“I wonder if other readers have experienced the wasteful excessive packaging used by Amazon.com. I recently ordered a Gel Wrist Rest and a hardcover book (to qualify for free shipping). The two items were shipped to me separately, probably because they were coming from different warehouses. Though that itself is wasteful, I can understand why it may be necessary. But when the Wrist Rest arrived, it came in a GIANT box filled with paper stuffing (see photo). The box measured 24″ x 12″ x 18″. The wrist rest is about 20″ long, but flat. Is it possible that a company that sells all of its various products by mail doesn’t have a long flat box that could have been used instead?”

In an earlier order, I purchased some coffee refills for the Senseo coffee machine. They came to me one box at a time, each in a huge box. When I opened the box up, I found that the coffee refills were already in a very small, efficient box that said on the side ” Amazon.com ready to ship packaging. For some bizarre reason, they wastefully placed a small ready-to-ship box into a huge box with padding around it.

Has anyone else experienced this kind of thing. It is wasteful in terms of materials and shipping costs, but also impacts the environment too. Not to mention the impracticality of receiving a huge box at your home when you are expecting something small.

All that wasteful packaging could instead be used to protect the speed-bump fodder Amazon sells as hard drives. How about this: instead of shipping wrist rests in giant boxes, use compact tubes. The post office gives them away for free.

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