Gizmodo
There are few practices as stupid, simple and damaging to the environment as wasteful packing. Take a look at this ludicrous box that Dell used to send a 2GB thumb drive. It's about 100 times too big, and it's not just wasteful because of the cardboard used. I, for one, am sick of seeing crap like this.
Such idiotic shipping practices also waste space on trucks and planes, requiring more trips, therefore more fuel used and more pollution. And it's not like this is something that we haven't seen Dell do before. Think about it: how many thumbdrives could fit in a UPS truck in boxes like these? What about if they were in boxes that were sized more appropriately? There would be a huge difference. And with most online retailers shipping like this, it's a problem that could be easily solved.
Let's shame them into changing. Next time you receive a tiny object shipped in a gigantic box, snap a picture of it and send it to me. Nothing helps change harmful policies like a healthy dose of bad press. [Consumerist via Treehugger]
Comments
Where is Greenpeace on this issue with Dell's wasteful packaging? Too busy picketing Apple, since they are a better headline?
Misappropriation of resources...Bigger boxes means less boxes can fit on those UPS trucks and requires more trips hence using more gasoline. It is wastes like this that will plunge the world into resource wars as it becomes harder to satisfy world energy demands.
Haven't they heard of bubblewrap envelopes?
same thing for me when my wife ordered me my Kensington wifi detector
but the moving parts might have been damaged without as much air cushion!
The least they could have done was fill the box with styrofoam peanuts.
@ItsRabid: they only use those on servers...when securing your order matters...nothing protects a server like a few dozen bubbles.
Staples is just as bad. i received a single ink cartridge in a box large enough for david blaine to live in for a week. i complained multiple times, and now won't order from them.
it must be a slow news day...
[consumerist.com]
WTF, not only the packaging, but this thing took up space on a UPS truck or whatever to get to you - space that could have been used to transport something else that now requires shipment on a different truck further increasing air pollution. If we are talking cumulatively, this is a big impact.
this is the opposite of Fat Guy In A Little Coat.
You should see the packaging that accompanies what is needed for university research -- regardless of what it is. This stuff is so dense and tough it's never going away.
This is a sign of an extremely inefficient company employing some real morons.
The guy who packed this didn't notice the box was way too big.
The packer's manager didn't notice either.
The regional manager didn't realize he could save the company money by using smaller packages.
The global management doesn't seem to realize that they are not only damaging the environment, but they are wasting their own money on excess packaging.
And what about the fuel/transportation costs? Dell dumps those on the consumer.
Great company.
@MrBlahBlah: That's what I thought. Those tiny drive heads could've scratched the tiny platters if it weren't for the proper insulation.
dell is not the only one. newegg does that alot too. buying harddrives or memory returns a box big enough to fit my atx case in.
Dell's not alone in this. I don't know if anyone else is a customer of Big Al's Aquarium supplies, but if you order something small and relatively durable, like a plastic pin for a canister filter, they have this bad habit of sending it to you in a big ass box with lots of packaging peanuts, when all it needed was a tiny box or even a padded envelope.
However, why in the name of Satan's ass hair didn't Dell just ship it in the same box they ship RAM in?
I thought earth day was tomorrow.
@Totorototoro:
It's what they do best....
You guys should send this photo to Dell and ask him to explain himself!
I got the same sized box for the new slim apple keyboard i thought that was bad, but this is worse.
Look, I know its vogue to join GreenPeace and moan about wasteful packaging practices, but isn't this a bit ridiculous?
That bigger box can be RECYCLED to ship something bigger later on. Just collapse the box, put it behind a couch or under the mattress, and use it when you have to move, or you sell something on eBay.
Recycling 101.
Well, figure there's a minimum package size based upon the shipping label needing to be readable.
Why aren't you going after all of these companies that produce vacum-plastic sealed packages? That thumbdrive can go in a much smaller package (including the manuals) and save even more space needed to ship to a retailer/warehouse/in container ships/planes that use way more oil than a shipping truck does.
There are all kinds of places in which waste can be covered. However you're likely going to have to pay for them. Sounds silly right?
the earth will end one day...can't evade the inevitable
@Noobs-R-Us: I don't think Michael Dell micromanages like that.
taoprophet, on the other hand, can easily take it up with Steve Jobs secure in the knowledge that some peasant in China, where Apple ships all of their merch bought through the website from, will get reamed.
@Kaiser-Machead: Probably because ram is pre-boxed for shipping from their supplier. Much cheaper to pay slave, er I mean chinese labor to build boxes/fill them than it is to pay americans to do it. In fact your ram shipment may be directly sourced from China and flown to you. Where as the USB drive is already packaged from another manufacturer and isn't a bulk item.
Basically, the difference between white box and bulk items via Newegg.
I am delighted to announce that no wasteful shipping practices were employed in the delivery of this comment.
It only looks too big because you took the packing slips out.
