Oh, I believe it’s hard to get that permanent covering back on. As TeaElle said, though, it’s more to prevent tampering than stealing. I know that I’ve seen enough kids AND adults open packages, fiddle with the contents for no apparent reason, and then leave the product in the store. Store employees, when they put products back in their proper places, do not check for tampering, and it’s not always obvious. However, I, for one, always cringed when the peanut butter ads showed a couple of Happy Housewives talking about the taste of various PB brands, and then showed them taking PB jars off of a supermarket shelf, opening the jars, and DIPPING THEIR FINGERS IN THE JARS TO GET A TASTE! YUCK! I worked in a convenience store long enough to know that this does sometimes happen.
Fast food. Far too much packaging. Sit outside one day near a food court, or some other place where people take their lunch breaks, and observe just how much goes into the bins. I can see why it happens, because they use the containers to measure your portion, and also because (around here, anyway) using reusable dishes requires that you have a certified-quality dishwasher which is very expensive. But it’s still excessive.
Also: Coffee places that automatically give you two paper cups instead of one, because it’s “hot.” Of course it’s hot, you assholes, it’s coffee. I’ll let you know if I need a second cup, which I don’t.
I just wish store clerks wouldn’t assume, by default, that you want the excess packaging. If only everyone would ask “Do you need a bag?” without assuming.
Re: Period products - it really is possible to use the Keeper, or even OB, without getting yourself or the bathroom stall bloody. I swear. I’ve been doing it for ten years or more. It just takes a bit of practice.
I am very happy to see y’all are concerned about this issue. Can I ask you a favour: could you take ten minutes out of your life and write a letter to the manufacturer that commits the most (to you) grevious overpackaging sins? Until they realize how much it bugs us, they’re going to keep doing it. And complaint letters to companies do make a difference.
TeaElle, thank you for bringing up one of my pet peeves. Styrofoam cups are pretty disgusting. I understand that many work places prefer them because they will not go soggy and leak like waxed paper cups. A few desk spills can really set back productivity. I would rather see plastic cups used in that case, even if their insulating properties are not so good. Styrofoam is a highly mobile form of solid waste and it tends to blow or float around for-fricking-ever! I have come to hate it a lot.
cowgirl, the amount of needless waste that fast food outlets generate should qualify all of them for a special anti-litter tax. A Starbucks recently opened in our neighborhood and I now have the pleasure of seeing their discarded coffee cups on my local sidewalks. Good call.
Or better yet, a ceramic mug one keeps on one’s desk and washes between uses. The only reason plastic and styrofoam cups exist in the office is because we’re too freakin’ lazy to wash our dishes.
–glances down at SEXIE mug purchased at recent Eddie Izzard show– 
Starbucks: I use a travel mug. I’d be lost without it (see above re: double cup). And that’s not enough for some places. I’ve had baristas measure out a coffee in styrofoam, pour it into my travel mug, and throw away the styrofoam. I’ve had them refuse to sell me a “small” because my mug is “large” and I’d probably just go fill it up with cream - although I take my coffee black. Finally, at the place I get my beans, I bring back my plasticky-paper bag to re-use. It causes them no end of trouble because the ‘tare’ function on the scale doesn’t work properly for the employees (although it works for me). The first time I went they made me pay - $11.99/pound - for the bag, because I couldn’t tare it. The next time I went in I was prepared to have a go at the manager for his dis-incentives for environmental responsibility, but a kindly employee told me (secretively) how to use the ‘tare’ function (and told me she could get in trouble for it). The next three times I quietly used ‘tare’ and paid properly. Last week, though, I was caught by another employee and told that I had to weigh a bowl, remember its cost by weight, measure my coffee into the bowl, subtract the cost of the bowl from the cost of the coffee, pour the coffee into the bowl (as she was demonstrating this to me she spilled half my coffee on the floor) and pay that. Presumably that is easier than pressing ‘tare.’ Man, it pisses me off when I am actively discouraged from re-using instead of disposing !
Oh, I just noticed the “boycott” part of the thread that seems to have been forgotten.
My own opinion re: boycotts is that they are not effective. Like boycotting Nike and buying Adidas instead, unless you know everything about the company you do buy from (and can certify that you agree with their goals), they’re not usually really productive. (Exceptions occur with highly-organized, specific-issue boycotts, like the Nestle one in the 1980s.)
What works much better is what I said above: If a company particularly bugs you, write to them and tell them you love their products but can’t use them any more because of all the packaging. Tell them specifically what the problem is and what can be done about it. Their marketing people really do care what you think, and if you just stop shopping and don’t tell them why, they won’t know.