201–210 of 236 posts
greener planet, happier people everyone wins.
a real issue would be making better use of the space. i once got shipped a 10 liter box that contained a single zippo lighter.
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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…
Much innovation in the last 20 years has been finding ways to get your customers to do work for free that you previously paid employees to do instead. For example, self-service checkouts in supermarkets, fast food, building a holiday package, etc. Recycling is the same. They have 'outsourced' much of the job to local government and consumers.
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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.
Paper will probably add less support unless it's really packed, but it will still add some.
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How do they know who put what in which trash can?
Highest fines are for putting plastics/glass/large metals in the roadside bags that are picked up. They usually try to find an address label or similar inside the bag to identify you. For public trash cans: It happens that private security hides around the cans to control. I was once fined about 40 USD for putting paper in the paper bin on sunday at noon. They hid around the corner.
My apartment complex has a large delivery bin area and I always wish I can leave the packaging boxes and padding/cushions in that area and only bring back the content of the box (provided that nothing is sensitive and nobody is watching). Would it be great if the delivery person can unbox the item at the delivery location with a fee and then bring the box back for recycling?
We order a from Amazon Prime Now occasionally and that stuff always just comes in a paper bag. No huge boxes, no packing material at all. Just a bag. I imagine that's because its time in transit is far lower and it's handled by only one currier. In the end, probably less efficient but at least on the packing materials side it's more efficient.
I had no idea this is a widespread concern. Over the course of years, I have kept every box and the shipping materials under the presumption that I would reuse it all at some point. Only flaw in my logic is that I order way more stuff than I ship out. This, combined with my laziness, has resulted in a spare room in the house now being known among friends and family as "The Box Room", which was full wall to wall, floo…
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UPS wants 2 inches of space between the product and the outer box... keeps real damage from happening if the outer box is slightly punctured by something. https://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/ship/packaging/g...
That's sensible. What isn't is the often vast oversize of Amazon packaging. Like sending one hard drive in a 2cu ft box with lots of packaging. There's now lots of scope for the item to move around so the single item inevitably ends up in a corner against the outer box. Amazon never seem to actually bubble wrap anything any more - which has led to damage more than once. Neither the string of air pockets, as in the ar…
Sorry for the poor quality. Box is roughly 24" x 18" x 6" containing one approximately 13 inch long kitchen utensil (a silicon whisk) and 7-8 useless air cushions.
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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…
What if we couldn't export our waste for someone else to deal with? Maybe then the feeling of personal responsibility would come rushing back.
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We order a from Amazon Prime Now occasionally and that stuff always just comes in a paper bag. No huge boxes, no packing material at all. Just a bag. I imagine that's because its time in transit is far lower and it's handled by only one currier. In the end, probably less efficient but at least on the packing materials side it's more efficient.
I was pleasantly surprised when I got my first Now purchase delivered that way. I was expecting a box. But the paper bag is better -- I use them as “garbage bags” for paper and cardboard, which makes the recycling quicker on my end.
It's such a wasteful industry that China Post actually came up with laws and regulations ordering carriers to reduce wastes by simplifying packaging for online ordered goods just starting late 2016[1]
Anecdotally, my friends in China told me that some of their double singles day items came in thin poly packs that without air cushions and most of the electronics are shipped with retail packaging as is and without an outer carton box.
I think U.S. should follow suit.
[1]: http://www.spb.gov.cn/dtxx_15079/201608/t20160812_826406.htm...