Wasteful Packaging: Knorr Selects Spinach & Artichoke Rice Sample from Well.ca

In mid August, I placed an order with Well.ca, a Canadian online shopping site that has many interesting products including food, vitamins, protein bars, a wide range of baby products, kitchen implements, etc.. I’ve been very pleased with the website so far (their customer service is excellent too), however, there is one aspect of ordering products from them that makes me a little annoyed. When one places an order, depending on how much one has spent, certain samples are offered. One does have the right to refuse the samples, but in this case, I took the sample offered which was a Knorr Selects Spinach & Artichoke Rice side dish.  I was pretty sure I wouldn’t like the dish, but it was free, and with a new baby in the house, a “10 minute” food item sounded like good emergency backup.

I received my order from Well.ca and found the sample. It was packed in plastic (Why? The packet the Knorr side dish comes in is very thick and foil lined with a plasticy sort of outer shell). This is not the first time I’ve received samples from Well.ca that have been overpackaged (one notable example was a Dare REALFRUIT Biscuit Strawberry with Yoghurt sample which was this little fruit bar that was wrapped in cardboard, had a paper coupon, and then a plastic wrapper around all of that). 

The Knorr sample came in a plastic package.

Upon opening the plastic wrap last night (in a fit of desperation of what to eat late at night after finally getting a fussy baby to sleep), I found not just this thick package, but also two different paper inserts. One of them was a large piece of paper with something about entering a contest for a $100 gift card (it didn’t specify what the gift card was for- I mean is it for Knorr products or something more general.  If it’s for Knorr side dishes, I doubt many people will waste the time entering- I certainly don’t have time) and the other was a coupon for more of this Knorr stuff.

When I opened the plastic package there was all of this inside.

My husband and I cooked up this monstrosity last night. The smell of the dry stuff was gross and it was even worse prepared. We tried to improve it by putting some fresh grated parmesan on top and lots of pepper and some salt, but it was unsalvageable and after a few bites we couldn’t eat anymore. Plus, if you’re looking for a 10 minute preparation time, look again. One actually has to bring it to a boil first, then time 10 minutes, then turn off the heat and wait at least another 5 minutes to let it thicken. Anyways, I generally don’t like packaged food and this certainly didn’t make me want to try anything by Knorr again. Bluck!

And Knorr should stop using so much packaging for a sample. This creates an incredible amount of waste. It’s unnecessary. My child’s generation is going to having nothing left but a pile of garbage if companies keep using so much wasteful packaging for all of their products including free samples. Well.ca, being a company focussed on wellness, should perhaps put some pressure on the companies that are sending samples to them to distribute to use less packaging for the “wellness” of the planet.

Overpackaging impacts us all. Now I’m left with a plastic wrapper, empty package, and two pieces of paper, all of which I will never use again and some of which I can’t even recycle.

So much waste. 

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.

Recycling Day: When Overpackaging and Waste Are Really Apparent

In my neighbourhood, as in most, we have recycling day every two weeks. A big truck drives around a huge area of the municipality (or multiple municipalities) and picks up recycling from each house at the curbside. Not everything is accepted for door to door recycling (examples of exclusions include plastic bags, Styrofoam, old electronics, batteries, and lightbulbs, etc.). Plastic and metal are put together in bins. Glass is supposed to be in separate bin. Paper goes in bags. Cardboard goes alongside the bins (someone told me a story about their cardboard being rejected by the recyclers once because they didn’t have it tied with twine, fortunately our recyclers don’t enforce this antiquated and wasteful rule).

This week, my husband out of town on business again, I hefted all of the recycling from our place out to the curb. Even carrying a huge amount per trip, it took me two trips to get everything to the curb. Part of the reason for this is the cardboard boxes from supplies we’ve ordered from Walmart and Amazon Prime these past two weeks. The pictures below are of just two weeks worth of recycling from our household (two adults, one who is travelling for work often and therefore not here to consume as much as usual, and a baby). I also didn’t bother taking the glass to the curb, as we only have a few glass containers, so I’ll wait until we have more.

I can't believe this is just from two weeks and a household of only two adults and one baby.

