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Amazon needs to do this with their regular shipments as well. They contain a lot of plastic insulation (air bags). Instead of throwing mine away, I've been savi

Amazon needs to do this with their regular shipments as well. They contain a lot of plastic insulation (air bags). Instead of throwing mine away, I've been saving it until it fills up a closet then I give it to a local UPS store to reuse. My closet fills up in about a month. It would be nice if Amazon had a formal program for this since you can't recycle them with your garbage company.

leokennis 9y ago
The problem is, if you want to cheaply ship cheap stuff quickly, you need to reduce costs. So no time to have your packers pick from 20 sizes of boxes; just toss everything in a huge box. No time to handle returns of broken shipments; just stuff those huge boxes with tons of air bags. No time to actually check what's in the boxes (towels or a vase) because you need to pack 200 boxes an hour to break even. If "we" want to stop trashing the world, first we need to show we are willing to pay for that.
- r00fus 9y ago
  > If "we" want to stop trashing the world, first we need to show we are willing to pay for that. This is the typical supply-side dodge. Consumers have little to no power here. I can't dictate to Amazon or major shipping companies (I do buy AMZN's frustration-free when I can). What option is there? Do you propose I compete with the packaging with my own offering?
  - abandonliberty 9y ago
    Wouldn't this paraphrase as "I have no power, so I will continue financially supporting them." ? Consumers blame suppliers, suppliers blame consumers. No one has to do anything. Long live the status quo! :)
    - r00fus 9y ago
      > suppliers blame consumers That's the dodge right there. Easy as a supplier to simply say "we provide what the consumer wants" to justify all business decisions. Courage, that is. This is normally where the government or watchdog organizations get involved - those have been gutted or defanged in the past few decades... by business interest group lobbying.
- pera 9y ago
  Maybe the boxes could be foldable, or easily and space-efficiently stackable.
jonknee 9y ago
The manufacturer has a program to recycle them: https://sealedair.com/product-care/recycling-bubble-wrap-plastic-paper-foam-packaging#airpillow https://sealedair.com/product-care/recycling-bubble-wrap-pla... You can also use Amazon boxes to donate used clothes and household items: http://givebackbox.com/amazon http://givebackbox.com/amazon
- chaostheory 9y ago
  givebackbox is cool. Took a look at sealedair's 'program'. I could be wrong, but it looks like it's just links to other organizations' directories of local recycling programs; most of which are retail stores. Here's why I don't trust retail stores (Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowes, Safeway, etc...): while they do a great job of marketing their 'recycling programs' most of what we put into their recycle bins just end up in their normal dumpsters which defeats the purpose.
  - jonknee 9y ago
    No, it says to send it back to them: > The deflated cells can be sent to any of a number of Sealed Air locations where they will be recycled back into LDPE If you're in the US, send them here: Ameri-Pak, Inc. Sealed Air Recycle Center 477 South Woods Dr. Fountain Inn, South Carolina 29644
    - chaostheory 9y ago
      That's not a good program... but it's better than nothing.
kevan 9y ago
They've been actively working on that for almost a decade [1]. Most (all?) cushioning in my packages is now heavy brown paper or plastic air bags, a significant improvement from the days of packing peanuts and bubble wrap. I'd like to see the air bags go away too. [1] https://www.amazon.com/p/feature/zhr3q9mgfqub33r https://www.amazon.com/p/feature/zhr3q9mgfqub33r
- chaostheory 9y ago
  Yeah I was refering to air bags.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - ams6110 9y ago
    I received an order of towels from Amazon in a too-large box, filled with air bags. For towels.
pera 9y ago
That's nice, I was not aware that UPS would take them. My local grocery store have a program for plastic bags, but reusing them is of course much more efficient.
- chaostheory 9y ago
  I could be wrong but lot of these shipping stores are franchises, so it probably depends on the owner.
jogjayr 9y ago
> then I give it to a local UPS store to reuse Nice one! I hadn't thought of this, but I'll start doing it now.
r00fus 9y ago
Not just Amazon... almost all delivery services (pharmacy, google shopping express, etc) The sole exception I found was amazingly, Safeway's grocery delivery service where the person showed up with a box, walked in, unloaded in my kitchen then took the box with him. Of course, you need to be present for that, but something equivalent for non-perishable delivery would be a huge sanity saver for me.
wdr1 9y ago
You can't recycle the air bags?

