Landfill Gets More Stuff

This weekend, Ivy bought a new memory stick from her place of study. It was a very good offer, a gigabyte USB jobber for next to nothing.

But just look at the packaging that Sony have thoughtfully provided so that we can fill up the world's dumps with unnecessary plastic.

The memory stick is no more than an inch and a half in length; the plastic blister pack contained it and four pieces of paper. I know it's only a minor example, but I'm getting fed up with the sheer wastefulness of our throwaway society.

Does this make me a dreadful middle-class, middle-aged whinger? ("Yes", the entire population of Millbrook cries in unison).

Preachy bit: reuse is better than recycle, but we can't reuse a thick plastic blister pack that is moulded to a precise shape and has to be scissored open to get at the tiny gadget inside. It simply has to be sent to landfill for future generations to deal with. Now that's irresponsible, and we're all as guilty as each other. We need to start refusing to buy overpackaged items and writing to manufacturers and food producers / retailers telling them that we're refusing to buy overpackaged stuff. Perhaps then, slowly but surely, we'll see a change.

Other examples of ridiculous over packaging will be gratefully received and stuck out onto the interweb on this site. Please feel free to use the "comment" link below.