Packaging

Packaging makes up about 30% of consumer waste. Over the past month I think it has been accounting for 75% of our waste though. With the holidays there are all those boxes and wrapping paper, the shipping boxes, the peanuts, plastic wrap, and who knows what else. The other day we received in the mail a replacement bulb for our happy lamp because the first one arrived broken. Take a look at the amount of packaging that it took to get this one bulb to us. What we wanted (the bulb) is the thing on the far right and the rest of the stuff is what it took to get there.

But not all packaging is created equal. This product came from Gaiam an environmental conscious store. So the box is reused, the peanuts are made from vegetables and can be composted or disolved, and they have thought through everything else too. Check out the little piece of paper they give you to explain it all (yes I know that creates more waste but education is some times worth the extra waste). Click on the picture to make it bigger if you can't read it.

We decided to dissolve our peanuts instead of feeding them to our worms (they already have too much food). It was pretty cool. Check out the before and after.

Before
After (which went down the drain)There really are some cool ways to recycle out there that does make a difference. If you want to know more about where all this stuff comes from and goes check out the Story of Stuff at http://www.storyofstuff.com/