A Greener Delivery
Photo by csb13, under a Creative Commons license
Sometimes we can’t help but order something online, especially when we can’t get something we need in a nearby bricks-and-mortar store. But rather than encourage excessive waste and nonbiodegradable, polluting packing materials such as styrofoam peanuts—plus your inclusion on catalog and junk-mail lists—you can make yourself heard by including a note with your online order. (This way, you can also tell if the company actually pays attention to its customers, and, thus, if it’s deserving of your moola.)
Here’s my standard patter—feel free to gank or edit for your own purpose:
Please use minimal and recycled packaging. Kindly do not include any catalogs, inserts, flyers, shrinkwrap, bubble wrap, packing confetti, plastic “pillows,” or styrofoam peanuts. (You can use crumpled up newspaper if padding is necessary.) Please do not include me in any mailing lists or exchange lists you may have. Thank you!
Similarly, we trained our Chinese takeout place not to bring us the ancillary paper napkins, plastic flatware, fortune cookies, and little baggies of sauce. Sure, it took several phone calls of stressing “Just the food! Just the food!” for our takeout guy to cart our meals to us in a box, which he takes back—no plastic or paper bags with stapled menus, thanks!—but now we have it worked out to a science. (We also make an effort to dine at the actual restaurant when we’re not dead-dog-tired, so we don’t even have to deal with leftover plastic containers.)
Katherine said,
June 6, 2007 at 9:53 am
That’s a really great idea! Thanks for sharing that. I suppose it wouldn’t really work with some place like Amazon, but perhaps it’s still worth trying.
Blake said,
June 6, 2007 at 7:45 pm
That is a great Idea, I liked the take out suggestion, and I bet restaurant owners would appreciate not shelling out so much money on wasted utensils and napkins as well, if the idea became more commonplace.
Tip: Minimal Packaging Please « Confessions of a Closet Environmentalist said,
July 23, 2007 at 3:00 am
[...] So I just discovered The Worsted Witch blog, and digging through the archives found this really great suggestion I just had to share here. If you shop online but are frustrated by all the unnecessary bubble wrap and evil Styrofoam peanuts they stuff with your package and almost certain flood of catalogs and junk mail to follow, here is what to do. When you placing your online order, you can leave a note saying something like this: [...]
How to Reduce Packaging Waste » Free from Plastic said,
August 9, 2007 at 12:30 am
[...] If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!My friend wrote to say that she ordered a steel container online to keep from using so much plastic. She received the small item in a gigantic box. The item was wrapped in hard plastic and then a warranty tag was inside the bottle inside a plastic baggie. Ack! The subject of reducing packaging waste was on my mind when I stumbled across this sustainable living blog and what it says on the subject: Sometimes we can’t help but order something online, especially when we can’t get something we need in a nearby bricks-and-mortar store. But rather than encourage excessive waste and nonbiodegradable, polluting packing materials such as styrofoam peanuts—plus your inclusion on catalog and junk-mail lists—you can make yourself heard by including a note with your online order. [...]
One Size Fits All :: Favorite Posts at The Worsted Witch :: August :: 2007 said,
August 24, 2007 at 11:35 am
[...] * A Greener Delivery - “Sometimes we can’t help but order something online, especially when we can’t get something we need in a nearby bricks-and-mortar store. But rather than encourage excessive waste and nonbiodegradable, polluting packing materials such as styrofoam peanuts—plus your inclusion on catalog and junk-mail lists—you can make yourself heard by including a note with your online order” [...]