Packaging

Genevieve invited Stephen and me to a family birthday party for Willow, yesterday. She will follow with a party for her school friends on Tuesday. It was lovely seeing the cousins having so much fun running around and laughing together. One of Willow’s presents from Steven and me was a travelling barbie doll, which came with a lot of accessories, including a suitcase, carry on bag, neck rest, cell phone, moisturiser, camera, eye shades, headphones and toothbrush, each made out of plastic and individually fastened to the back of the box, along with the doll itself.

Getting into the package was the first mission, which involved an awful lot of pulling to separate the top and bottom of the plastic surrounds. Next was freeing the individual pieces, each fastened tightly inside the plastic. Rosie and I commented that it would have been nice to see something organic, such as twine, securing these parts to the cardboard base, but I guess the mass production of these dolls and their accessories is probably streamlined with just another machine to provide the plastic and cut each component out. I must admit that the packaging did look smart and the doll appealing, in the way it was presented.

I do have a problem though, with the difficulty with which it is to open so many products these days. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to get at something and not having a knife or pair of scissors on hand. Why is it necessary to make something that difficult to open?

My worst example, and this was not opening, but on getting the product out of its container, was my favourite brand of shampoo. I had used this product for years. It was good on my hair, leaving it silky and smooth. Then one day, the manufacturers changed the container it came in. The plastic was so firm that I couldn’t squeeze the contents out without an awful lot of difficulty. I think I wrote to them letting them know of my concerns, but to no avail. I eventually changed brands, permanently, because of this problem. This was a shampoo I had been buying for years and obviously a popular one, judging by the selection on the supermarket shelves. Nowadays, I only see a small range of this shampoo and I do wonder if others, like me, had changed brands because they couldn’t get the shampoo out. Manufacturers need to be aware of things like this and listen to customers, if they receive legitimate complaints.

There has been a huge revolution on many fronts of veering away from plastics and using alternatives where possible. It is always nice to see products coming in natural containers and wrappings, though I am concerned that the return to paper products will result in the destruction of many more trees. I guess the ultimate would be recycling, just as we did in the old days with our milk bottles, for example, though glass contains it own set of problems, due to its ability to break.

We don’t want to be adding more costs to our products either but we do need to consider alternatives when these are available.

I read a headline in the paper yesterday about what life will be like in another 20 years. The way some things are deteriorating, I think much will be worse, but it would be lovely if we have found a solution to the overuse of plastics, that doesn’t impact on our lovely trees. Perhaps there will be more use of bamboo products, for example. And it would be even lovelier if we could get inside the things we are buying, with ease.