leokennis 9y ago

The problem is, if you want to cheaply ship cheap stuff quickly, you need to reduce costs. So no time to have your packers pick from 20 sizes of boxes; just toss everything in a huge box. No time to handle returns of broken shipments; just stuff those huge boxes with tons of air bags. No time to actually check what's in the boxes (towels or a vase) because you need to pack 200 boxes an hour to break even. If "we" want to stop trashing the world, first we need to show we are willing to pay for that.

r00fus 9y ago
> If "we" want to stop trashing the world, first we need to show we are willing to pay for that. This is the typical supply-side dodge. Consumers have little to no power here. I can't dictate to Amazon or major shipping companies (I do buy AMZN's frustration-free when I can). What option is there? Do you propose I compete with the packaging with my own offering?
- abandonliberty 9y ago
  Wouldn't this paraphrase as "I have no power, so I will continue financially supporting them." ? Consumers blame suppliers, suppliers blame consumers. No one has to do anything. Long live the status quo! :)
  - r00fus 9y ago
    > suppliers blame consumers That's the dodge right there. Easy as a supplier to simply say "we provide what the consumer wants" to justify all business decisions. Courage, that is. This is normally where the government or watchdog organizations get involved - those have been gutted or defanged in the past few decades... by business interest group lobbying.
pera 9y ago
Maybe the boxes could be foldable, or easily and space-efficiently stackable.

jonknee 9y ago

The manufacturer has a program to recycle them: https://sealedair.com/product-care/recycling-bubble-wrap-plastic-paper-foam-packaging#airpillow https://sealedair.com/product-care/recycling-bubble-wrap-pla... You can also use Amazon boxes to donate used clothes and household items: http://givebackbox.com/amazon http://givebackbox.com/amazon

chaostheory 9y ago
givebackbox is cool. Took a look at sealedair's 'program'. I could be wrong, but it looks like it's just links to other organizations' directories of local recycling programs; most of which are retail stores. Here's why I don't trust retail stores (Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowes, Safeway, etc...): while they do a great job of marketing their 'recycling programs' most of what we put into their recycle bins just end up in their normal dumpsters which defeats the purpose.
- jonknee 9y ago
  No, it says to send it back to them: > The deflated cells can be sent to any of a number of Sealed Air locations where they will be recycled back into LDPE If you're in the US, send them here: Ameri-Pak, Inc. Sealed Air Recycle Center 477 South Woods Dr. Fountain Inn, South Carolina 29644
  - chaostheory 9y ago
    That's not a good program... but it's better than nothing.

kevan 9y ago

They've been actively working on that for almost a decade [1]. Most (all?) cushioning in my packages is now heavy brown paper or plastic air bags, a significant improvement from the days of packing peanuts and bubble wrap. I'd like to see the air bags go away too. [1] https://www.amazon.com/p/feature/zhr3q9mgfqub33r https://www.amazon.com/p/feature/zhr3q9mgfqub33r

chaostheory 9y ago
Yeah I was refering to air bags.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- ams6110 9y ago
  I received an order of towels from Amazon in a too-large box, filled with air bags. For towels.

pera 9y ago

That's nice, I was not aware that UPS would take them. My local grocery store have a program for plastic bags, but reusing them is of course much more efficient.

chaostheory 9y ago
I could be wrong but lot of these shipping stores are franchises, so it probably depends on the owner.

jogjayr 9y ago

> then I give it to a local UPS store to reuse Nice one! I hadn't thought of this, but I'll start doing it now.

r00fus 9y ago

Not just Amazon... almost all delivery services (pharmacy, google shopping express, etc) The sole exception I found was amazingly, Safeway's grocery delivery service where the person showed up with a box, walked in, unloaded in my kitchen then took the box with him. Of course, you need to be present for that, but something equivalent for non-perishable delivery would be a huge sanity saver for me.

wdr1 9y ago

You can't recycle the air bags?