Amazon Frustration Free Packaging Makes a Difference

I had my first experience with Amazon.com's new frustration free packaging last week and I was very pleased.  Frustration Free packaging is a program Amazon rolled out several months ago and offers very minimal packaging for products in the program.  Currently there are only a handful of products in the Frustration Free program including some from Microsoft, Transcend and Fisher-Price.

I ordered a Transcend 8 GB SD Card for my camera and specifically choose the Frustration Free packaging option.  The SD card - which as you know is tiny came packaged in a thick durable paperboard envelope that was about the size of a 5 x 7 photograph.  Inside was the SD card in its travel case and the paperwork.  Thats it!  No plastic clamshell PVC packaging or anything.

Flash memory cards are nearly all packaged in clamshell type packaging - just go to your local big box retailer to see for yourself.  Buying the Transcend card from Amazon I didn't have to deal with unnecessary and wasteful clamshell packaging. 

Frustration Free packaging makes a ton of sense for Amazon and other online retailers because customers place their orders online - sales do not rely on people making buying decisions in the store.  Companies rely on flashy packaging to attract customers - but in the online retailer world that isn't necessary.  The ultimate question is will more companies participate in Frustration Free packaging or similar programs?  I think this program is a win win for everyone involved, Amazon, the customer and the company.

Hanger Network's Ecohangers: Recycled Paper Hangers Equal Marketers Dream

BY BERYL SHERESHEWSKY

There’s a new reason to get hung up over the environment. Where does great marketing and green ethics meet up? In your closet. Simply put, it’s all about hangers these days. Every year, over 3.5 billion wire hangers are produced in the United States.  Ending their lives eventually in a landfill, these shirt teasers lay in wait for the next 100 years or more, while Mother Nature takes her course. Created in 1869 by O.A. North in Connecticut, the wire hanger hasn’t changed much, until now. Spotting a key opening in the industry, Hanger Network has revamped the hanger, adding an economical and ecological twist.

In a world were advertising rules, from bus sides to highway posts, coffee mugs, t-shirts and sign waving Uncle Sams, there isn’t much virgin ground left. Bob Kantor, the chief executive officer of Hanger Network, took a blind leap of faith. “You can't flip the channel or turn the page when you're getting dressed," Kantor said, “We provide targeted, adult consumers with a branded apparel message at the moment it's most relevant."

So the wire hanger has lost its grip. With a branding message, it hasn’t hurt the company that they are 100% green. Made from post-consumer recycled materials, companies are spreading their message in over 35,000 dry cleaners across the country. From Hershey’s Chocolate to Princess Cruise Lines, closets will never look the same.

To those bent wire hangers that have long ago lost their shape and ability to support my winter jackets, thanks, but no thanks. While the rest of the world is redefining their ways of seeing, I am all for defining my ways of hanging. It’s a green lover’s world, and for businesses to find a way to profit, I’ll toast to that. 

Having traveled around the world, Beryl Shereshewsky, a recent University of Colorado, Boulder graduate, realized that in life, she wanted to accomplish three things. One, travel more, two, write about what she saw and three, save the world. With the recent advances in the green movement, she realized that she could be a superhero writer and write about saving the world. Combing her powers, she now writes for various eco and travel sites across the web, changing the world one article at a time. Feel like chatting?  E-mail her b.shereshewsky@yahoo.com.

Best Laptop Pillow Intelligent Design's Button Pillow

 

Vancouver-based Intelligent Forms Design (IF) has created a new line of products for laptops combining top design with sustainable materials.

I love IF's new Button Pillow its the most functional laptop pillow I've used. Made from hemp canvas and organic cotton the pillow is filled with buckwheat hulls for padding and insulation.

The top of the pillow is covered with individually sewn buttons which provide structure and grip so your laptop stays doesn't move on the pillow.

The buttons also serve to ventilate the laptop allowing air to get under between the laptop and the pillow. Those of you who use a laptop regularly know how important it is to keep your laptop cool and how hot they can get especially if they are laying flat.

