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Amazon.com Frustration Free Packaging

Amazon.com has launched “Frustration-Free Packaging,” a new initiative designed to make packaging both more user and environmentally friendly. 

The company's initiative is unique in that it puts the interests of its customers first not packaging.  Due to the fact Amazon's business is solely online based this new packaging concept is possible.

Amazon is focusing first on two kinds of items: those enclosed in hard plastic cases known as “clamshells” and those secured with plastic-coated wire ties, commonly used in toy packaging.

Frustration-Free Packaging is being launched in the U.S. with 19 bestselling products from leading manufacturers including Fisher-Price, Mattel, Microsoft and electronics
manufacturer Transcend. The product is exactly the same – Amazon has just streamlined the packaging.

In addition to making packages easier to open, a major goal of the Frustration-Free Packaging initiative is to be more environmentally friendly by using less packaging material.

One of the first products to launch with Frustration-Free Packaging is the Fisher-Price Imaginext Adventures Pirate Ship, which is now delivered in an easy-to-open, recyclable cardboard box.

The new packaging eliminates 36 inches of plastic-coated wire ties, 1,576.5 square inches of printed corrugated package inserts and 36.1 square inches of printed folding carton materials.  Also eliminated are 175.25 square inches of PVC blisters, 3.5 square inches of ABS molded styrene and two molded plastic fasteners.

Small items, such as memory cards, are also good candidates for Frustration-Free Packaging. Typically encased in oversized plastic clamshells to deter shoplifting, memory cards are then placed inside larger cardboard boxes for shipment to customers.

Working with Transcend, Amazon has eliminated the hard-to-open clamshell and the need for an additional box. Instead, the cards will now ship inside recyclable cardboard envelopes which use less material.   

Amazon's new "Frustration-Free Packaging" plan comes as a Sustainable is Good reader in the UK sent us images of excessive packaging from Amazon UK from an order she placed for an Apple Macbook adapter.  Excessive packaging is an issue we've covered extensively including a number of examples from Amazon.com. 

Amazon's new packaging plan is excellent news for both consumers and those concerned about excessive packaging.  Hopefully the company will expand the plan to more of their products in the near future. 

You can order select items from Fisher-Price, Mattel, Microsoft and Transcend in the new Frustration-Free Packaging for immediate delivery on Amazon.com.

Fetzer Vineyards Switches to Thinner Glass for Wine Packaging

Fetzer Vineyards is using thinner glass in its wine packaging.  In a move designed to reduce transportation costs and improve the company's environmental impact the winery made the decision to use less glass in its bottles.

A piece by Michelle Locke of the AP details the vineyard's packaging change.

Thin is in at Fetzer Vineyards, at least when it comes to wine bottles: The Northern California winery is switching to a lighter weight glass to cut shipping costs and give the environment a break.

"It's one of those win-win approaches," said Ann Thrupp, manager of sustainability and organic development for Hopland California-based Fetzer.

For Fetzer, the new bottles are on average 14 percent lighter, with the 750- milliliter bottles now weighing 15.5 oz. when empty. With 23 million bottles a year shipped, that adds up to 2,200 tons of glass saved — less resources used, less money spent on materials and less fuel needed for transport.

The new bottles have the same shapes and colors as traditional wine bottles, but most have a flat bottom, as opposed to the traditional indentation known as a "punt."

The punt is being kept for some of the winery's premium lines, but since one of its main purposes is to collect sediment, it is not necessary for everyday wines that aren't going to spend years in a cellar, Fetzer spokesman Jim Caudill said.

The ability to make lighter glass isn't new; what is is the attention it's getting as a "green" alternative, said Kevin Stevens, vice president of sales and marketing for the North American region of Ohio-based O-I, the manufacturer of the new Fetzer bottles.

via the Associated Press
photos: Eric Risberg/AP