This year it feels Amazon has made a hard push to all paper/cardboard and I feel like items are better packed then before. You know when they only used one air pillow per box, lol
They were also doing paper padded envelopes but have wavered between them and the make on demand drop off at store plastic ones.
I have also seen recently that literally everyone has also switched to paper filler, and again I like it and feel it fills better. Heck even I am changing over from starch peanuts to paper. Anyone else?
Our unscientific sample of deliveries to the condo complex shows about 1 in 5 shipments in plastic bubble mailers. There are a lot more unpadded paper mailers than in the past.
We just went to a lighter weight stay flat envelope and replaced the padded paper envelope with the plastic padded envelope to save on weight due to the increases in USPS rates. We can now ship 3 items at the same price as one (use to only be able to do 2 items at lower rate).
Well the one air pillow packaging has decreased ⌠in fact we have seen no air pillows lately ⌠the item in the box is just floating around (no packing material period).
We have received paper padded and just plain plastic on orders from Amazon.
Iâm of mixed feelings on this.
From an environmental standpoint, I really like paper products; both recyclable and renewable. But since we sell books, which are very sensitive to moisture, Iâll always want them in plastic (the first book we bought FBM, prior to selling on Amazon, came with moisture damage; made an impression).
On other platforms, where we sell other items, weâve never used peanuts; always newsprint. But we also use bubble-wrap; much faster, especially on fragile items, than trying to protect with paper.
At one point, I had looked at a paper-based product, that came flat on a roll, but was cut such that when you pulled it, it formed a 3-D grid which not only provided padding but would interlock so that it didnât even need tape. Looked great (from many viewpoints), but was much more expensive than bubble wrap. But since our last order of bubble wrap was double the price of our last order (which already had a big price increase), maybe I should look at it again. Does anyone know what Iâm talking about, to remind me of what itâs called so I can research it? (Pretty sure it was from 3M, but not 100% positive, and that doesnât really narrow things down anyway)
As for shipments from Amazon, love the padded paper; more protection than the cheap plastic, and far better in many ways than the 80% empty box. Only downside is that I seem to get paper-dust from opening them. But not a big deal.
Found the stuff I was thinking off. Yep, 3M. But looking at current prices, might actually be CHEAPER than plastic bubble wrap. Gonna have to buy some to check it out before getting a 1000â roll (which seems to take no more space than a 250â roll of bubble);
A bit concerned, as in other places (including Amazon) they compare it to 3/16" bubble for packing; does anyone really use that small of bubble for fill?? The only 3/16" bubble I have is scraps that people give us; never buy it.
Yes, we use small bubble for extra padding in our padded envelopes. When I get âaddress undeliverableâ returns, I can see that they do help prevent damage to our products.
We also use honeycomb packaging to cushion items, but it depends on the product. Some items do better with honeycomb packaging, some better with small bubble, some better with air pillows. I pick and choose depending on what Iâm sending out.
The problem with honeycomb is some brands flatten out unless we tape them. The good brands will keep their form, but they donât all keep their honeycomb shape.
I hate the paper mailers because they are ruined when opened, and the paper insulation goes all over the place. The padded plastic mailers can be reused easily.
the kind with some padding/insulation (itâs like a grid of evenly spaced foam dots, and yes! they are crumbly), and
the kind that is just a paper envelope but in varying thicknesses (from as thin as paper bag, to as thick as bendy cardboard).
As a Buyer, I prefer option 2; I wish they would use a thicker paper, rather than the weird foam dots.
None of the books Iâve received in paper mailers of either type have had any moisture damage (yet? lol knock on wood), but both types of mailers have resulted in some scuffing and tearing of book corners. Amazon needs to use the thicker, closer-to-cardboard mailer to protect books, IMOâbut then that might lead to the moisture issues youâve seen.
Iâm sure itâs not ecofriendly (or Seller friendly), but as a Buyer I like to see a sturdy paper mailer with a shrink wrapped book.
