This is an interesting article about excess packaging of entertainment and electric goods. Having been through a couple of birthdays already, it seems that the idea of heavy-duty plastic ties to hold toys in their boxes is here to stay.
Wired points out that it's there to stop theft, but I thought that's what the door scanners were for, or the plain-clothes store detectives, or the RFID tags.
The real point, though, is that manufactures deem it acceptable to package up their goods in cardboard, clear plastic and plastic ties. In some cases I've seen those plastic ties actually screwed into the packaging. Of course, the only way for consumers to send a message to manufacturers is to stop buying them, but shop big companies be that deaf to their customers?
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Well, I never thought I'd say something like this, but all bar one of our son's Christmas presents were in packaging that was fully recyclable (that item was particularly bad as not only was there a lot of polystyrene, but it also says that you shouldn't use rechargable batteries... we're ignoring that!)
It seems that more manufacturers are catching on that we now want to see less packaging and anything that needs to be there should be biodegradeable. Cardboard was definitely the preferred material, which we're really pleased about (even our wrapping paper was OK as I made a point of having decent recycled paper, which our son decorated with string and paint).
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