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Part of me hearts web shopping. Sometimes, it's super eco, what with e-cards, downloadable music, and the like. That said, part of me hates web shopping. The reason: Most of the stuff I get arrives with lots and lots of plastic packaging.
Take, for example, the Get Green Starter Kit I got last week. Along with my Kit, I got two brand new plastic-padded Fed-Ex pouches, a huge box, and a whole bunch of bubble wrap.
That's A LOT of plastic packaging to deliver a green product -- especially one that's intended to reduce packaging!. Get Green Starter Kit's main difference from most of the green cleaning products out there: Instead of pre-made cleaners, the kit gives you the ingredients for making your own cleaners. The main idea's that you'll end up buying less stuff and saving money. The other idea is that one will continue to reuse the bottles to make more DIY cleaners -- thus reducing packaging.
I'll have to reuse this stuff A LOT to make up for all the packaging they sent me. That said, maybe I shouldn't stress so much. According to the description, "The Get Clean Starter Kit helps eliminate more than 100 pounds of packaging waste from landfills and also eliminates 248 pounds of greenhouse gases from the air — that's the environmental equivalent to planting 10 trees." In the end, I guess I'll come out ahead. Maybe 98 lbs ahead, since the packaging I got has to weight at least a couple lbs --
Excess packaging's really starting to piss enviros off. Beth at Fake Plastic Fish has actually started sending her packaging back! She sent back the styrofoam peanuts she got from organic cheddar from Loleta Cheese Factory -- and actually got a nice lil note in return, as well as a refund for her shipping costs.
I'm not sure I have the time and energy to write individual notes, repackage boxes, and tote everything to the post office to send back; that'd be a part time job in itself. (I get a lot of samples from companies who want me to review stuff). But what I noticed 'bout what Beth does is that when she made the order, she'd specifically requested no excess packaging.
Now that, I can definitely do. Most web orders have a "comments" or "special requests" or "notes" section -- so in the future, I'll use that to ask for reduced packaging --
A couple tips for reducing packaging in your life: bpt of Money Changes Things shows you how to reuse paper bags for microwave popcorn, instead of buying the overpackaged one-use stuff (which, BTW, has now been linked to lung disease). The Mom at Mom's in the Kitchen shuns instant oatmeal for being overpackaged, overpriced, and overprocessed, and gives you a nice recipe for making old fashioned oatmeal.
I haven't tried out the Get Green Starter Kit yet, so I'll report back once I do -- and I'll try to reuse the bubble wrap for the holiday gifts I still need to mail out --
