Now, do not get me wrong, I like goods to be packaged to protect them, but I have found lately that everything is so overpackaged it is becoming outrageous.  My example today is for goods from Amazon.  I love Amazon, the convenience of having things delivered next day and to one of their lockers, if I am to be out, it is an astounding service.  They also do 1 hour delivery on certain products which may become a boom one day. However, this is where my feelings become a little, shall we say, sour?

I decided to declutter some of the boxes that were sitting in the spare room, 5 boxes in total complete with packing.  Now, the items that were in these boxes, delivered last week, were quite small in comparison with the container, needless to say, the items were in their own box, then inside an Amazon box, usually the size of a small car.

I decided, since I have time on my hands today, I would measure the paper packing that held the boxed goods within.  The total came to 187 feet of paper packing, which has no use apart from re-packing things back again.  In the past I have meticulously folded the paper and put it in the paper recycling bag, however, after the feat of measuring the packing I decided to put it all in a bin bag, a large bin bag at that, ready to go to the recycling plant along with all the boxes past and present.

Again, I am not trying to be a killjoy or indeed being taken over by Victor Mildrew and shouting all over the house “I don’t believe it” as I unpack and unfurl the items being delivered. I just feel a little common sense should really prevail.  I had two items from amazon delivered on the same day to the same place, both could have fit in one of the boxes, yet they deemed fit to pack each item in its own protective box.They did send me a feedback email regarding packing, options of packing “too big” which I could not resist in clicking, and having a quick point by point synopsis of what they could have done differently, and better for that.

They did send me a feedback email regarding packing, options of packing “too big” which I could not resist in clicking, and having a quick point by point synopsis of what they could have done differently, and better for that, also asking the questions “are the boxes and packaging from recycled materials?”, “If not, are they from sustainable sources?”, and finally, “do you want all your boxes and packing back to save me having to dispose of it?”.  I hasten to say, they never came back to me, but that would be the size of it, or oversize of it if we are going to be precise.