Earlier this month, Amazon.com announced that they were going to be significantly reducing waste. That’s a good thing, considering my past experiences with Amazon. I mean, just look at all of the unnecessary packaging:
 
Yep, that little guitar was all I ordered. Talk about waste.
With their new plan, will the too-large boxes be a thing of the past? I’m not sure. Their first priority is to stop using the “clamshell” packaging – you know, that hard plastic that is impossible to open and always way to big for the item. Along with that, they’ll be working to eliminate those plastic-coated …read more

Stores around the world are starting to consider charging for their plastic bags.
At just a few cents per bag, it might not seem like it would make much of a difference, but consider how quickly that will add up for a family who grocery shops just once a week. If you’re charged 5 cents per bag and use 5 bags per trip once a week, that’s $13.00 every year. Still doesn’t seem like much, but let’s be honest – most people use more than five bags per trip, and that’s just to the grocery store. You can easily spend …read more

Last week, I ordered a video game guitar from Amazon. Not a dealer THROUGH Amazon…from Amazon themselves. Today, it was waiting for me when I woke up. When I saw the box, I thought “woah, it must be bigger that I thought.”
No…Amazon just used way too much packaging. I took a picture so you could see what I mean:

I actually had to stand up on my couch to get it all in the picture. You can see – my Wireless Wii Guitar, the packaging, the huge box. Incidentally, my guitar was on the VERY bottom, against the cardboard, so …read more

According to a study by the Natural marketing Institute, not all green labeling has the same affect on consumers. It’s something to consider if you’re advertising your product as “green.”
The study looked at four major green labels commonly found on products – Energy Star, Recycled, USDA Certified Organic, and Fair Trade Certified. You can see the full report at Marketing Green. Here’s the basis of it, though:

66% of people are more likely to purchase a product with an Energy Star logo
54% of people are more likely to purchase a product with a Recycled logo
29% of people are more likely to …read more

Who here has received a huge box from Dell only to find an itty-bitty part inside? *Raises hand*
During Earth week, the computer company came under fire from bloggers for shipping tiny products in huge boxes, wasting both cardboard and packaging material. I can recycle the cardboard, but those packaging peanuts are filling up our landfills! In any case, it is better to use less than recycle more.
So, Dell is working to make things better. In response to the complaints, they have developed several long-term and short-term answers to packaging problems.
In my mind, however, the best part is that they …read more