Cookies with Kooky Packaging

I previously wrote a post about Oreo Cookies because they had not only a plastic outer package, but also a plastic tray and cardboard inside (you can find the post here). Since then, I’ve noticed Oreos in the store in a much smaller package, so it seems they’ve changed packaging and I applaud Nabisco and Mondelez for that. Unfortunately, the world of cookies with plastic trays in addition to outer packaging is still well populated.

Here are two types of cookies I’ve discovered recently and they both have boxes, plastic wrap, and plastic trays (and not as many cookies in the box as one would think from looking at the box on the shelf!).

LeClerc Celebration Milk Chocolate Butter Cookies
By the time I took these photos, we had eaten almost all of the cookies, but I can tell you that each of the six sections of the plastic tray that are different shapes for some reason (the cookies are all the same rectangular shape) holds three cookies exactly. That means a box has precisely 18 cookies. This seems like a surprisingly small amount for the size of the box and the tray. The cookies are not that large or thick. They’re really good cookies, kind of like a digestive or butter cookie covered in a layer of really good chocolate. But I am disappointed in the packaging. After finishing the cookies, we were left with plastic wrap, a plastic tray, and a cardboard box. The plastic tray and cardboard box are easy to recycle, but one must remember that reducing is better than recycling. It takes energy and resources to recycle. It’s better to just not produce all this unnecessary packaging. There has to be a better way to package these fine cookies.

From the box, one would hope for more than 18 cookies. Who knows what 240 grams means.

This is two cookies sitting in the tray (there are normally three in each of the six sections. The packaging seems like overkill.

I can't understand the different shapes in the tray either. All the cookies look like the this.

So much waste left after the 18 cookies are gone.

Dare Coconut Whippet Sticks
These cookies are interesting. They are like a tiny log of biscuit, a pile of coconut on top, and then a nice covering of good chocolate. They taste rather like mini Bounty chocolate bars. The packaging for these is even more wasteful than the cookies above. These are tiny little logs of chocolaty coconutty goodness, but they only put two into each section of this big plastic tray. The tray is wrapped in plastic. And they are in a larger than needed cardboard box. There are ten cookie retaining areas on the overly large tray, which means that exactly 20 little sticks come in each box. If one just threw these little sticks into a box without the tray, the box would be mostly empty. I’m sure there’s a better way to package these nice little coconut sticks without using so many materials. As above, I could recycle the plastic tray and cardboard box (but not the plastic wrap), but it would be better if unnecessary packaging was eliminated. Recycling takes a lot of energy and resources as well as producing these throwaway materials in the first place.

Spoiler, the cookies are not this big and 250 grams means you get just 20.

Cardboard, plastic wrap, and plastic tray make up the packaging for these little cookies.

Each plastic tray section holds exactly two of these little sticks. There are ten sections in this big plastic tray.

20 tiny sticks and you're left with all of this waste.

In conclusion, I enjoyed both of these types of cookies, but I really dislike how they are packaged. I hope that LeClerc and Dare will reconsider how they package these cookies and make the packaging less voluminous and wasteful. I want to eat cookies without feeling guilty about how much waste I'm creating for the landfill and the recycling depot. Ending overpackaging of cookies would make them all the more sweet.

Gillette and Equate Disposable Razors: Dense Packaging That's Totally Unnecessary

Disposable razors are almost always cheaper than buying blades for a razor. They are disposable by their nature and therefore create more waste than just a blade, but for some reason, the companies that sell them insist on creating even more waste with their packaging.

Here are two examples of disposable razors that I've bought in the past several months.

Gillette Venus Disposable Razors

These razors come in a semi-rigid plastic tray with a piece of plastic fused over the top that one must peel back to access the razors. There is a bunch of wasted plastic in this format. Why can’t they just come in a little Ziploc bag?

Equate Disposable Razors

These razors also came in the plastic tray format with the piece of plastic fused over top to be peeled back. There was a lot of empty space in the tray.

I just can’t believe that they can’t think of better way to package disposable razors. Or is the large packaging just a ploy to get consumers to notice them on a crowded shelf and in a crowded industry? Whatever the reason, I hope that someone stops this trend of giant plastic packages for disposable razors and thereby leads the way to less waste. Everyone benefits when overpackaging stops.