I would like to discuss plastic today. No, not the plastic of credit cards which may actually get reined in by regulation in the very near future.
I want to talk about plastic bottles. Specifically the plastic bottles we buy aspirin or vitamins in. Have you noticed that they never fill them up?
Vitamins bought at Wal-Mart and made in China are probably the worst in this regard. They are at a max half full. This really hit home recently when I ordered some vitamins on line from Swanson Health Products. The bottles were full! Not even room for cotton!
So on the average we are probably using twice the amount of plastic we have to use in order for it to look as if we are getting more for our money at Wally World. But adding twice the amount of plastic to our landfills is not just the problem. We are also paying twice as much to transport because half as much fits into a shipping container or tractor trailer rig or boxcar. So half of whatever fuel is used to move this product to our stores is also wasted.
Over-packaging is an epidemic in our country that produces enormous amount of waste. Because Swanson's does not seem to over-package I will be buying from them again. This is definitely one area that I believe we as consumers can effectively fight. Seek out those products that do not over-package or under-fill. And when you have no choice leave the excess packaging at Wal-Mart or another box store for them to deal with. They want us to bring our own green bags to save plastic but they still put DVD's in huge plastic cases, and Barbie Dolls in large cardboard boxes, and toothpaste tubes in unnecessary boxes.
So while you are sacking your products in the green bags leave the trash with the clerk to dispose of. I think they will get the message quickly. If not take your business elsewhere. Wally World is a large enough company it can force reform on the companies it deals with.
This is the manufacturer's way of giving us less for the same amount of money rather than raise prices on us. I wonder who they think they're fooling.
ReplyDeleteOne product that is bucking the trend is liquid laundry soap. They've condensed the formula and put it in much smaller plastic bottles. But I still couldn't pay $22 for a bottle of Tide last night at the store--just couldn't do it. I'm going to look for a coupon.
I too have been thrilled with the new condensed detergent with Clear and Free All which I am not allergic to.
ReplyDeleteJust as I was reading your comment I got an e-mail from Swanson's thanking me or mentioning them and their commitment to the environment in my "great blog." How cool is that?
No I did not send them a copy and it is not in the tags and Wal-Mart has not contacted me yet with their program to cut excess packaging.
The response from Swanson is amazing. They are clearly keeping up on public opinion about them. The Google machine does wonders.
ReplyDeleteThe response is amazing.
ReplyDeleteForget Walmart - as we would say in England, 'they are real wallies'!!
translation - something like an idiot.
One day the people who do the marketing will wake up and smell the coffee - if they haven't destroyed all the beans first.
I agree - there IS too much over packaging. I am getting quite anal about choosing products I buy in regards to packaging - is one product more 'over packaged' than another, can I recycle the packaging and / or reuse it?
ReplyDeleteI understand and am in agreement with every ones comments re over-packaging of products.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the reasoning behind this originally, especially for the smaller products, was it was a deterrent for shop-lifters; larger
packages, harder to hide on one's person. But with scanner tags on
most items today, this should now
be unnecessary.
Everyone seems to be forgetting that well-known product disclaimer
that "product settles during shipment"; I don't recall the
exact wording, but it was to soothe
anger over HALF-EMPTY packages!
I'll but that settling on things like cereal but I also have faith in packaging engineers that can figure out just how much settling any particular product will do. Or in my altitude how much air space is needed to avoid having potato chip bags explode.
ReplyDeleteBut I have noticed a recent "re-tool" of factories to accommodate smaller containers for coffee so they can charge more without raising the price. So why not make vitamin bottles smaller or fill them up like Swanson's does?
And as to the shoplifting issue I was recently buying "travel sized" bottles of shampoo and toothpaste, etc in bins at Wal-mart. So if they can be smaller why not other packaging? And why not serve up all tube things in bins so no extra large caps so they stand or boxes so they stack would be required?
Over here... use of plastics is steadily getting more eco-friendly. Lots of things that used to be heavily packaged... are now being wrapped in alternative (more bio degradable products).. and generally less waste is being created. Most stores I shop in don't provide plastic bags for shopping.. unless you pay (which goes towards a chartity). And what plastic we do get... now can be collected by the council for recycling. I think the US has so much 'cheap' oil... that they are just a little slower at bringing in these various inititive.
ReplyDeletePlastic was formerly a waste product of petroleum processing. And to not have to dispose of it they made it cheap for companies to develop uses for it before we knew it had a half-life close to spent nuclear rods.
ReplyDeleteBut I don't think that is why the US is so wasteful with its packaging. I think it is capitalism. They are trying to make their product look bigger on the shelf, more value for the money and waste management be damned.
And there are the Republicans and GW Bush that for all eight years of his presidency said global warming was a Democratic myth and even now the Republicans are saying that Obama's alternate energy policies will cost everyone too much money.
We do the green bags here. And the companies are making a killing selling them too us. And it really requires you bag your own groceries because the bag boys don't understand the refrigerated bags versus the regular.
Well said. And I especially like your take on hand shaking by our President. Sure better than starting with "bring em on!"
ReplyDeleteI am ok - struggling out from underneath my lethargy at last perhaps.
ReplyDeleteBeing confined to bed, I order much off the internet. I am really tired of the over packaging: like sending a blouse in a refrigerator sized box then stuffing it with plastic popcorn. Considering I only clearance and outlet shop, getting a $5 blouse with $20 worth of packaging is a tad ridiculous!
ReplyDelete