When you place an order for a material that is itself used as packing material, you might be surprised to see that your order comes surrounding by other packing material. But there may be a method to this madness after all.

Someone posted the above photo on Reddit yesterday, showing how their order of bubble wrap from Amazon came in a box full of those air pocket things we’ve all come to know and which are fun to take a knife to when you’re frustrated (is that just me?).

But this isn’t just a case of packing overkill explains one commenter, who claims to have worked at UPS “for more years than I care to admit”:

It’s so the roll of bubble wrap doesn’t shift in the box, and potentially get the box stuck on a conveyor belt incline, by it continuously rolling backward. Also the big air packs fill the space in the box, allowing for more weight to be put on the box without the box deforming.

Well there you go. Question answered. Issue resolved. Everyone back to work.

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