221–230 of 236 posts
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The compostable idea is so much better than mailing them back because of the transport cost. In fact compostable air cushions exist: http://www.fpintl.com/biodegradable_packaging_cello_bubble_w...
Except that biodegradable packaging means the manufacturer needs to continue producing (and distributing) it, which incurs its own cost.
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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 pr…
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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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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.
That's not really the case. It's simply a really hard problem and that's easiest to address early on (recycle somewhat right) than to try and filter useful things out of shredded sludge.
It's a typical externalities problem - the full cost of using some types of packaging is not paid by the one doing the packaging.
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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.
Could you explain that a bit? Fined for putting paper in the paper bin?
> 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…
And you know this how?
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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 pr…
There's a very rare path from FC associate to the software side at Amazon. I've met a few people who've done it. This includes a senior principle engineer and an L8 director of software.
The box it came in looked like it contained an Xbox: it was huge! Upon opening it and removing all the Air Cushions™, there was a tiny little envelope at the bottom with the microsd inside.
Completely bewildering, albeit amusing.
I think there are two opportunities for the environmental effects of the air cushions. 1) Re-use rather than recycle: What if you could let the air out at home, open up the bag, stuff it with other bags, and the outside of the bag had a postage paid stamp. It goes back to the company that made the bag so it can be re-used. 2) Make them out of compostable plastic. Much simpler than above, probably the better way. The…