What NEED does this meet?
Have you ever noticed how the impetus for change rarely comes from within? Have you ever noticed how large organizations or systems seem to change the most when someone or something from the outside dictates change?
I hate packaging. I hate the way things come in boxes that come in boxes that get thrown “away”- even though there is no such thing as “away”. I hate how a product gets wrapped in styrafoam and then stuffed in styrafoam peanuts and finally packed into a box. Or the way items like ketchup, shampoo, lotion, jam and a host of other things come in a disposable package to be thrown “away”. It’s ridiculus, and I’ve had enough.
What is the APPROACH?
I want a website that has a postal address listing of all the manufacturers of all the products and packaging I use so I can send it back to them.
I’d like to thank them for the product, I am obviously a fan, but I am respectfully returning this packaging. It’s perfectly good, and can be re-used. Here ya go.
And on this website full of mailing addresses, people all over should be able to add to it, and access it from wherever. I am suggesting nothing less than a direct action revolution to be participated in by ordinary consumers like myself, fed up with the packaging and throwing “away” of perfectly good materials.
What are the BENEFITS to people?
Here’s the deal: Me sending my packaging back by myself is probably not going to create any substantial change. But when hundreds of thousands if not millions of consumers begin sending their packaging back- now we’re talking. It is change being encouraged by an outside force- their customers.
And who knows- this may be a unique opportunity for companies of manufactured goods to take the time and re-design their packaging to maybe be biodegradable. Or even by designed for re-use. And perhaps some entrepreneurial spirit will create a product/packaging take back service to reverse distribute the goods back to their original manufacturer for re-use.
What is the COMPETITION?
I don’t know of any direct competition. However, I do know that something like this wold be immensely timely given the state of European landfills ( or lack therof) and the EU statutes dictating mandatory “take-back” of products and packaging.
What BUDGETS & LOGISTICS are required?
It’s a website. People can add to it. Maybe they’ll even contribute money. Or get money from various environmental groups. Possibilities are limitless.
RSS feed
April 6th, 2006 at 8:48pm
The addresses for most companies are on the packaging anyway!
But, are you going to send the packaging back in an envelope?, or pack them in a box, and to ensure that they dont get damaged on the way to the company, you should also consider surrounding them in polythene balls.
Think of all the trees that would be knocked down to make the stampes…then where those trees were, we can put a landfill site, and out all your used envelopes in it!
Sorry if that seems weird, but every process has waste! – that is unaviodable – what IS needed is a realism from the firms that we dont need so much packaging, i am sure they would be happy not having to spend all that money on it in the first place!
A site that gives the addresses so we can moan at the companies would potentially be more fruitful! But thats what the Yellow Pages is for!
April 7th, 2006 at 5:45am
Jordan,
Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate the toungue in cheeck way you’re presenting your arguments. They are things I was thinking about as well, and here are some of the conclusions I’ve come up with. They are by no means exhaustive, and I invite your problem solving thoughts as well as your critique.
1)This issue of posting stuff back: It’s not impossible nor even unusual to send oddly shaped, or bizzare items through the mail. (Think about all those coconuts people send from Hawaii, messages in bottles from island vacationers, etc.) What’s wrong with simply sticking postage on the item and sending it back?
2) You’re right about many companies having their postal information on the bottle, but what about the folks who don’t? And wouldn’t it be great to have all that information in one place- like say a website?
3) The inefficiency of posting products or packaging back to the manufacturer: Your critique of it having a potentially wasteful consequence is right on. There’s no way of getting around that currently. However, the point is to create change with a hefty impetus from the outside. (namely of consumers respectfully saying, “thanks for the product, but here’s the bottle back. Maybe you can re-use it.”)
4) I like your idea about incorporating firms in the process, and perhaps this can be broadened into the conversation about firms and “stakeholder engagement”. Why can’t the website help a firm make the connection to designers waiting in the wings for just such an opportunity? Or what if the website held design competitions for “take back” style production with an online voting strategy? In short, I do really like your idea of firm inclusion!
As I mentioned in my original post, it seems to me that is opportunity for the type of systemic, streamlined, efficient action I think you’re articulating later in the process. In my experience, awareness creates change. I can imagine being a manufacturer and having my products and packaging boomerang back to my doorstep as form of consumer activism supported by a website would create just the sort of awareness necessary for the change our planet badly needs.
Thanks again, KLL
April 7th, 2006 at 11:17am
Perhaps it would also be interesting (and save on postage / effects of sending things through the post) just to organise a collection of packaging from a particular store (Morrisons I’ve found to be a terrible offender for over packaging in particular…) and then to deliever many peoples ‘unwanted packaging’ back to the physical store on regular occaisions – generating press and shopper awareness in the process….
April 10th, 2006 at 8:15pm
Two more interesting links:
http://www.generous.org.uk/actions/planetary/26/post-your-packaging-back
http://www.howies.co.uk/think.php?id=7&category=environment
May 9th, 2006 at 1:54am
My friend Oli has had a very similar idea.
1. Get a load of people to go shopping in the same supermarket at the same time.
2. Only buy stuff that you want, but unpack everything as soon as you’ve paid for it and leave all the packaging there.
If it didn’t involve shopping at supermarkets, I’d really like it :)
May 19th, 2006 at 10:50am
I’ve had enough too – a 1 inch memory card packed in 6 inches of transparent plastic is mental (thanks Fuji).
Compulsory take-back has to be the way to go – businesses will soon reduce packaging once they have to start paying to dispose of it (trust me, in each of our small shops we already pay about £30 per month just to have the regular wheelie bin emptied and that’s on top of an average £4K rates bill! Fortunately we do not pass on *any* packaging waste to customers, not even a paper bag).
I understand that law is already in place in Germany to enable customers to leave or return packaging but simple direct action would probably have the same effect.
Certainly, some packaging is insane and a website devoted to those who do the best and the worst whether through take-back or just reducing non-biodegradeable packaging would be useful.
April 15th, 2007 at 12:08pm
There’s no excuse for much of this packaging. There is no need at all to put two baking potatoes in a plastic tray and cover them with clingfilm. The only reasons are for the convenience of the supermarkets themselves (weighing food at the counter takes longer than scanning a barcode), and for marketing (to create the perception that the goods are more valuable, and to encourage customers to buy more than they would if buying loose goods).
As customers, we are the ones who have to pay for the packaging, cart it home and dispose of it. We should say no to this. Dump the excess packaging at the counter.
We’ve been photographing some of the more ludicrous UK examples of over-packaging and posting them online. End the waste!
TotallyWasted.org
May 12th, 2008 at 3:12am
whatever happened to this idea? Did you get a website?