When I go out on walks and see our neighbourhood and others nearby on recycling day, I can’t help but be struck by all of the packaging our society uses (plastic boxes for spinach, endless yoghurt and milk containers, cans, cartons, and so much cardboard). Sure, some things need packaging, but there is a lot of overpackaging happening. If we decreased the amount of waste and moved to more of a zero waste position, think of how much less would have to be picked up on recycling day and processed (which takes a lot of energy and resources too). If we didn’t produce so many packages, we wouldn’t need to recycle so many packages. We would use less resources and there would be more left over for the future generations. So, while it's wonderful that we're diverting so much waste by recycling in Canada, it would be better if less waste existed in the first place.

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.

Frito-Lay Twistos: Why Does a Coupon Need a Plastic Bag Around It?

When ordering a baby gym from Toys “R” Us last week, we received a couple of coupons in the box when it was delivered to our house. One of them was for a snack called “Twistos” from Frito-Lay.

Is this coupon so precious that it needs to be hermetically sealed in plastic?

Why is this coupon so heavily guarded?

What confused me was why a coupon that came in a cardboard box would need a plastic bag around it. What a waste. How many coupons did Frito-Lay print? And then to wrap each coupon in plastic is an added waste, especially if they don’t get used. I won’t be using mine and unfortunately, it’s just more plastic for the garbage and more paper for the recycling bin. What ridiculous overpackaging, Frito-Lay. Coupons don’t need a plastic bag around them.

Not one, but two pieces of paper in the plastic.

Walmart Order: Multiple Shipments and One Nearly Empty Box

We ordered some household items from Walmart last week. The order shipped quickly and we were impressed to see a big box at our house two days ago. However, this only had some of the items that we had ordered in it. While this box was packed almost full, with little wasted space, the box that arrived yesterday, was full of wasted space.

I opened the box expecting to see several more items from our Walmart order, given the size of the box.

The box looked big as I was opening it.

When I pulled back the plastic bubble wrap, there were only two items. The box was pretty much completely empty. Why were these two items sent in such a big box?

This doesn't look very full.

Seriously?! Only two items in this huge box?

I still can't believe that this was it in the box.

And now we’re waiting for at least one more box to receive the rest of our Walmart order. While I appreciate that Walmart tries to get items to customers as soon as they can, surely sending almost empty boxes with only an item or two in them while there are a bunch of outstanding items is ridiculous. It’s definitely wasteful.

When one considers how big Walmart is and how much it must ship, all of this Walmart overpackaging will certainly add up to a ton of waste. While the cardboard can be recycled (and plastic is being recycled more now), it takes a lot of resources to produce it and it’s unlikely to be reused. Instead, it will end up in the recycling pile with more resources required to recycle it. Walmart should set an example and try to decrease the amount of waste it produces in shipping (past orders from Walmart have been less wastefully packaged, so I hope that this is just a one-off). Overpackaging from Walmart and other big companies produces a world of waste.

Another big wasted box.

So much waste leftover from such a small partial shipment.

Toys “R” Us: Waste That Future Generations Will Resent

We recently ordered a Baby Einstein Caterpillar & Friends Play Gym for our baby online from Toys “R” Us. We had a gift card for there and I don’t get out of the house much anymore with a new baby, so we bought it online instead of going to the store.

The package arrived and was left at our house. When I found it, I was amazed by the size of the box. I had seen this product before at my sister’s place and knew that it was not that big, so I was confused by the size of the box (4'x3' approximately).

Four feet by three feet?! How big is this little baby toy?

When the box was opened it had a second box inside (about 2'x1.5'), the one the actual product came it. There was no bubble wrap or paper in all the empty space to pad it, so I’m not really sure what the purpose of the giant box was.

So much wasted space in this giant box.

This play gym is already in a box. Why is another needed?

Couldn’t the package that the play gym came in just be wrapped in mailing paper or perhaps bubble wrap with a label and then the other box wouldn’t be needed for shipment? This would reduce waste and the amount of resources needed to ship each product. The large box serves no purpose that I can see other than becoming yet another thing that goes straight into the recycling pile. While it’s great that cardboard can be recycled, it would be better if it didn’t even get used in the first place (and then resources wouldn’t be wasted making it either).

Another giant box for my recycling pile.

While I know I’m part of the problem for ordering online (although who knows, maybe driving to a store is just as bad), there are probably better ways to ship online purchases, with less waste, and perhaps eventually zero waste. Overpackaging can still be found with so many products and in the shipping process itself when products are purchased online. While this product didn't have a lot of packaging, the shipping process created a huge amount of waste with the giant and unnecessary box that Toys "R" Us used. Online shopping is here to stay. If we continue using the amount of packaging that we’re using now, there will be nothing left for the next generation and they will certainly resent us for this.