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About Those Air Cushions in Amazon Packages

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Re: About Those Air Cushions in Amazon Packages

#181

Post by Crito »

akanet wrote: post #180
gutnor wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand where do you put the limit on what is a acceptable burden ? Here are the rules for recycling where I lived: plastic to be cleaned before recycling (a minimal trace of food, allegedly, would require the whole batch of plastic to be thrown away). You are also supposed to separate the plastic part from the cardboard part on the packaging. You are also supposed to check if there is a specific type of co…

These are currently the rules in San Francisco and we do pretty well on the whole! You know, it's interesting that you say that we can't expect people to follow all those rules, but I just got back from Japan and WOW. That country has basically gotten everyone on board with following every rule. There are like four different receptacles for trash and you have to walk all your own trash out to the proper drop point. I…

>These are currently the rules in San Francisco and we do pretty well on the whole!

You say that, yet people are evidently kept awake at night by the thought of little plastic cushions.

Re: About Those Air Cushions in Amazon Packages

#182

Post by Crito »

corecoder wrote: post #151
akanet wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very irresponsible. The reason soft plastics are unrecyclable curbside in San Francisco is that they pose a very real danger to the machines that do recycling sorting. This is possible to overcome with greater manual filtering of recyclable materials, but Recology currently does not have the funds for it. Putting soft plastics in curbside recycling at the moment does nothing but make recycling worse for every…

Doesn't this just mean that the machines were chosen unwisely?

Yes.

Re: About Those Air Cushions in Amazon Packages

#183

Post by flavor8 »

dpark wrote: post #108
kalleboo wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in Japan the packaging I see most from Amazon is where they strap the item down with a strong plastic wrap to a thick piece of cardboard that's glued to the bottom of the box. This keeps it centered and they don't need any filler at all.

I see that occasionally in the US (except not glued down) but mostly for things that don't have their own display boxes like books, sometimes electronics or DVDs. Since it's not glued, they still rely on air bags to fill the space. You probably want something to fill the space. Empty boxes are easy to unintentionally crush, exposing the contents to damage, weather, and loss.

Paper or air cushions aren't going to make a substantial difference to whether a box is crushed.

Re: About Those Air Cushions in Amazon Packages

#184

Post by ido »

Lukas_Skywalker wrote: post #161
ryandrake wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I've ever understood the "what goes in recycling, what goes in organics" rules in any place I've ever lived. It's a total unknown. I put stuff in whatever bin makes intuitive sense and the man in the truck takes it away. Until either 1. the rules are explained in a sensible way or 2. the city starts fining me for putting something in the wrong bin, my behavior is not going to change.

In Switzerland, recycling is done by the city administration. Put things in the wrong bin, get fined (and quite aggressively so). Instructions are sent to you when you move into the city and every year to every household. Works really well [1] (recycling rates: Glass 95%, aluminium 90%, paper 90%, plastic bottles 80%, batteries 70%). Also, no landfills at all, everything is burned, air is filtered and heat is used fo…

How do they know who put what in which trash can?

Re: About Those Air Cushions in Amazon Packages

#185

Post by gutnor »

akanet wrote: post #180
gutnor wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand where do you put the limit on what is a acceptable burden ? Here are the rules for recycling where I lived: plastic to be cleaned before recycling (a minimal trace of food, allegedly, would require the whole batch of plastic to be thrown away). You are also supposed to separate the plastic part from the cardboard part on the packaging. You are also supposed to check if there is a specific type of co…

These are currently the rules in San Francisco and we do pretty well on the whole! You know, it's interesting that you say that we can't expect people to follow all those rules, but I just got back from Japan and WOW. That country has basically gotten everyone on board with following every rule. There are like four different receptacles for trash and you have to walk all your own trash out to the proper drop point. I…

The country I was talking about did not have that amount of civic duty. Japan is in a category of its own.

In the case of my story, it appears to be working well too. People have 3 bins, different collection days and quota (and tax). On the surface there is no real way for the system not to work, unless you consider the increase in fly-tipping. (allegedly)

I'm not quite sure it is working as advertised though. I can't believe that the people can determine the coating type that was used on whatever cardboard piece they see and get it wrong in small enough percentages that the process depending on it is still efficient. And it is a compounded effect, the more rules, the more edge cases. I haven't seen any change in the packaging of product, if anything it has gotten even more difficult to process than before. If people were choosing brand with easier packaging, all the brands would have followed by now ( those rules have been in place for over 15 years now ), I just can't believe that people moaning when a TV channel number change would just happily start washing their ready meal plastic boxes.

Another example that makes me doubtful. There are recycling centers for chemical, electronic stuff, gardening waste, ... The rules are quite simpler (eg: cooking oil vs car oil), yet people get it wrong all the time and the people managing the center are busy directing and correcting people all the time. That's at the recycling center, a place where people have already committed time to specifically go recycling their stuff.

