Amazon.com Excessive Packaging: Another example

A Sustainable is Good reader contacted us this week with another instance of excessive packaging from Amazon.com.  The reader works in the education industry and ordered ten (10) children's books, all the same title to be delivered to her office. 

The books arrived in 10 separate large boxes all with multiple inflatable plastic air pouches.  To make matters worse, the books Amazon sent were not the correct books. 

The reader packed all the books up into one box and returned them to Amazon.com.

Many of these examples of excessive packaging occur because of issues with communication and packaging logistics. 

Ordering systems may process orders of multiple items individually and generate packaging as if the orders were going to multiple locations.  The prevention of excessive packaging is an area where shippers need to rely on human employees.

The results of excessive packaging incidents have a negative effect on consumers and generate a significant amount of unnecessary waste.

Read more stories on Excessive Packaging on Sustainable is Good

Readers:  Contact us with any examples of excessive packaging.

Comments

[wha?!]

Next time, try checking the box to have all your items shipped in the same package; there is an option to ship each item in an order separately, so an unavailable item doesn't slow down your entire order... I blame this on you for not selecting the right order fulfillment.

[Brad Shorr]

That's the worst example of Amazon packaging I've ever seen. Amazon's logistical infrastructure is very complex, so I'm sure they are continually grappling with the problem of speed versus packaging efficiency. I have to think over time they will reduce the incidence of this type of thing - it's bad all the way around, from a cost, environmental, and transportation standpoint.

[Jimmy K.]

Packaging is only a part of the bigger problem.

[Jimmy K.]

Here is a link to Amazon's other initiatives. Seems to me some of these are as crucial as packaging:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=578084