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Dell Latest Company Featured with Packaging Gaffe

Readers of the popular web site The Consumerist know excessive packaging can be problem.  The site regularly runs stories based on reports from readers who order a product online and receive the item with excessive packaging.

The latest story features a reader who ordered a Kingston 2gb USB flash drive.  The drive arrived promptly from Dell in a box that seemed rather large for the item. 

From The Consumerist: "From the looks of David's package, Dell isn't close to honoring its promise to switch to alternative packaging within the next two months. This obscenely large box contained nothing more than a 2GB flash drive."

The fact consumers are reacting in a negative fashion to excessive shipping packaging is important to note.  It serves as an indicator as to how the issue of excessiveness is resonating with consumers.  Is it the fact that consumers react only in instances of egregious over packaging or are people becoming more and more aware of packaging and excessiveness in general?

Dell isn't alone, Amazon.com is another company whose excessive packaging issues are often featured on the Consumerist.

Gillette Fusion Excessive Packaging

Proctor & Gamble's Gillette Fusion razor received a dubious distinction when it was awarded the Golden Dump Award.  The Golden Dump Award is given annually by Environment Victoria the leading non-profit environmental organization in Australia's Victoria state.  The award recognizes a commonly available supermarket product with the most environmentally damaging packaging. 

Gillette Fusion is packaged in plastic, cardboard and paper and received the award for "gratuitous use of packaging."  Judges said the razor’s packaging “clearly demonstrates the unsustainable trend for encasing goods in far more packaging than is required to protect, efficiently transport and market the product’’.

The annual Dump awards expose the seven worst types of environmentally damaging packaging being sold on supermarket shelves.  DUMP is an acronym for Dangerous and Useless Materials in Packaging.  In addition to the Dump award Gillette Fusion also took home the Excessive Use of Material award.