One target of the environmentally-aware is superfluous packaging. How many of you have come home after a long day of work to find a refrigerator-sized box on your front porch – and the only thing you can remember ordering was an MP3 player advertised to fit in the coin pocket of your Levi’s?
treehugger.co, even held a Waste Packaging contest to raise awareness of the problem.
While reporting for a recent article, I stumbled upon some of the most Spartan packaging I’ve ever encountered.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints encourages Mormons to stockpile non-perishable food sealed to last up to 30 years. The food at a church-owned warehouse in Mukilteo is shipped by trucks from a facility in eastern Oregon. Once in Mukilteo, Mormons purchase 25-pound bags of flour, sugar, wheat and other products. They can choose to either just take the large bags home, or seal the food in large cans for long-term storage.
The cans are plain, labeled only with a sticker identifying the contents.
Even the 25-pound bags are simply labeled, with minimal distractions. There is very little printed on the bags, meaning that potentially toxic dyes and printing ink is kept to a minimum. None of the cans are wrapped in labels common to what’s found in grocery stores. Mormons can choose a plastic lid that can be moved from one can to the next as each container is opened.
No fancy outer boxes with bags of sugar or cornmeal inside. The amounts are large, so countless small containers are unnecessary.
The recycling and trash bins of Mormons who use the church-owned warehouse aren’t cluttered by much from their pantries.
What do you do to avoid superfluous packaging? Do you avoid companies that use extra-large shipping containers for extra-small items? I’ve looked for some sort of clearinghouse listing that would provide information on how different companies package their goods for shipping, but I haven’t found one.
If you know of such a listing, email me or comment below.
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