Will Amazon Save the Planet?

I confess: Occasionally (blush) I purchase a book at Amazon.com. I try to wait until I have several to order, but the good folks at Amazon are not adept at consolidating shipments. And sometimes, when the first of my deliveries arrives in a box several times larger than its contents, I forage in my closet for shoes with stiletto heels. I need them to pierce the air pillows that cradle my shrinkwrapped paperback book.

For me, the madness began on a warm spring night in 1980. (Pre-Amazon. Pre IBM PC. Pre-shrinkwrap.) That night, I rejoiced along with my landlord and his son (Note: the kid was not all that much younger than I) at his high school graduation party. And I overheard what – on the face of it – was an ordinary exchange between the graduating senior and a family friend:

GUEST: “So where are you off to in September?”
SENIOR: “I’ll be going to [something something] Engineering School.”
GUEST: “Congratulations...another engineer in the family! Any particular specialty?”
SENIOR: “Yeah. I’m a Packaging major.”

A good deal of wine shot from my nose. I looked around, but nobody else was laughing. Did none of them recall 1967? Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate? That iconic cinematic moment in which the bourgeois and bourbon-laced career-advice, “Plastics!” started a hapless social revolution? The message seemed lost on the class of 1980.

Things have changed, and I would know better now, but at the time I had no idea that such a career existed, or what a degree in it entailed. The senior’s proud father was quick to enlighten his party guests. I looked dubiously at George (I’ll call the kid George). One month before, he’d been grounded for revelry that involved a visit from the town police. I winked, but he didn’t pick up on my sympathy. He had swallowed the packaging plan, hook line and sinker.

I think of George every time I shred my skin trying to open a product sealed in clam shell packaging. And I think of George when I hear about the continent-sized mat of plastic debris that floats out in the blue Pacific.

George has a lot to answer for, as does Jeff Bezos at Amazon, as do a number of huge manufacturers, as do people like me, the (nearly reformed) insatiable-consumer. But today at Amazon.com Bezos refers to ‘wrap rage’ and posts plans for Frustration-Free Packaging. He has actually launched a certification program for vendors who find frustration-free ways to package their products.

You can read what amounts to an FAQ here but the bottom line is this: Certified packaging is “recyclable and comes without excess packaging materials such as hard plastic clamshell casings, plastic bindings, and wire ties. It's designed to be opened without the use of a box cutter or knife and will protect your product just as well as traditional packaging. Products with Frustration-Free Packaging can frequently be shipped in their own boxes, without an additional shipping box.”

Who knew? I congratulate Amazon. I hope it doesn't take the Georges of the world a decade to implement their new designs.

- Lois