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E-Commerce: Convenience Built on a Mountain of Cardboard

2 pointsby xoherabout 9 years ago

1 comment

anexprogrammerabout 9 years ago
What bothers me is not really the cardboard. At least cardboard is from a renewable resource, can be recycled and is biodegradeable.<p>The sheer amount of plastics used unnecessarily is depressing. Tech is especially bad for this and my pet hate of coating boxes with plastic just so they&#x27;re a little shinier.<p>It&#x27;s a PSU, I doubt I&#x27;m even going to <i>read</i> the box. It won&#x27;t influence my purchase. I don&#x27;t need a plastic wallet for the spare cables either. Try an elastic band, or a cardboard box. A mouse mat doesn&#x27;t need three layers of plasticised packaging large enough to put an IBM model M inside (hello Corsair).<p>Sometimes I wonder if the manufacturer is actually <i>wishing</i> for the destruction of the planet. There&#x27;s no sane reason for a USB stick, cable or mouse mat to come in tamper sealed plastic, with multiple layers and trays inside.<p>The more we adopt online shopping the more the manufacturers seem to want to supply everything in point of sale displays.<p>Then Amazon send it to you in a box the size of a small filing cabinet.