Packaging waste

I just got through unpacking six laptops we ordered from Dell. I'd say that the amount of packaging they were in was … average. Out of curiosity, I weighed the packaging material and the actual usable product on our shipping scale. The packaging weighed 25lbs. (11.34kg). The actual laptops with their batteries and power supplies weighed 44.4lbs (20.14kg). Well over a third of the shipping weight was in packaging. And a significant portion of the packaging existed to house the six CDs and regulatory flyer (2.15lbs., 1kg) that are eminently downloadable.

I'm really getting tired of all this superfluous packaging and I really wish someone would do something about it. Amazon is kind of pretending to. At least someone is recognizing that this is a problem, even if the initiative is mostly just lip service.

I don't know. I guess I just felt like I needed to rant about this. Sorry. Please go about your business.

I really should have taken a picture of the packaging that came with our Cisco switches. For some reason we received extra power cords, and each power cord was in it's own little padded box.

I believe Walmart gave HP some award for reducing waste. The laptop is padded by the laptop bag that comes with it and some minimal additional packaging.

It's probably cheaper to use a ton of packaging than it is to replace broken products.

Nicola recently picked up a new MacBook from Apple, I was amazed to see how economical the packaging was. Along with minimal printed media in the box etc...

Moral of the story, if you want well thought out environmentally friendly computers buy Apple

Cheers

Cris.

I had the same experience with my new Mac Mini, apart from the cellophane wraps it is hard to see how they could reduce the packaging that mush more. That said, the packaging that there is is fairly heavy, but it needs to be to survive shipping via courier.

Shame the first one that arrived didn't power up, but at least the replacement process was quick and easy.

However, I have to say my last couple of Dell laptops were also no over packaged. Mind you, one was from the outlet store and one was a netbook, which I think makes a difference.

It seems those citing minimal package had "picked up" their hardware (at a store?). If that's the case, then you don't see the packaging that got it that far. Of course the packaging can be minimal if you're not submitting your package to the tender mercies of the postal system or UPS.

I make a small electrical controller for fountains and ship about 10 a month. Every one is double boxed with bubble wrap around each layer. I use another box for the sensor and cords, not so much because they needed a box themselves, but that the box is part of the packaging for the controller (more resistive crush room). Using just one box would result in, probably, a 25% loss rate. At less than a buck a box, it's cheap insurance.

All this I found out the hard way.

Oh, yeah, UPS will get it there most of the time. I found the postal service is only about 80%. They just don't care.

Nope, not in my case at least. I was talking about packages delivered to me via courier. The Dell netbook was in a small plain cardboard box with foam padding (it was an amazingly small box). The Mac Mini was in its retail box with an added plain cardboard box and minimal egg box style padding. The Dell outlet store laptop had a plain box with foam padding an a cardboard tray with PSU and CDs.

All of them a lot more minimally packed than similar things would have been a couple of years ago.

I got a new desktop from Velocity Micro a few weeks ago. The only packing that came in the box were styrofoam ends over the case itself, and the case was in a heavy duty plastic wrap. The extra stuff fit between the case and the box and the plastic prevented any scratches. The box and styrofoam weighed nothing compared to what it protected.

In my case, the laptops themselves were packaged nicely. A plastic dust bag around the laptop itself, two styrofoam blocks on the edges, and a relatively small cardboard box.

Everything else was ridiculous.

Another box about the same size that contained the six CDs, the power cord, and the flyer. There was far more cardboard in this one than for the laptop itself. There was also a piece of PE foam surrounding the tray that was supposed to hold the CDs, although the CDs were actually strewn about the box, more likely to be stuck under the tray than in it.

Then both of those boxes were put inside another box that was about half again too big, and that extra space was taken up by a cardboard space filler that was obviously designed for exactly that purpose. I suppose it's better than peanuts, but why not just make the box the right size to begin with? It's not as if it's providing crush protection to more than one side.

HP at it's best.

Unnecessary packaging really winds me up too. It has to be said though that my recent Dell and Apple hardware have been okay in this respect. HP though, they are just something else.

• Software Licences
• Mice
• Memory

HOLY COW.

Something tells me that the shipping jocks at HP are having a contest to see who can do the silliest packaging.

I'll bet it has to do with an automated inventory system that's can't pick up anything smaller than those boxes.

All of you guys whining about the excess packaging have short memories.

Well, actually, not all that short. It's been seven or eight years since the great Sonic Blue debacle so perhaps memories have faded.

Do you remember how the "fire sale" empegs were packaged? I do. They were in reasonably sturdy empeg boxes, which were then tossed into much larger boxes, each of which was packed with upwards of a dozen styrofoam peanuts. (Mine came with, if I remember correctly, nine.) The empeg box rattled around loose inside the larger shipping container, and it's a miracle that the only thing wrong when it arrived was a loose hard drive cable.

Give me over-packaging any day.

tanstaafl.

Yeah. This is going to be from a huge parts warehouse. The license sheet is already prepacked into the little box. You order 10 and then they'll put 10 into a bigger box to only have 1 shipment etc...

Sure, but a pdf would suffice just fine. NO shipping cost or waste.

Yeah... but that doesn't explain the pallet.

Two options. First is that the photo is faked. Second is that there is somebody working at the warehouse who is messing about or just an idiot.

I just spent the last hour or so reminding myself of another gripe: plastic tape. If they would just use paper tape, I wouldn't have to rip it all off of the cardboard boxes before I could recycle it. That's not really the most efficient use of my time.

Um, I don't see a pallet.

Paper tape is really nasty to work with, unless you use a lot of it and are set up for it.

One other explanation for large packaging (but not some of these cases) is that apparently smaller parcels go "missing" more often than larger ones. So for companies who pay a flat rate shipping up to a certain size they would rather pay a few cents/pennies extra for a larger box and have it arrive.

I think Dell could manage.

I'd never even considered removing the tape before recycling boxes. Is it really necessary?

It depends on your recycler.

The one that makes me die is Megaman, they're a German manufacturer of "eco friendly" lamps, they insist on packaging all of their product in huge plastic blister packs with card inserts. Every non green manufacturer gets away with a compostable/recyclable cardboard box.

Newark Electronics routinely sends us a few grams of product in in pounds of cardboard; perhaps the effort/cost (inventory) to pack ecologically is too high to do so?

Stu

Just around the Corner.

That's a great video. A correction though, only eBay can "get you anything."

My dedication to recycling everything imaginable, including this wasteful packaging, has really paid off. I've reduced my "landfill footprint" noticeably. At last count, I recycle/reuse over 40 different materials.

Plastics beware, you won't rest easy in a landfill under my watch. Given enough mental clarify, I'd quit my job and work to standardize recycling practices locally, state-, or nation-wide, improving the quality of product for the materials companies, while demystifying the process for citizens.