Amazon Prime, Halo SleepSack, and Safety 1st Secure Plug Protectors: Overpackaging that Our Children Will Not Appreciate in the Future

I ordered a sleep sack for my baby (this is what is recommended now instead of using a blanket) plus safety covers for the electrical outlets around my house last week from Amazon Prime. I’ve mentioned before in previous posts (you can find them here and here) that I have a membership because I don’t get out of the house much anymore and infants don’t come with a lot (even though they apparently need a lot). 

The package arrived in a box as usual. I must point out that this delivery was the third one from Amazon Prime which failed to reach our house by the guaranteed date. Fortunately, Amazon Prime has excellent customer service, so they have made this right. What Amazon has not done right is packaging (again, see posts listed above).

I thought the box looked big when I received it. Here it is on my washing machine.

Nothing under that plastic bubble wrap.

Lots of empty space in this big box.

Another big box for the recycling heap.

A baby sleep sack is small, light, and already packaged in a bunch of stuff, or at least it was in the case of the Halo SleepSack. Electrical plug protectors are small and probably pretty hard to damage. These Safety 1st ones were in a pretty small plastic package. The box that Amazon used was about twice as big as was needed. 50% wasted space, 50% wasted cardboard, 50% more space taken up on a plane/truck/train, 50% more cardboard and resources needed to produce the box, and 50% more box to process at the recycling plant.

These two little items shouldn't need such a big box.

There was also plastic bubble wrap in the box (and it's the annoying large bubble wrap that's not that useful for reusing- I reuse fine bubble wrap on trips where I take it with me to bring back more fragile souvenirs), presumably to use up all the wasted space. It’s not like a cloth sleep sack or a box of plastic plug covers would break. I don’t understand why Amazon couldn’t put this in a small bubble mailer or cardboard mailer. Why a box?

More plastic that will either be thrown out or recycled, but probably not reused (on trips I reuse the finer bubble wrap in my suitcase to bring back more fragile souvenirs).

I am disappointed also by the amount of packaging used on the Halo SleepSack. This is specifically a children’s product and as such should consider the generation that it is targeted at and what their future is going to be like. This sleep sack was encased in a plastic bag, had a huge cardboard wraparound, a plastic hanger unusable for anything in a home (must be for hanging these in a store), and tissue paper inside the sleep sack. This is way too much packaging. My child and the other children of that generation are going to be really annoyed when they see how we have squandered all of these resources. With the amount of packaging used on so many different products and in shipping, it seems like all that will be left in a few decades is a big garbage dump/ recycling heap.

Lots of packaging on this sleep sack for babies.

After the bag is removed there's more packaging . . .

A big cardboard surround.

And a little plastic hanger.

And tissue paper.

 Even the packaging on the Safety 1st plug protectors leaves something to be desired. The package is hard plastic and is not even full all the way up, there’s a significant gap of empty space. Then there’s a cardboard back. Why couldn’t they just go in a thin little plastic bag? They probably don’t get damaged that easily. They look pretty robust. No one can reuse the partial plastic box after and while a little plastic bag couldn’t be reused either, it would take up less plastic and resources to make than a partial plastic box.

The plug protectors are encased in a semi-rigid plastic.

It's like a box without a back (cardboard at the back). It wasn't even full.

There's also a paper insert at the front.

While it’s good that all of this packaging is recyclable, it’s not good that we’re using so many resources and sending them straight back for processing again on recycling day. It’s not like I can reuse any of this waste, so it’s going straight out with the recycling. A truck has to come around and pick it up, it has to be stored and processed, then it has to be made into something else. That takes resources to do too. Why not just prevent this waste by using less packaging? Overpackaging is senseless and future generations will not thank us for it.

More stuff for the recycling pile.

Zero Waste: How I Reuse Free Makeup/Cosmetics Bags

Another "free" makeup bag joins the ranks along with its own packaging.

I’ve blogged before about the “free” or bonus stuff that often comes with makeup or skincare (you can find the links here and here and here and here). Sometimes it’s some samples and other times it may also includes a makeup or cosmetics bag. I’ve ended up with an unbelievable number of these from such places as Sephora, Shishedo, and Clinique. 

Another makeup bag and it's filled with samples.

This makeup bag came full of more "free" samples.

The picture below was taken more than a year ago and since then a few more of these bags have joined the ranks.

There's even more of these cosmetics bags hanging around my place now.

Someone on a blog of packing tips said that they use their free cosmetics bags when travelling to organize stuff. I tried this method on my last trip (to French Polynesia- haven’t finished uploading all of my blog entries for this trip but you can find it here). I put charging cords and earphones in one cosmetics bag. I put my GoPro Hero 5 and its accessories in another one. I put my travel journal (paper) plus pens, scissors, and tape in another. I used yet another to carry my prescriptions. I was quite pleased with this way of reusing the makeup bags (it makes it easy to find small items in a suitcase or backpack when it’s categorized in makeup bags that all have different patterns and colours) which otherwise would be a complete waste (I mean you might use one to travel with your makeup, but how do you use 15?), however I still have so many not in use.

One example of how I used makeup bags to organize small stuff when I traveled. Here's my GoPro Hero 5 plus accessories.

