Blister Packs Are Horrible
22nd of February, 2010
Why do retailers an manufacturers package stuff in blister packs? They’re horrible. I suppose from a retailer’s point of view, they’re bulky and impossible to open, which means they’re hard to steal. Customers can also see the actual item in the box, and I suppose that’s nice.
But for normal humans, and for our children who have to live in a world getting fuller and fuller of trash, blister packs are horrible. Can things like USB drives be sold in a more eco-friendly way?
USB drives and other similar devices that come in blister packs are small, expensive, the default packaging for them is always a blister pack. The blister packs take up more room in the box, requiring more boxes on the truck, ultimately requiring more trucks, more fuel, more wear on parts and tires, more smog in the air, more smelly truck drivers. Once at the store, blister packs take too much room on the shelves, too much space room in the storeroom. Once I’ve purchased it, it’s a pain in the butt to open up, which frustrates me and makes me hate the company that sold it to me. Then it’s not easy to recycle blister packs (if they get recycled at all; anybody want to make an estimate as to how many pounds of blister pack sits in land fills across the U.S.?), and all it did was… what? What did the blister pack actually do? I’d say it did nothing more than put a product inside some trash that I had to take the product back out of again, then throw the trash away. Why couldn’t the company have thrown the trash away for me, or, better yet, not have packed it in trash?
At least one company out there gets it: Apple. I bought a small video adapter today, and any other company would have put it inside a blister pack, but Apple put it inside a sandwich bag with a recyclable cardboard topper. I ended up throwing away a comparitevly miniscule amount of trash, recycling a bit more, and the thing was easy to open. I didn’t curse anybody, and actually took pictures in the hopes that somebody buying a similar small electronic product can write to the manufacturer saying, “hey, Apple got it right. What makes you so special?” and have pictures to illustrate the point.
Look, if you’re a parent or a grandparent, the world isn’t yours any more. It belongs to your kids. You have to buy things, fine, but please buy things that wont bury your descendants in huge piles of trash.
I am simply testing that comments work again. Sorry about that, folks.
I agree completely. I get disgusted with all the excess packaging. I told the poor checker at Trader Joe’s that I boycott buying their fruits and veggies because of their packaging. He said they’re trying but there are some things they can’t control. I guess I’ll have to actually write to the management. Why put 2 bell peppers on a Styrofoam tray and then cover them with plastic wrap? I just don’t get it. Trader Joe’s wants you to bring in your own bags (a good campaign) but then don’t practice what they preach.
So what to do? I’m tempted to cut items free of their wrappings and leave the plastic on the shelves. They don’t arrest you for shoplifting unless you walk out of the store without paying for the item.