Re: About Those Air Cushions in Amazon Packages

#186

Post by userbinator »

It's puzzling to see people not knowing what to do with what are essentially free plastic bags. You can deflate them and use them like you would any other bag, keep them inflated and continue using them as cushions, etc. It's not like they take much space deflated anyway. Recycling is good, but reuse is even better.

Re: About Those Air Cushions in Amazon Packages

#187

Post by Disruptive_Dave »

developer2 wrote: post #119

> frustrated customers on forums discussing how many air-filled cushions they were getting > while deflated air cushions can be recycled, many cities won’t collect them curbside Pop them, put them in recycling. It's plastic, it's not my job to deal with the fallout. Either it's recyclable and I've done all I can, or it's the retailers' or cities' problem. The idea that there are "frustrated customers" is beyond me. I…

In Brooklyn we now have four (FOUR!) different containers for trash in our little apartment. Since I was a kid and recycling began as "a thing" it's gotten more and more complex and expensive on the consumer's end. Shouldn't this process be trending the other way?

Re: About Those Air Cushions in Amazon Packages

#188

Post by hoorayimhelping »

akanet wrote: post #144
developer2 wrote: post #119

> frustrated customers on forums discussing how many air-filled cushions they were getting > while deflated air cushions can be recycled, many cities won’t collect them curbside Pop them, put them in recycling. It's plastic, it's not my job to deal with the fallout. Either it's recyclable and I've done all I can, or it's the retailers' or cities' problem. The idea that there are "frustrated customers" is beyond me. I…

This is very irresponsible. The reason soft plastics are unrecyclable curbside in San Francisco is that they pose a very real danger to the machines that do recycling sorting. This is possible to overcome with greater manual filtering of recyclable materials, but Recology currently does not have the funds for it. Putting soft plastics in curbside recycling at the moment does nothing but make recycling worse for every…

To put in tech terms: This is horrible UX and it's no surprise to me that recycling isn't very effective. Asking your end users to deal with your internal complexity doesn't work in software or in recycling.

I want to help out, really I do, but I have more important things to worry about than which type of plastic goes in which bin. Hell, I'm happy to put the right kind of thing in the right bin if they made it clear which is which and why. But they don't do a very good job of communicating to me why this is important. They just say "recycle properly" then try to make you feel irresponsible and like a bad citizen for not knowing the proper way to do it based on some opaque and arcane process.

If you want people to help out, make it easy for them to feel like they're a part of it. The rules around recycling do the opposite - make you feel like you're harming things if you don't do things exactly right. Not a very empowering feeling at all.

Re: About Those Air Cushions in Amazon Packages

#189

Post by krapp »

somethingsimple wrote: post #112
krapp wrote: post #17

I had to package and tape boxes at an Amazon fulfillment center over peak season one day. One of the "problems" I found with the process is the system tells you the size of box to use. You're not allowed to use a smaller size, even if it would work, only that size or larger. It also tends to overestimate the size of the item, so many boxes wind up with a lot more empty space than would be necessary, and more packing.…

Sorry for going off-topic here, but I'm curious. You say you "had to" work a fulfillment center over peak season. Were you an engineer at Amazon at the time? I'm asking because I've been told that Amazon makes engineers work at their fulfillment centers when it's peak season. If that's true, are people paid extra to do so?

No, I actually literally just work in a fulfillment center at the moment. I moved near Austin, TX, Amazon was hiring, and I needed something to have health insurance and start saving up to pay off my student loans (for a business application programming degree, ironically.)

I would like to be an engineer there but I think I'm underqualified for most of those positions. I learn what I can about the software and the processes when I can, though.

Re: About Those Air Cushions in Amazon Packages

#190

Post by tempodox »

Disruptive_Dave wrote: post #187
developer2 wrote: post #119

> frustrated customers on forums discussing how many air-filled cushions they were getting > while deflated air cushions can be recycled, many cities won’t collect them curbside Pop them, put them in recycling. It's plastic, it's not my job to deal with the fallout. Either it's recyclable and I've done all I can, or it's the retailers' or cities' problem. The idea that there are "frustrated customers" is beyond me. I…

In Brooklyn we now have four (FOUR!) different containers for trash in our little apartment. Since I was a kid and recycling began as "a thing" it's gotten more and more complex and expensive on the consumer's end. Shouldn't this process be trending the other way?

> Shouldn't this process be trending the other way?

I can think up two answers to that.

1. Someone has a nicely rigged racket running. Making the masses pay in a way that's legal and they can't escape would be my wettest dream if I were an organized criminal.

2. Our modes of production and transportation have lots of hidden externalized costs. Finding and addressing those is an ongoing process. Distributing them over the end users may be one of the fairest ways to deal with them.

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