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Crest Whitestrips

Got yellow teeth? LIke silly plastic boxes?

If you said 'yes' to either of these then Crest Whitestrips are for you!

   

 

Trident Splash

In the fast moving and exciting world of chewing gum Trident are the new kids on the block.

To make a 'splash' they focused on making bigger packaging than Orbit/Wrigley's first, then better gum second. Today's demanding consumer won't put up with his chewing gum sharing a package with other bits of chewing gum, no, each piece should have it's own packet, you know they must be good if they need their own individual packet!

   

 

 

Fast Food

This delightful mess comes from three meals, McDonalds, KFC and Burger King. You could say that the stuff in the wasteful packaging is itself a waste product, but that's just my opinion (I had to say it's just my opinion and not fact incase Ronald gets Mclible on my ass!) .
   

 

Royal Mail Special Delivery

Upon receiving a shiny silver parcel the post I was excited, what could it be, did I order something groovy of the interweb? Is it a present from someone??

Err no, it turns out to be a big box with some more silver cardboard inside, some bits of card with companies pretending they like Royal mail to get in the mailshot and a letter telling me about how good Special Delivery is. Seems as through Royal Mail thinks as it doesn't have to pay for it's own mailshots it may as well make them as big heavy and wasteful as possible.

They also sent me a separate letter on the same day with some jibba jabba about them modernising, do I care? Naturally I put it in with the recycling, apart form the envelope which can't be recycled due to a plastic window

recycle your ink cartridges

Orbit Complete

In a bid to catch up with Trident Chewing Gum, Wrigley have decided to package their Orbit chewing gum in a large plastic/foil tray with a cardboard outer box. New packaging same @?~# inside!

We have featured Wrigley Airwaves on the site before and contacted Wrigley who said the packaging was under review.... right.

See Wrigley's response

   

 

Amazon

Amazon ipod Perhaps Amazon didn't anticipate how small the new iPod Nano would be, or perhaps they just wanted to get half of the Amazon rainforest sent with it, who knows.
   

 

 

Air Wick

Air wick air polluter Now after choking on your Air Wick air 'freshener' you can help clog up the landfills! Unnecessary cardboard inserts and even plastic ones thrown in for good measure.
 

Submitted by Patrick W

 

Screwfix

Screwed but not fixed The white box contains a single switch socket (9cm by 9cm), the box it came in is roughly 55cm long by 35cm wide by 25cm deep!

The funny thing is, the packaging actually cost more than the socket! £4 for the socket and another £6 for the extra litter, thanks very much Screwfix.

   

 

 

Canon ink cartridge

canon_ink-Cartridge The small grey object you can see in the middle of the picture is an ink cartridge, most of the rest of the stuff you see is waste. The cartridge comes in a small sealed plastic pouch, which is in a box with various papers. This is then packaged in an entirely unnecessary plastic container which is virtually impossible to open.

My advice is to buy a non Canon branded recycled cartridge, they usually just come with the plastic pouch and a box the same size as the cartridge.

   

 

Carte Noire

Carte Noire
This is a Kraft Coffee Brand - like Kenco and Maxwell House. The outer lid clips over the inner screwcap. It performs no function. It is purely cosmetic. It weighs 15gm - so for every million jars sold, 15 tons of polypropylene are wasted.
 
How many million jars do they sell per annum?

   

 

Flake Easter Egg

Flake Easter egg

Easter Eggs have to be one the most overpackaged products you can buy. This egg from Cadbury comes in a huge box, the egg is then suspended in a plastic frame, then of course wrapped again in foil. Nothing wrong with foil to keep it fresh but there is no need for such a huge box and then plastic to hold the egg near the window of the box.

Oh and don't forget those flakes which are wrapped also come in an entirely pointless extra box.

If you want to see a properly packaged Easter egg have a look at this Burnt Sugar Easter egg.

   

 

     

Cadbury Snaps

Cadbury_Snaps_Mint Cadbury's snaps are small chocolates shaped a bit like Pringles. When you open up the packet you will be disappointed to find that the Snaps aren't quite a big as a Pringle like you expected, this is because they needed to make room for all of the packaging of course! Cardboard box, silver wrapper, then a nice big bit of plastic to make sure you don't get too many of them and leave a nice pile of rubbish behind you.

They do taste nice though.

   

 

Amazon

A Stanley Knife and one huge box from Amazon A product the size of a credit card in a box measuring 30cm x 38cm x 25cm. To Amazon's credit they do use recycled cardboard for their packaging, but what's the point when they massively overpackage their products to this extent?
 

Submitted by Josh Rendell

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Marks and Spencer Shirt

this is not just any overpackaging, this is M&S overpackaging
One nice Marks & Spencer shirt, complete with 12 items of packaging:
 
One clear plastic outer wrapper
 
One card collar supporter
 
One clear plastic collar supporter
 
One rectangular card shirt supporter
 
One rectangular sheet of tissue
 
One rectangular plastic clip
 
One clear plastic collar supporter insert
 
One plastic cuff stud
 
One clear plastic clip
 
One card button insert
 
A length of ribbon with the words “pure cotton” written on it
 
One plastic carrier bag (not in photo)
Something to carry it all home in.

Of all twelve of these items only four of these are made of degradable materials.

This is not just any overpackaging, This is Marks & Spencer overpackaging.

 

Submitted by Michael Scott

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Capital One

Capital One overpackaged credit card letter OK so it's not strictly overpackaging of a product, but it's just as bad. Every month one of these drops through my door, and every month I post it back to them saying in big writing, "PLEASE STOP SENDING ME THIS JUNK, AND TAKE ME OFF YOU MAILING LIST" But still like clockwork another arrives.

99.9999999% of people who get one of these in the post will chuck it away, all eight bits of it.

   

 

 

Sainsbury's cucumber portion

An overpackaged cucumber from Sainbury's, with wrapper on This "crisp and refreshing" cucumber from Sainsbury's not only comes with the outer packaging you can see in the picture, but also a layer of transparent cling wrap around the cucumber itself
   
An overpackaged cucumber from Sainbury's, with wrapper off Despite the cling wrap the end of the cucumber was dry and withered. Surely if the purpose of the cling wrap is to keep the cucumber fresh, it would cover the end of the cucumber as the rest of it already protected by the skin.

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Kinder Happy Hippo Biscuits

 
happy Hippo Kinder packet, five buscuits in one box A grand total of five biscuits, all individually wrapped, with a plastic tray and large outer packaging

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Apple iPod Video

 
An iPod with all of its packaging The new iPod not only comes with video playback, but a whole load of pointless packaging. While the box is not big in size there are countless bits of sticky plastic and plastic contains for every single thing in the packet, non of them degradable. 

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Cremosa - Chupa Chips

 
Cremosa lolly and packet Despite tasting very nice and being sugar free, there is one thing that leaves a sour taste. The packaging goes one step further than other lollies, instead of having a small packet over the end part of the lolly this one needs a full size packet to house the stick as well.

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Airwaves Active

   
airwaves active packet open With this particular variety of Airwaves being "Active" obviously a much larger and wasteful packet is needed, active people must like that.

An Airwaves Active Packet compared with an normal packet of airwaves

A packet of Airwaves active compared to a normal packet of airwaves (both contain 10 pieces)

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