Kids toys these are excessively packaged. Sometimes there’s plastic wrapping, but there are typically several pieces of cardboard inside, to which the various pieces are attached with little twisty-ties, the wire kind and/or the plastic kind. It takes quite a while, and often a tool or two, just to open a toy box, go ask my son. It’s a good thing I have so much patience! (see, I’m kidding here cause this stuff drives me crazy!)
Great post, Lynn. I admire your determination to reuse and maximize the mileage you get out of spare materials. You also have the exact right answer for those who accuse you of being cheap. Hey, it’s just that much more money available for spending on luxuries you enjoy!
Ignoring the fact that you can buy New York steaks for less than the price-per-pound of Lunchables, their containers are one of the most egregious examples of overpackaging on the market today. Good call, I was reminded of them while scanning the updates to this thread and then saw your post.
I agree about the Lunchables; that’s what I was going to post until voguevixen beat me to it. I actually grit my teeth and avert my eyes when I pass them in the grocery store.
The best (or worst, depending on your point of view) place to see tons of overpackaging is Costco, because their warehouse-sale model means they’re taking stuff right out of the box and sticking it on the shelf without any other processing, to save on labor costs. That can be both good and bad: On one hand, many of the non-food items come encased in this giant obnoxious clear armor that you have to hack off with an axe and throw away; but on the other hand, it’s an informative glimpse behind-the-scenes of just how much overpackaging we don’t actually get to see because of how the more conventional retail outlet handles their shipments to make the goods more attractive on the shelf.
I found this comment to be unspeakably condescending. The very logistics of hoisting up panties and pants, tucking in shirts, zipping and fastening a belt all the while with bloody fingers are mind boggling. Sure, you can wipe your fingers with toilet paper, but that doesn’t do a perfect job. In order to get to the sink to wash hands at a minimum, you’ll have to flush, touch the lock on the door, and touch the spigot…not very considerate of other users of that bathroom.
No thanks.
The toilet is in a sperate room from the sink. I would have to pull up my clothes and undies. Unlock and open the door, go into the bathroom to the sink WITHOUT getting blood on anything.
So yes I can and DO wash my hands. I just prefer to not get blood on everything as well. 
Because they don’t work nearly as well, and they seem to consume lots of power.
Regarding no-applicator tampons - even if you wipe your hands off with toilet paper first, blood is potentially biohazardous enough that I still would prefer that women avoid that if at all possible. Enough of them are messy enough with getting urine all over the seat, I’d like to avoid more fluids being dripped all over public washrooms if possible. Plus it can still get stuck under your nails, which won’t necessarily all come out even with washing, which means you need a file or something similar. And yes, I do bleed like a stuck pig, thanks for asking.
Explain to me how to blow your nose or wipe sweat off your face/arms with these… :dubious:
Pills. If I were rich, I’d hire someone to take my newly purchased pack/box of Coricidin D, unwrap each individual tablet, and put it into an old-fashioned pill bottle that was marked. These things are hard to open–and why? Is there some law that says each little pill must go on a metallic cardboard sheet and be swathed in plastic?
The Midol PMS ones are even harder to open. Need scissors. (And what if I wanted to take them on an airplane? Can’t take scissors, I’d never get them open.)
Okay, so instead of taking a convenient bottle of pills along you take these cardboard things. Then you peel the pill out, one way or another. Then you’ve got tiny trash, but it adds up.
Anybody ever unwrap a man’s shirt?
What the bloody hell is it about a shirt that requires 10 straight pins, a cardboard form, another peice of cardboard to line the collar, a small plastic “wing” at the front of the collar, tissue paper, and THEN a plastic bag to hold it all?
and, a personal favorite - a guy at the grocery, buying a single item: a 1 pound loaf of sliced bread in a plastic bag.
You know what’s coming, right? He went with the plastic bag to hold plastic bab holding the loaf of bread…
Before individually wrapped pads were available, women did leave the house when they had their period.
When I got my first period, in the days before every sanitary pad had to have its own little plastic envelope, my mother gave me a vinyl case big enough to hold four full-sized pads. This was before the ultra-thins were around. The case fit in my purse and kept the pads clean and unshredded. I could carry them around for weeks, and did, since my periods were very unpredictable those first couple of years.
I remember those! It had a slide-in pocket on both ends, and folded in half to keep them covered. It came free with purchase inside the first box of pads I ever bought.
I HATE those hot-air hand dryers. I tried one once and learned that I have to stand there practically forever to dry my hands even partially. I can have my hands washed and dried (with paper towels) in less than a minute. The bathroom at my workplace has both a hot-air dryer and paper towels. You’re darned right I use the paper towels every time. If I walk into a public bathroom elsewhere and ALL I see is a hot-air dryer, I get pissed off. To the point where I’ll go to an empty toilet stall, grab a thick handful of toilet paper and use THAT to dry my hands.
And just call me “Princess,” because I will not buy non-applicator tampons either.
On this subject in general, I should mention that while my personal financial condition motivates me to keep and reuse things people often just throw out (hey, those empty margarine tubs make great “cheap tupperware” to use for leftovers storage: when the margarine is finished, I wash and reuse these tubs until they practically fall apart – I’ve never purchased actual tupperware and never will), I am not into this “green” thing. I do have complaints about excessive packaging, but rather they are due to the fact that such things are very hard for me to open (with a partially paralyzed left hand) or just plain make a mess. The specific items I use as examples here are:
(1) Anything shrink-wrapped. I hate this stuff and don’t see why it’s necessary.
