Amy’s Gripping Commentary

I wrote this almost a month ago and never finished it:

Note to Amazon: did you REALLY need that much packaging for a kitchen utensil?

And then this week we received:

We actually received an empty computer tower in its own box, which was then packed in this giant box with all that paper, but this approximates the size of the contents. Why can’t Amazon slap a label on the box the product already came in?! There’s no need for a second box big enough to mail my collie. (She wouldn’t pose, btw.)

Then I tried to recycle the giant box. It’s too big to put in our curbside container (95 gallons!) without a lot of boxcutting, so I flattened it and stopped by the public dropoff:

Alas, no room at the inn. At first I was mad at my fellow citizens for leaving all the extra boxes outside the full bins (and note the extra bags in the background at the green glass/plastic/metal recycling bins), causing them to become trash, but then I realized that some people are actually trying to recycle and this stupid city just can’t get its act together to allow us to do it. I can’t tell you how many times I have made multiple trips to this dropoff site because it was full. That’s why I now PAY for curbside recycling.

Back to Amazon. I’ve mentioned this problem before. Not that I expect anyone to read all of these, but if you’re interested, others have my same complaint and similar pictures:

http://www.adamreeve.com/2007/09/14/amazon-packaging-is-nuts/

http://gruntdoc.com/2008/03/great-moments-in-amazon-packaging.html

http://www.goodexperience.com/tib/archives/2007/04/amazon_packagin.html

http://www.amazon.com/gp/forum/cd/discussion.html?ie=UTF8&cdForum=Fx20DX5GEB7TUX8&cdThread=Tx3BW1ZDW8NRT69

http://www.mattazuma.com/2008/11/amazon-packaging-excesses.html

http://blogs.forbes.com/digitaldownload/2008/09/amazon-packagin.html

http://pinstripebindi.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/amazon-packaging-fail/

http://getsatisfaction.com/amazon/topics/why_does_amazon_use_so_much_packaging

http://www.sustainableisgood.com/blog/2008/08/amazon2.html

But wait! Is there hope?
http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/11/20/amazon-debuts-frustration-free-packaging/

I guess our computer case and strainer are not among the 19 whole products that don’t get double-boxed.