5 ms·
I think there are two opportunities for the environmental effects of the air cushions. 1) Re-use rather than recycle: What if you could let the air out at home
by pedalpete 10y ago
I think there are two opportunities for the environmental effects of the air cushions.
1) Re-use rather than recycle: What if you could let the air out at home, open up the bag, stuff it with other bags, and the outside of the bag had a postage paid stamp. It goes back to the company that made the bag so it can be re-used.
2) Make them out of compostable plastic. Much simpler than above, probably the better way.
The key is that these air cushions don't need to last (likely) more than a few days. What can we do so that they have as little impact as possible.
They may be better than the packing peanuts or other substitutes, but there is still opportunity to improve.
- briandear 10y agoMailing bags back? What's the transit cost of doing that?
- test1235 10y agoor the environmental cost of shipping them all around
- ekzy 10y agoThey should just ship with reusable boxes. Better boxes with inner protections, where you would get some kind of credit if you post/bring it back empty, or reuse for personal mail. Maybe we should only be allowed to send packages with these boxes
- uxp 10y agoReminds me of a European grocery store. As an American, I was confounded to see a lack of bags at nearly any store I visited that wasnt a tourist gift shop my first time I ventured across the Atlantic. Then it started to make more sense than the garbage-cycle we have over here.
- lucaspiller 10y agoIn most EU countries you need to pay for plastic* bags now, so they often aren't on display to make sure people pay - you just need to ask the cashier. *And a lot have starch bags, which break if you try and put more than two milk bottles in or anything sharp.
- rtpg 10y agoConsidering transport costs, I don't know how viable that would be. Picking up boxes for recycling from houses alone would make for a pretty big carbon footprint. Not to mention costly. The current box strategy might be more carbon-friendly, oversll
- _coldfire 10y agoYou say recycling but I think you mean re-use. The energy costs involved in recycling are not trivial and someone still needs to "pick it up from every house". Its is almost always preferable carbon-wise to re-use, especially in metropolitan areas where pickup is trivial and could easily be performed on the next delivery. A small security deposit would cover the costs, or just keep them if you want some storage boxes.
- abalone 10y agoThe compostable idea is so much better than mailing them back because of the transport cost. In fact compostable air cushions exist: http://www.fpintl.com/biodegradable_packaging_cello_bubble_wrap.aspx http://www.fpintl.com/biodegradable_packaging_cello_bubble_w...
- userbinator 10y agoExcept that biodegradable packaging means the manufacturer needs to continue producing (and distributing) it, which incurs its own cost.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- abalone 10y agoReturned air cushions would presumably be popped for recycling purposes only, so no, they would not be reusable.
- awqrre 10y agoI re-use mine when I sell stuff on ebay, etc.. (I also re-use boxes and other stuffing supplies).