pack and the Tesco bottle holds 4 times the standard quantity. I really think this is outrageous and they shouuld be stopped from this blatant wastefulness. I would also comment that neither company has a larger version so I go through 2 to 3 bottles a month!

I have recently purchased a 50ml pot of Nivea Visage Q10plus Anti-Wrinkle Day Cream. The actual pot is 4.5 cm tall, but the carton it is packed in is 9cm tall and contains a sort of pop-up retainer which is integral to the box. Heaven only know how much this clever little box takes to manufacture – why oh why not just put the pot in a carton the right size?

Aldi’s Mini Chinois brioches are excessively packed.

Each brioche is individually wrapped. Then all of them are in a plastic tray, surrounded by an external airtight plastic bag.

It would be enough just to have the external packaging; other Aldi bakery products are singly-packed and their quality remains unaffected.

What do you suggest can be done about this?

For goods delivered in the post or by courier, the extra packing is to protect the items. Have you ever seen how some couriers handle packages, throwing them about carelessly? I have.

I do not know if I am going a bit ‘off piste’ with this topic, but here goes. Blister packs! Particularly those used for DIY stuff. It seems to me that you really need to use extreme force with something like a Samurai Sword to access the contents. I wonder how many people find themselves in A&E after unsuccessfully attempting to open and destroying the contents in the process. My next gripe is the packaging for B & Q interior door handles. At first, the pack seems quite simple. At first that is, and the further you get into it the more challenging it becomes. The handles are actually riveted to the heavy duty cardboard inside the box which have to be released individually with the precision and dexterity of a Da Vincy Robot. I reckon it takes 4 times as long to get the handles out the box than fit the handles!

I don’t know if you are still doing anything on excess packaging… but I recently bought a pack of Marks & Spencer hankies (cute white blue and pink) and was astonished at the packaging.

Cardboard on the outside, cellophane, thick paper inside every tightly rolled hankie and a little bit of sticky tape to keep each hankie rolled.

Almost half the total weight and bulk was packaging

I belong to a group in North London called Muswell Hill Sustainability Group. Over the last 3 months we’ve been running a petition against excess packaging. We have over 700 signatures and we were surprised by the strength of feeling amongst local shoppers. Definitely people think this is still an issue despite some improvements by supermarkets

I agree that there are what appears what is some overpackaging and see items i think are overpackaged (latest is Mr Kiplings individual cakes. Is there any need really?), but the packaging industry has done a very poor job in promoting itself, it has never come forward to defend the claims about overpackaging.

The general consumer does not have a clue the benefits that packaging brings, and just rattle on about the fact there is too much, and have no idea that packaging might have to be bigger becuase the contents might vary in size or settle in transit. When you complain about the plastic tray you meat comes in with a plastic film over the top, do you realise that the packaging extends the shelf life considerably?

There is another, growing “over-packaging” problem which I find really annoying as well as dishonest. I refer to the practice of only filling a package to around two-thirds, or less, of it’s capacity. Yoghurt pots are one prime example and no doubt the manufacturers will make silly claims such as allowing room for settling (with liquid products – really?). The fact is, a year or so ago, only a few of them were at it so it was a simple matter to avoid buying these products but now nearly everyone is doing it.

Not only is this wasteful of packaging material, it is dishonest because it is reasonable to assume that a package is reasonably filled and it is a bit late when opening it later to find it is not much more than half full. No doubt they will claim that the volume / weight is printed on the package but most people would not check the exact volume of a product of this type. Frankly I would say this was designed to mislead and what an easy way to increase profits at a stroke by under-filling. Perhaps Which should run a separate campaign on this growing issue?

Sizzle steaks from Tesco’s in a plastic box which is much much taller than necessary was the latest excessive overpackaging I’ve noticed.

I think we need to keep on watching and complaining because as soon as we take our eyes off the problem the amount of packaging creeps up again….

Today I have received a big box from Amazon. When I took it in my hands it seemed empty. Well, inside, there was an incredible amount of brown paper, and at the bottom, a pink watch band worth of ~ £20.00 that I ordered.
Please see attached pictures:

I find this such an awful waste!