The Button Pillow is cool because IF has great design sense and it shows throughout the product. The company uses recycled and organic materials in all of its products.

Button Pillow is made in Canada and is available in four colors, black, brown, purple and cranberry directly from Intelligent Forms.

Recycle - The Neglected "R" in Sustainable Packaging?

 

BY DENNIS SALAZAR

Longtime contributor and sustainable packaging expert Dennis Salazar, President of Salazar Packaging in Chicago, begins 2009 with a focus on recycling.

When the seven R’s of sustainability were first published, people were quick to select one as their personal favorite, usually with the sincere belief that their R of choice was the key to the environmental fix. The six, wildly popular R’s were:

• Remove – getting rid of excess packaging was an obvious and dramatic choice no one could possibly dispute plus it made for great press.

• Reuse – the favorite of green minded people who take great pleasure in making lamps out of milk cartons and other creative sustainable solutions.

• Reduce - minimizing packaging is always a great idea and can be accomplished more easily than most people think. Another popular R for the masses.

• Renew – packaging products that are renewable was instantly the favorite of the techies in the group that believe science has an answer for everything that ails us and our planet.

• Revenue – packaging that is cost effective. The natural choice of the purchasing professionals, accountants and CFOs everywhere.

• Read – taking time to educate ourselves and others. A good option for most, especially if info gained makes for good cocktail party or sales call conversation.

I believe the seventh R that has attracted less attention and interest by far is - recycle.

“Hmmm. That’s going to require some effort on my part.”

You can almost hear the wheels turning and excuses churning as people quickly realized that all of the other R’s for the most part required effort by someone other than them. “Let the designers, manufacturers, engineers, chemists and marketing people fix the earth, fix it quickly and accomplish it in a way that requires minimal effort on my part”.

Obviously I am having some fun with this topic but there is some truth in even the wildest exaggeration. The fact is that many people are still waiting for the government, science, big business, or somebody/anybody else to come up with a cure for the environment. The ideal solution of course would be one that would result in minimal change and disruption in my life.

Green Packaging question - How much do we recycle?

The short answer is, not nearly enough. I see a few more recycle bins being used in my neighborhood, and that is obviously a good thing. It would be better if everyone was forced to participate and I hope that time will come. I realize small children are being educated on the environment and the concern and lesson appears to extend beyond a classroom project of picking up litter in the playground or planting a tree on Earth Day.

Follow the Garbage of Eco-Friendly Packaging

Detectives often say “follow the money” but it this case, you can usually follow the garbage to find the crime and the criminal. It is the same thing we advise clients when doing a sustainability audit or are working to reduce their packaging costs.

On a recent flight I heard the usual “prepare for landing” message from the cockpit which was immediately followed by three flight attendants quickly collecting empty plastic water bottles and aluminum cans, as well as loads of newspapers and magazines from the passengers eager to let someone else deal with it. I watched as the crew dumped everything into plastic bags before final approach. To be honest, those bags filled with valuable, easily sorted consumer waste, may indeed be sorted later but I am willing to bet they are not and will eventually wind up in a landfill.

According to most sources I found, on an average day there are close to 30,000 domestic, commercial flights. I am not sure what that translates into in terms of recyclable waste that is not recycled but I am certain it is a lot.

There are many, way too many, examples like this and we as green minded consumers have to let the guilty culprits know that we notice and care about what they are doing. That is the only way to bring about the change that is required to help fix the big problem we all helped create. In the mean time it would not hurt to be a little more diligent on our recycling efforts at home.

Recycled, Sustainable Packaging Materials: Great idea for someone else’s use.

