Over Packaging Waste

Over packing waste has always rubbed me the wrong way. We see this often in Alaska as almost everything arrives here in a box. I suppose this could be said about every place in the United States and perhaps even the world, but for us, once these boxes with all their packaging arrive in Alaska they stay here with little hope of being recycled. Recycling places in Alaska are few and very far between. In most villages there is nowhere but the local landfill for these items. These landfills get buried and become part of the permafrost ground forever frozen without even the hint of being able to decompose. Some folks will burn the cardboard but that is another topic for another day.

This box is large enough for 10 of these textbooks.

Companies that are in the business of shipping supplies and goods are trying to reduce the waste created by over packing, which has financial implications along with the conservation of our earth’s valuable resources. Sometimes these companies get it right and sometimes they drop the ball at the 10 yard line.

A smarter way to package and ship a textbook.

My newest crusade at work is to educate the textbook publishing companies that they have a consistency problem. Six textbooks, for instructors to review, arrived the other day; two of them were packaged in a sensible manner while the other four were wastefully packaged. When I notified the publishing company sales representative she was receptive to my email and said she will bring it to her shipping manager’s attention. 

Here’s hoping that they can become more consistent in the wise ways of packaging, for their bottom dollar, the students bottom line, and for all of the resources that we want to pass along to the future generations.