The other day, Graco sent me a replacement baby carriage (a jogger type) because my previous Graco stroller was defective. Unfortunately, both of these carriages are equipped with only a strangely small phone carrier (they say it will fit modern smartphones, but if you have anything larger than an old flip phone, you won’t be able to use their phone carrier or even the opening tray underneath to store your phone (not even my husband’s iPhone 6s fits in this carrier). Also, annoyingly, women’s clothes often don’t have pockets, so where am I supposed to store my phone? I went over and over the problem in my head. I tried the cup holders, but they didn’t fit my Google Pixel XL. I tried a small reusable bag, but it hung down from the handle too far, which was irritating. Then I remembered all of the free makeup bags. Some of these were made of waterproof materials. I found one that fit my phone and took a hair elastic and passed it through the zipper pull. Then I took the elastic and passed it through the frame of the stroller by the canopy of the carriage. I use this now for when I don’t have pockets and need somewhere to put my phone. The little lidded storage box on the carriage works for my keys, but not really anything else. I think I’ll probably use a real elastic band next time to give the case more latitude to be pull towards me when I’m rummaging for my phone while holding the handle of the carriage, but I’m pleased with this solution.

The middle thing is supposed to be for holding a phone. My Google Pixel XL will not fit at all.

It won't fit in this little storage bin under the "phone holder" either.

A free makeup bag.

Attached to the frame of the stroller with a hair elastic.

Light and nestled into the hood of the carriage, the free makeup bag now holds my phone when I don't have pockets.

While it would be better to not have so many makeup bags being produced and thrown out or just sitting around (when one visits Value Village and other used clothing stores one can observe dozens or sometimes what seems like hundreds of these makeup bags hanging around. Who is going to buy one of them used when it was originally free? What happens to them if they are not bought at these places? Are they thrown out?), at least if they are used somehow, they are not a complete waste. Really though, I think makeup bags are another example of overpackaging in our society that uses too much packaging, resources, and is not moving in a zero waste direction at all.

Do you have any ideas of how to reuse cosmetics or makeup bags?

Packages with packages. That's a lot of waste.

Ddrops: Wasteful Packaging of Vitamin D that Today’s Children Won’t Appreciate in the Future

Who cares what's on the front. This was the only type of Vitamin D drops for children at our pharmacy.

While in the hospital, after having my baby, the nurses told us that we should give Vitamin D supplements to our baby every day. We purchased a little bottle of Vitamin D drops at our little pharmacy. The type that they happened to have for children and babies was Ddrops with Dora the Explorer on the front of a loud hot pink box. Not caring what was on the front, we bought the Vitamin D drops and left.

The box was quite large, but when I opened it, it was almost all completely empty space.

When I opened the almost 4 inch high box and found this I was disgusted!

There was a tiny glass bottle with a plastic lid and a large folded paper insert. The rest of the box was completely empty, wasted space.

A tiny glass and plastic bottle and a paper insert housed in a giant box.

Seriously, why is this box so big?

There was so much extra cardboard and all of the dye required to decorate the box. This is an incredible amount of waste. I doubt that future generations and the current generation who are taking these Vitamin D drops will appreciate it when we run out of resources or are living in a world of garbage or both.

Great, more stuff for my overflowing recycling box.

I find it astounding how children’s products, of all products, seem to use so much packaging when we should be trying to conserve so that there is something left for these children in the future when they are our age. Can’t this bottle be sold with just a safety seal on it and no box or if a box is needed, just a very small box to fit this tiny bottle? Ddrops are another example of overpackaging.

So much wasted cardboard and paper.

Amazon Prime: Big Boxes for Little Products

I ordered a little hairbrush for my baby and a potato masher through Amazon Prime. It arrived the other day I was confused by the size of the box, wondering just how big the potato masher and baby hairbrush could be.

When I opened the box there was a bit of bubble wrap and tons of empty space.

Once the bubble wrap was removed, there was a little brush (maybe four inches long) in minimal packaging and a potato masher, (only in a plastic bag) that while substantial, was not big enough to warrant the size of the box used.

Look at all of that empty space.

Couldn't a smaller box or a bubble envelope be used to mail items like these?

Wasn’t there a smaller box available? Or how about a bubble mailing envelope? I know that cardboard is recyclable, but it takes a lot of resources to both produce cardboard and then to recycle it.

Another box for my recycling pile!

I love that Amazon Prime usually gets things to me in the time quoted (a couple of times they have failed to deliver in their Prime delivery guaranteed dates, but their customer service is excellent) and that it is quick- this is particularly useful when you discover you need something for your home or baby. But I wish that Amazon would review its packaging procedures to reduce the amount of and size of packaging it uses. This was definitely another incident of Amazon overpackaging.

Amazon Prime: Boxes in Boxes

When I found this box by my house I wondered what I had ordered. It couldn't possibly just be the box of diapers and the turner could it?

I have an Amazon Prime membership and in addition to being able to watch The Grand Tour, I use my membership to order various items and have them delivered to my house. This has come in handy since I recently had a baby.

This is the second time I’ve ordered diapers from Amazon and since they repeated their giant box method, I feel I need to post this. The diapers that I ordered come in a big sturdy cardboard box. Strangely, Amazon feels the need to put this box into a huge cardboard box in order to send it.

This is a seriously big box.

In this order from Amazon there was also a turner or flipper for cooking, but this was not very big. The box that they sent these two items in was huge and had lots of vacant space (partially occupied in transit by many many feet of brown paper).

Lots and lots of packing paper once removed shows how big this box really is and what a waste of packaging it is.

It’s strange they wouldn’t just wrap the diaper box in paper and send it as is and then put the flipper in a bubble envelope or something of the sort.

Look at all of this empty space.

While cardboard and brown paper are recyclable, it still takes a lot of resources to produce them and since I have no use for a box or packing paper, they’re just going straight out in the recycling. It seems like a waste. And since the diapers already come in a box and are not breakable or anything (the diapers are wrapped in a plastic wrap in the box too to protect from the elements) this is another example of overpackaging.

We need to rethink packaging as a society or there won't be any cardboard left to use in the future.