Waste of Packaging

Everywhere you look there's excess and unnecessary packaging. I order some socks via Groupon a little while back and they came in a massive box!  And every time I go to Costco I shake my head. Why do manufacturers insist upon all this extra cardboard and plastic to wrap their products in?

Actually, that reminds me of a quote from Ascension, a TV show about a whole bunch of people who thought they were in a space ship headed to a possible new earth, but really they're were just in a fake space ship still on earth and it was a big social experiment. Anyway, one of the guys from inside the experiment managed to get outside and ended up at a convenience store for stuff. Once he'd bought the stuff he asked why everything was cocooned in plastic!  Ironically that line was the best line of the whole show. 

I think it would be awesome if manufacturers tried to figure out ways to pack their products in anything other than plastic. And stopped packing their product, which is already in a container, inside yet another container!  One layer is enough!

And Costco should implement a policy whereby extra packaging isn't allowed. For example, if the item is $9.99 for 5 items packed together, then force the customer to pick up 5 items. And if they want less than 5 items, fine, but it's still $9.99!  Actually, come to think of it, I bet some customers would be okay paying the same price for less because it might still be cheaper than elsewhere and won't cause them to waste stuff. Or ... for every item under the limit Costco donates it to charity. So if you only want 3 of the 5, 2 get donated to charity. Everyone still makes the same amount of money, but there's less waste. 

I should write a letter to Costco!