BioGaia Protectis Baby: Probiotic Drops in a Bottle in a Box in Another Box with Paper Too

A giant box for a tiny bottle of probiotic drops.

Without the bottle to recycle yet, I already have all of this waste.

My doctor recommended that I consult with a pediatric dietitian to figure out ways to ease my baby’s gas. The dietitian recommended probiotic drops by BioGaia called Protectis Baby. I am on probiotics myself and have seen their benefits, but I still read the scientific literature that I could find online including clinical trial results to ensure that I thought that this was the best thing for my baby.

My husband originally purchased a box and pulled the bottle out and I did not see the packaging. The second bottle, which we had to purchase about three to four weeks after because they only last about a month with the recommended dosing, came from Walmart. While the price was about $14 cheaper (about $28 dollars plus tax) than the other bottle that my husband had purchased from another pharmacy (about $42 plus tax), I forgot about these savings when I took the bottle out. I was stunned by the wasteful overpackaging.

From the size of the box it looks like the bottle of drops will be big (if one ignores the 5 mL label).

First of all, I should explain that this bottle of probiotic drops is about two inches tall and made of glass with a plastic lid (so when recycling it’s already going into two different bins at our place). However, the package that we purchased from Walmart was about six inches tall and made of cardboard. When I opened this box, I found a bunch of empty space, some paper inserts, and another cardboard box!

A box in a box and tons of empty space and a paper insert.

More wasted space in the second box plus another paper insert.

Why is there a box in a box? I understand that one box might be necessary instead of just a safety seal because the bottle is made of glass and could easily break in transport, but why are two boxes necessary?

As for the paper inserts, one was directions on how to use the probiotics, which could have been printed on one of the two boxes and the other was a slip advertising their various products. There were not even any coupons on anything, they just wanted people to know what else they sold. Most people now don’t find out about new products from inserts in boxes. So, this seemed like a waste too.

Upon opening the second smaller box, I finally found the tiny bottle of probiotic drops. So, one box held another box, two paper inserts, and a bottle. That’s a lot of resources for a tiny bottle that will be gone in three to four weeks. It was like a Russian Stacking Doll of waste.

There's the tiny bottle!

So much waste for such a tiny bottle.

All that wasted paper and cardboard

This bottle is so tiny it is dwarfed by even the smallest box.

Giant boxes for tiny bottles only infuriate customers.

What a waste.

I find it disturbing that companies who manufacture or sell children’s products seem particularly wasteful with packaging. Should they not be considering the future for these tiny customers? I’m not a rabid environmentalist, but I also don’t like seeing waste, especially not such blatant waste. One box is quite enough, two crosses the line into exorbitant waste and complete disregard for future generations.

All the paper and cardboard is going straight into the recycling bin.

Yes, cardboard, paper, glass, and plastic are all recyclable where I live in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, but that doesn’t mean that using all of these resources unnecessarily is okay. Recycling items takes a lot of energy and produces pollution too. It’s better to reduce or eliminate packaging where possible.  BioGaia, needs to rethink its packaging because the way it is now just makes it look as my husband cynically suggested like they are trying to trick customers into thinking that the bottle of probiotic drops is larger than it actually is (how many of us can accurately visualize what 5 mL looks like?). I pointed out to my husband that it’s a Swedish company and that in Europe they have had stricter packaging rules and goals than we have had in North America for a long time. My husband wondered if North American retailers required this huge packaging so that the item was visible on shelves and/or looked bigger. Let’s hope that nothing this dark is at play and that it is just another example of overpackaging.

And I'll be getting this pile of paper again in a few weeks since the bottle is so small.