There are times when I mention the fact that our corrugated boxes or some other product we offer is made of 100% recycled material and I can see the slightest upturn of a nose or a poorly hidden grimace. Even though everyone is theoretically in favor of recycling and simple logic tells us that we obviously have to use what we recycle, there are still some negative perceptions that have to be overcome. “Products made of recycled material are not as safe, clean, strong, cost efficient or _______ “(Insert favorite inaccurate information here)

There are people that still think the phrase “recycled content” is synonymous with substandard or inferior and nothing could be further from the truth. In packaging, as long as the correct size, grade, thickness, weight for a specific application is used, the product being shipped, protected, contained or bundled, does not really care if the material is recycled or not. As long as the product works, who cares where it’s been and by all means, please feel free to test it alongside your high quality, higher cost, standard, non-green packaging product.

There’s a Reason Why There are Seven R’s in Sustainability

I am quite sure if anyone was convinced that one R would do it, the other six would be quickly abandoned. After all, no one wants extra, unnecessary R’s, not even in a game of Scrabble. The fact is that there are seven R’s in sustainability because the problem is too big and too complex for any singular solution. The scientists and economists, as well as the designers and marketers are all going to do their part if we hope to reverse the direction of this good ship gone bad.

With all the big, good and bad headlines in 2008 and what is sure to be an even crazier 2009, let’s not forget the environmental mission is not yet accomplished and we must still focus on the basics, especially the ones we can personally and easily implement on a daily basis.

One of the easiest solutions with the greatest possible upside is still, recycling everything possible and using recycled, whenever possible.

Hope you have a happy, healthy, prosperous and extremely green 2009!

Dennis Salazar is the president of Salazar Packaging, Inc., a certified MBE (Minority Business Enterprise) company specializing in packaging products, equipment and solutions. With over thirty years in the packaging industry, he is known for his tongue in cheek sense of humor as well as his sustainable packaging passion and expertise.   

To contact Dennis, please visit his web site: www.salazarpackaging.com

 

Callaway Golf New Golf Ball Packaging Improves Sustainability

Callaway Golf has recently reconfigured the packaging for its boxes of golf balls to make them more sustainable.  The California-based golf money is among the top brands in the industry so their packaging redesign in which sustainability was a key focus is important.

Packaging Design Magazine included the Callaway golf ball packaging in their December Sustainable Packaging Issue. 

Callaway worked with Caraustar, a leader in recycled paperboard packaging solutions.  The company took Callaway's two piece box design - which is standard in the high end golf ball market and redesigned it to a one-piece box design.

Steven Mahler, Design Manager at Caraustar said the new design improved the overall efficiency of the packaging by reducing its weight by nearly 1oz.  The new design reduced the shipping carton and packaging materials by roughly 50%.  These savings translate into significant environmental and cost savings for Callaway.

Dell Reducing Laptop and Desktop Computer Packaging

I was pleasantly surprised to find the Dell Mini I recently purchased arrived in a 12 x 12 corrugated box with minimal additional packaging. The packaging was only slightly larger than the mini laptop itself.

The packaging I noticed is part of a larger initiative by Dell to restructure and reduce packaging for its laptop and desktop computers.

Over the next four years, these packaging improvements will reduce desktop and laptop packaging materials by approximately 10 percent worldwide, increase sustainable content in cushioning and corrugate packaging by 40 percent and ensure that 75 percent of packaging components are themselves curbside recyclable.

According to Dell the improvements will help save more than $8.1 million and eliminate 20 million pounds of packaging material, the equivalent of preserving more than 150,000 trees.

Newton Running Packaging Fits the Shoe

Colorado-based Newton Running is using packaging that is very simple and cost effective yet at the same time the packaging is highly functional and very chic.

Using molded paperboard packaging in the shape of their shoes Newton has created something unique in their packaging. The packaging not only reduces waste by eliminating the need for interior tissue paper and other material commonly used in shoe packaging but it also provides a shell that is easy to stack and transport.

The company worked with TDA Advertising and Design on this packaging design. Instead of using additional paper and materials the shoes are stuffed with a pair of socks and reusable shoe bag.

Newton's packaging reminds me of the egg carton style packaging Pangea Organics uses for its bar soaps.