The horse has probably bolted but it’s a concern that we have all become desensitised to the packaging scams that assault us every day. We readily accept cereal boxes that are twice as big as they should be; plunger container tubes which don’t go to the bottom of the container; chocolate wrappings which are insanely wasteful and myriad other examples.
All of these represent a wanton waste of resources, usually with a snowballing effect. For example if cereal boxes were the correct size for the contents many more could be fitted into their bulk boxes and into a truck load and so on and would require far less shop shelf space - with consequent saving of and more efficient utilisation of resources including transport and less pollution generally.
The sad thing is this is all done to deliberately fool us and I consider it just another form of lying.
I totally agree with you peterjr, it is as if they are treating the consumer like a total moron who only looks at the size of the package and buys the biggest!!
The sooner Consumers get behind businesses that choose less plastic and suitable packaging, the better. Thank you for sharing your post, it is a very important issue that concerns everyone, every day.
This seems to be how the grain based biscuits Weatbix, etc are packaged. No wasted space. Also many staples including oats, flour, bran products, sugar are available in soft packs with no added air. Some even come in a paper wrap.
We all need to ask if products that are mostly air (eg puffed rice, nutrigrain) or curly shapes that don’t pack well (eg cornflakes) deserve to be on our shopping list. Dubious health value a further point to consider.
One has to wonder why the manufacturers persist with this practice.
The bigger the pack, the more expensive the packaging and the shipping cartons are, and the less packages that will fit in their allocated section of expensice supermarket shelf space.
Christmas present… Received a largish (450g ) box of Cadbury’s Fruit & Nut Dark Chocolate DUO SHARE TRAY.
OK, the box got tipped around (trying to guess the present before unwrapping) so the contents commingled. That’s fine.
The next picture is what I saw on opening the box. Please note: that it is still sealed in the cellophane wrap.
All the contents are on one side, and that ½ is not overly full. None of the contents are sitting higher than the lip of the plastic tray.
Clearly deceptive and excessive packaging. Cadbury could reduce the box size by half and do the environment and consumers a favour.
Any more examples of commercial products with excessive &/or deceptive packaging??
I often get annoyed by totally over the top product packaging which serves no useful purpose. This happens frequently when I buy pharmaceutical products and medicines which are blister packed in plastic with a foil backing that could easily be placed in a small plastic bottle instead and which at least could be recycled.
What really riles me though is when I am forced to buy a box of individually wrapped items in a large box if I want that product and I no longer have the choice to buy them in a single bag inside the box. This has been the case for many months now with my favourite savoury biscuits, Nabisco Premium Original. They should not be called original because they used to be packaged normally and were about 50% larger. Now you can only buy the same sized box with 12 individual packs of 4 small biscuits. I guess the space saved by the reduced size is needed for the excessive foil-lined plastic. I have contacted company to complain about this but I don’t hold out much hope for change unless others are incensed enough to do likewise. I will also follow up with an email to Woolworths and Aldi who sell them
Perhaps Choice could offer a new Shonky for environmentally contemptuous packaging.
Thank you,
AndyO
Mt Martha Victoria
Perhaps origninally they sold it as a two-pack, or wanted the option of selling it as a two-pack? Can’t think of another reason they would waste that much space.
I just did a quick search on the net and not one pack had two bottles. So a classic case of how to make your product look so huge.
For a while now I’ve noticed a space in small packages which makes it look like it could have contained 2 items. Doesn’t seem to have any purpose other than make the package look bigger.
In this particular instance I’d say it’s shelf space related. The more facing a product or series of products have on the shelf the more noticable it is to customers. With a bit of extra cardboard they’ve double the space their product is getting, and tripled the amount of space they have for branding.
On the matter of meds which are blister packed: they strted doing this with medications which could be abused. It spread to other stuff later. But, any medication which could be used in an overdose you’ll find is blistr packed. The theory was that nobody could be bothered popping all those blisters just to OD.
eg, panadol will always be in a blister pack because an OD there will kill your liver and kidneys. Just an example.
Panadol Osteo caplets, (long shape), which contain 666mg of paracetamol are easy to extract out of the blister packs but Panadol tablets, (round shape), which contain 500mg of paracetamol are nigh on impossible to extract out of the blister packs.
The Panadol tablets cost $17.99 for a pack of 80 whilst the Panadol Osteo caplets cost only $7.49 for a pack of 96 at Chemist Warehouse,.almost 6 times the price per mg, so far cheaper and easier to OD on them.
However, for what it is worth, you now have to provide ID to buy Panadol Osteo and the pharmacist has to label the packs.
Maybe 3 times? Still a much better deal but a higher dose per two tablets.
I’m sure if we shop around there are better deals.
Woolies Essentials, 20 tablets of 500mg are just $0.70 a packet. That’s $2.80 for 80 tablets, or $4.20 for 120 tablets. Approx the same total paracetamol content as the 96 Osteo capsules mentioned for $7.49 at Chemist Warehouse.
Like all pills sold in boxes the contents are mostly air and packaging. Anyone remember when pills came in little glass bottles with half the bottle or more a large wad of cotton wool? No blister packs to wrestle.
I can remember when the Cairns Base Hospital pharmacists used to dispense pills in actual pill boxes, small round cardboard packs like a minature hat box.
I also remember watching a documentary on TV some years ago regarding the ice crisis in the US in which they showed piles of discarded plastic bottles which had contained pseudoephedrine tablets which had the bottoms sliced almost off with box cutters as it was quicker for the crimminals than actually opening the containers.
Panamax is cheaper again than panadol or store homebrands.
$2.49 for 100 x500mg tablets at chemist warehouse…
Osteomol™ is the generic version of the Panadol™ Osteo product. It is often the cheaper product even at Chemist Warehouses.
My aldactone, lasix, and colchicine still come like that (but plastic bottles). Also the Cenovis Magnesium and the bottle of Ostelin.