(2) The “inner coverings” (made of something that I’m not sure is paper or “lightly plasticked” paper) of powdered seasoning bottles. Every time I buy a new bottle of garlic or onion powder, I have to pry the thin plastic covering – the one with the holes, which I NEED – off the bottle so I can get that plasticked paper or whatever that inner covering is, OFF, and then I have to cut out that stupid inner lining with a knife, then replace the necessary plastic covering. Jeez I HATE that! Goodness, how do people who have arthritis or worse paralysis than I do, deal with this?!
(3) Some of you already mentioned these – those packing peanuts, but my distaste for them is not for any bad environmental effects they may have, but rather because every single time I open a package with peanuts, no matter how careful I am as soon as I see their presence, the darn things always, without fail, get all over the floor or desk or whatever and it makes a mess for me to clean up. I hate 'em.
Grumble, grumble, grumble!
If it’s too hard, I generally call my daughter or husband to get it. Try slipping a thin knife blade under the permanent covering and pry it off. The reason that the temporary covering is on there is because too many people love to open stuff at the market and then put it back on the shelf. With the disposable cover, at least you know if it’s been tampered with.
Mind you, I don’t LIKE the fact that it’s somewhat necessary, but at least there’s a fairly good reason for it.
As for scrubbing pickle jars with baking soda, I haven’t tried that. Mostly I have enough jars as it is, and I just recycle the pickle jars. I try to be frugal, but if I have a pickle jar and a mayo jar, the mayo jar is the one I’m going to save for reuse. Unless I’m desperate for jars, I’m going to recycle that pickle jar rather than spend several hours trying to remove the odor.
Well,you see, thats why you can change the angle of the blower. Blowing your nose??? Erm, toilet paper?
OK, I have a overpacking horror story…
I used to maintain some HP network probes. We had recently deployed them (9 in total), and I recieved an email that the software on them needed to be updated- no problem, downloaded the software and updated. A few weeks later I came into work and found 3 large boxes in my cube. I open the first one- mostly peanuts, but it contains 4 smaller boxes about 9"x12"x3". Seeing this I start thinking they must have sent me a package of documentation/software update for each of the nine probes, a bit odd, but whatever. I open the box and find a single sheet of paper well protected by a framework of cardboard. The sheet of paper contained exactly the same message that they had emailed weeks earlier.
Thats right- they sent me 9 letters individually boxed and reboxed and protected with peanuts.
One thing about switching to a method of menstruation management that isn’t based on bleached out paper and/or wads of dry cellulose batting jammed into tender orifices is that the regular use of other methods tends to have the very welcome and pleasant side effect of lightening the flow of the user.
There are MPSIMS threads about The Keeper and Instead (though the latter is disposable and therefore not a reasonable choice if waste reduction is your goal) which discuss this effect in greater detail. The thing to remember is that even if you can’t manage them when you’re out and about, you can always use something reusable when you’re at home.
On the overpacking angle: has anyone else noticed that Oreo cookies are now in a plastic tray inside the plastic sleeve, instead of the cardboard flat that held them securely for years? I’m sure that this was motivated by money, but ugh, now it’s impossible to buy any commercial cookies (yeah, I know, why would anyone want to, but sometimes you just want an Oreo or a Pecan Sandy, dammit) without the double plastic thing. Blech.
I’m also noticing that some ice creams are now coming with their waxed cardboard cartons shrink wrapped in cello. Is the quality of mass produced ice cream really degrading that much without the airtight wrapper? :rolleyes:
At my office, I went on something of a rampage about the coffee areas. We had individual packets of creamer and sugar, styro cups, those useless little plastic straw style stirrers and individual foil packs of coffee. We were buying all of this at a Costco style place, mind you. Our facilities manager would go out once a quarter and load up with all this junk. After some wrangling, we switched to a coffee service which didn’t engage in all the overpackaging, saved money, reduced trash and got better coffee in the bargain.
One company I’ll give credit to for simple wrapping and simple shipping is Avon. They also eschew animal testing. Yay Avon.
I’m the only one who lives here, so I’m stuck doing it. I do use a knife, but it’s still hard as hell to get the permanent covering off (and back on, too, believe it or not) anyway.
Now, why in the name of Sechal would anyone open bottles of GARLIC OR ONION POWDER in the STORE??? Eating grapes and cherries in the produce area, yes, I can see that; opening egg cartons to check for broken eggs before buying (guilty as charged) – but THIS totally doesn’t make any sense.
Oh dear, there I go. Expecting PEOPLE to make sense. Whatsamatter with me? When will I finally learn?! >:-P
I’m the only one who lives here, so I’m stuck doing it. I do use a knife, but it’s still hard as hell to get the permanent covering off (and back on, too, believe it or not) anyway.
Now, why in the name of Sechal would anyone open bottles of GARLIC OR ONION POWDER in the STORE??? Eating grapes and cherries in the produce area, yes, I can see that; opening egg cartons to check for broken eggs before buying (guilty as charged) – but THIS totally doesn’t make any sense.
Oh dear, there I go. Expecting PEOPLE to make sense. Whatsamatter with me? When will I finally learn?!
:mad:
Yersinia, I’m fairly sure that the point of the protective wrapper isn’t to prevent people from stealing but to prevent people from tampering with the product in some fashion. Remember the cyanide in Tylenol situation? After that, tamper-proof packaging became a top priority, and that’s one use of cello and whatnot that I can accept, because I prefer having an assurance of safety. Just don’t double up on it, is all I ask. If there’s a cello sleeve over the lid, there’s no need for the foil seal over the top of the jar/bottle too.