I promised you the story and the pictures of opening the packaging of a new toy for Landon. Don bought him this noisy backhoe that came in the most ridiculous packaging I have ever seen. It was tied down by tiny screws, of all things, and it took us 10 minutes to open it! We were fuming and poor Landon had to be so patient. After we finally got it open, I took care of the noise by taking out the batteries right away, there was no way I was going to have Landon’s ears assaulted by the loud noise.
I tried to find some numbers about packaging-related accidents in the United stated, but I didn’t find much information, only this: according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, injuries from plastic packaging resulted in 6,400 visits to emergency rooms in 2004. I wonder how many children have to go to the hospital after swallowing a part of needless packaging material?
What is the reasoning behind all the crazy packaging of toys nowadays? I understand that companies might want to put a tie around a car so no one can take it out of the box easily and steal it, but to use screw to hold something in place? Why would a company decide to use small screws that a child can swallow and choke on so easily? It was actually kind of difficult to keep count of all those screws.
There was so much packaging material left after we finally extracted the backhoe, it made me sick. I had a good mind to pack it all up and send it back to the company who made this toy, but I didn’t want to waste more resources. In Germany you can leave any packaging you don’t want at the store, and the store has to deal with it. As a result, stores have put pressure on companies to be more green and resourceful and refuse to stock certain items that come with too much packaging. So the companies have become really great about developing minimal packaging from recycled material.
I don’t see that trend to pressure companies to be more eco-friendly here in America. It seems to me that I buy more air than anything else in recent years, especially when it comes to chips and creams, etc. Here “bigger is better” seems to still be the mindset. Your thoughts? What can we all do to avoid this waste? I’ll share my thoughts about that in a future article.
I just found this, Amazon.com promisses frustration-free packaging!
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the great post and for bringing attention to this problem! Several excellent reasons have already been given for the excessive packaging, especially the long overseas transport that most toys must endure. I sell children’s toys in my store and the majority of them are completely unpackaged. How is this possible? Nearly all of them are made in the USA by small manufacturers who are committed to reducing the eco-footprint of their products. For the few toys that ARE packaged the packaging consists of recycled Kraft paper, biodegradable cellulose bags, recycled/recyclable plastic shrinkwrap, and/or recycled/recyclable cardboard (note the trend here?).
This is another perfect example of how you can VOTE with your dollars. If you want less packaging in your children’s products, then please choose to buy US-made, organic/natural toys from small manufacturers. They need your support more than ever!
I love this post b/c this drives me crazy!!!! It is seriously ridiculous…it’s one thing to secure the toy, it’s another when it takes 4 grown adults 20 minutes to get the thing even remotely free of the packaging.
Thanks for sharing!
I don’t agree, I don’t just drive to the store for one toy, I pick it up when I am out already, so there is no more gas used. Also, very often people have to send items back because they did not see them when they bought them on-line, so more resources get wasted!
I think one or two ties would hold a toy in place enough for a drop test and so they don’t get stolen, why are screws needed? What about the choking hazard?
One more reason not to buy toys from outside of America, if they have to be shipped and transported great distances and use up precious resources during the transport.
This really does get my goat – I can’t stand all the twisty ties and screwed-in stuff. I don’t get it, unnecessary and certainly can’t be cost effective for manufacturers!
Terracycle.com has an interesting program where they use old packaging to package new products to sell. They don’t seem to use toy packaging, but they should! It is such a waste. They use mostly food packaging.
I really love your site. I saw your ticker on the bottom that says how long you’ve been breastfeeding, oh my goodness – congratulations, that is wonderful! I don’t know if I will last quite that long (my daughter’s just 5 months now), but it’s always wonderful to meet extended breastfeeders.
I found you at MBC 100 club.
Toy packaging comes in for a lot of criticism, but it has to do a lot of work! Most toys are made in China, so it has to protect the toys through a long distribution chain, and at the end has to be put on a shelf and attract attention. Then it has to be secure enough that people can’t rip open the pack and steal the toys. There are a lot of rules governing toy packaging, one of which is the need to pass a ‘drop test’, because the really important thing is to make sure that there are no pieces broken off the toy that the child can choke on. If products have to be thrown away because they arrive broken, that’s anti-green because it increases overall waste.
The Amazon packaging is interesting, Amazon have appreciated that they don’t have to attract buyers with the packaging, because it’s on-line, so they can reduce costs by buying products unpacked, ship them over in smaller containers and re-pack. It gives them a great gimmick, while probably saving costs too.
I think that on-line shopping is probably greener than going to the shops yourself. Think about it, you don’t need to spend energy driving to the store and getting your purchases home, it comes to you, and the truck can make several deliveries in one journey.
I don’t often buy things from the Internet, which I guess is more green because it eliminates the mail packaging and gas etc. to get it to me, but that is such a great tip! I will also leave a message from now on to avoid packaging. Thanks :)
I understand that at Christmas through Amazon.com you could order all the Fisher Price toys to come packaging free. I couldn’t do it up here in Canada, but I read other USA Moms who thought it was fantastic!
I hope he loved the truck.
Dagmar,
Good post. I hate all that packaging too. Especially the hard plastic clamshells. They are impossible to open. When I order online (because the eco-friendly toys made by good artists aren’t sold at Toys ‘R Us) I put a message in the message box that asks them to use as little plastic packing material and packaging as possible. Most eco-friendly companies are doing this anyway. For a list of awesome online toys stores go to http://saras-toy-box.blogspot.com/