Last month I bought six items (5 books and a DS game) from Amazon. They shipped out to me on the same day in 5 boxes. 4 of the boxes shipped from the same place. Each was overly large for the contents it contained, they all could have fit in one box. I understand that sometimes they ship from multiple locations, but seriously this was ridiculous.
Actually taking a steaming dump in the environment is help full.
(For those who cant comprehend, this was a joke, I have been seeing lately people don't get jokes)
I used to work in a large retailer in the UK and this sorta stuff used to happen all the time. They would often put a single game in one of these boxes and send about 3 huge boxes 5 games on one occasion.
This is why I'm a techlocavore, always buying my gadgets from the local gadgeter's market or walking down to the metal-shops of Brooklyn to purchase from the gadget merchant's factory-farm personally.
On nice weekends, my wife and I will even go out to the industrially-zoned areas to harvest our USB-ports ourselves.
Think Green everyone!
btw, slow news day, eh?
@Kaiser-Machead: Is it Big gay Al's Big Gay aquarium supplies?
@92BuickLeSabre: You and me need to get together. Brooklyn represent.
This is a bit hypocritical. What's the BEST way to avoid tiny things being shipped in large boxes. Fruc, go to your local tech store and just buy the friggin thing there and save ANY size box and wasteful cardboard that would result from shipping.
I'm just sayin...
@92BuickLeSabre: EXACTLY!
so instead of walking down the street, or taking a short drive (or ideally take the public transportation), the person who bought this ordered it through a company which by virtual definition would require this product to go through all sorts of shipping which would eat up gas and destroy the ozone even more. meanwhile, there are plenty of 2 gig cards that come in every shape and size.
dell shouldnt have shipped it the way they did, but buying it this way was also kind of careless.
As someone who works in automated distribution I'll say that it would end up bumping the costs drastically as you would have to have more box selections and slow down the shipping process. Plus most big companies use automated conveyors that have minimal box sizes, which means manual processing. Most people already constantly complain about high shipping costs and slow turn around, are you willing to pay more and have it take longer to minimize this?
@ damnElantra
huh, I've never had newegg ship me some this large for something so small. Just ordered a HDD yesterday, and it came in a nice and tiny box
The big thing is cost. Always is. It costs Dell, et. al., more to buy multiple sized boxes to ship from a single plant or warehouse than it does to ship the larger ones, or in many cases, even more than it would cost to defend from some wack-job group like Greenpeace.
"Follow the money, honey."
@Sh3rpa: NewEgg gets everything pre-boxed from their suppliers. They don't even open the boxes.
All this talk makes me want a big mac in the styrofoam container... (and everything else Dennis Leary said in that song)... it especially makes me want to park in handicapped spaces while handicapped people make handicapped faces.
well, this is a shame! such a giant box only to send a freaking USB stick? Why the fuck they don´t learn from other companies, like Apple, that sends their products in packages as small as the product itself? Oh sh*t, this is stupid!
I'm waiting for Steve Jobs (Fake or Real) to make a nice joke about Dell (company + Michael Dell) and then explain how Apple packaging is the most eco-friendly and takes up the volume of said item.
I have a better idea. Lets shame Best Buy etc. into not selling a 2gb thumbdrive for $80 so I don't have to mail order just one at a time.
I experienced the same thing when I ordered a small Dell laptop sleeve (the really skinny one that hugs your laptop). It came in a box that could have carried at least 20 of those, PLUS it was stuffed full of packing paper.
Uh... it's not a breakable item, and seriously, I could have fit two full desktop computer towers in that box... with packing paper to boot.
@Samifumi: "That bigger box can be RECYCLED to ship something bigger later on. Just collapse the box, put it behind a couch or under the mattress, and use it when you have to move, or you sell something on eBay."
Better yet, braise it in a quart of chicken stock for about 2 hours or until tender, crisp under the broiler, and then serve with a lovely béchamel sauce and pickled fugu... deeelish!
Alternatively, it could be made into the perfect Mr. Wasteful Box Halloween costume, or if you had 10,000 more big wasteful boxes, you could create an enormous wasteful model of an integrated circuit from the 1970s!
So.... Samifumi, you have a point. If only every company could send their tiny little products in unnecessarily large boxes, think of all the wonderful things we could make and eat of them.
I ordered a microSDHC card from Dell a few weeks back and they shipped it in quite a small box maybe a couple of inches bigger than the outside width/length of the blister pack. They used a bit of crushed paper as padding. I'd prefer that to padded envelopes that can't be easily recycled. I looked for the card locally but no luck.
I remember an ex-co-worker who worked for NBC in NYC at one time. He told me that his office would actually call FedEx to deliver a package from floor X to floor Y in the SAME building without bothering to figure that out. How's that for waste?
@Sh3rpa: were you getting your shipments from. every time they come from rowland heights ca i get massive boxes
well, this unforgivable! i can´t even believe it...a whole box fot a crappy usb stick, please, copy from apple packages...
No no no, I think their is a miss understand.. you buy a BOX and you get a free USB key.
USB key are no fun, boxes are! Yaaaaaayyy boxes! hihihi.