Having switched to all new Stayflat mailers in 5 sizes, I am not using any other packing materials other than plastic bags for moisture protection, Yes, even a book ships in an appropriate sized Stayflat with no packaging, works for a CD as well. A tight fit, and adequate dimensions is the key or at least has been for several years.
My situation has limited generality, since nothing I ship is likely to break if dropped.
The fact that my packaging can be recycled offers little satisfaction since it probably will not be. Even paper which is picked up for recycling by cities and towns winds up in landfills. China which used to buy much of our recyclables, no longer does.
You have painted with a rather broad brush here, and I can firmly say this just isnât true in all areas, and I say this with first hand facts and knowledge.
Maybe in your area, but how you have stated this as fact with no qualifications or resources to back it up isnât up to code.
I suspect that itâs not common, especially if you have a somewhat protected location for packages to be left.
But I had one incident a few years back that convinced me that EVERY book gets wrapped in plastic, whether FBM or FBA.
There was a post on the forum from a bookseller complaining about a bad review, because the book that was shipped FBA got wet; he felt he shouldnât be responsible for the carrier leaving the box in the rain.
The same day, I got a 5 star feedback on a book, with a comment along the lines of âBook was packed very well, and even though the box got soaked, the book was fine. The other book in the package was ruinedâ. Donât know for sure if the same customer, but who knows?
Well, to be fair, itâs not just recycling but all reuse. Sure, Sellers can reuse the FBA padded plastic mailers, but the non-Sellers I know just throw them away.
Plus, in my area, plastic mailers are like plastic grocery bags and canât be picked up with our regular curbside recycling; thankfully, our grocery store (national chain) offers recycling for bags, so we save a bundle of bags, mailers, and other similar to drop off when we pick up our next grocery order.
And OF COURSE my household has picked up another new art/hobby: paper making. Trying to reuse what we can (creatively) while also reducing what even needs to be recycled in the first place. Itâs a relatively inexpensive activity, especially when our online orders send us free (lol) base materials.
That being saidâwhat magic does Chewy use for its boxes?! So sturdy, so strong, but not much thicker than Amazon. We reuse those boxes as boxes; they are too damn good to make paper out of. Heck, I might start making furniture out of them
They sure do waste a lot of time and money collecting it, putting it into giant bales just to send it to the dump⌠SMH. Itâs as if some people forget or canât comprehend that communities/economies that actually produce stuff can utilize recycling compared to those that donât produce much of anything.
I was talking to my local transfer station awhile back about what is really getting recycled in our situation. All trash and recycle has to be shipped off island as there is no landfill. The cost for trash and mixed recycle is expensive as a result, however they have reduced much of these costs by self sorting. They now accept all corrugated cardboard, rinsed tin cans, aluminum, and glass free of charge. He said they are actually making good money on all except glass. For the glass, they have a crusher and they use the end product for construction projects (concrete flatwork, french drain backfill, Septic system construction, sand for underground electrical and plumbing conduit, and for personal landscaping projects etc.) The mixed recycle plastic does not get as much reuse these days as China no longer accepts it. Since we have to transport it to the station on our own, sorting is not much a problem but still some do not do it and end up paying to throw it into mixed use. Their next step it to hire sorters to capture the valuable stuff from whatâs thrown into the mixed use as an experiment to see if they can break even after sorting the profitable stuff. .
Here in NYC, we now have to separate the following:
Glass
Metal
Paper / Cardboard
Yard Waste / Grass Clippings
And my personal favorite - ALL FOOD!
We have âBrown Binsâ now. All food needs to go in there and itâs repulsive⌠We use plant based bags daily and store our garbage food in our freezer chest in our basement until the night before it gets picked up.
Gotta love NYC⌠Separating literally the only thing that actually breaks down in a landfillâŚ
There are mixed messages on whether or not they are currently enforcing this law, but there were sanitation police checking garbage bags for food and issuing tickets a few months ago.
Taking care of / separating household garbage is like a part-time job for me.
Maybe modern landfills are different (not my area of study), but I watched a documentary filmed in (IIRC) the 90s, looking at a landfill that had been closed in the mid 1960s; so newest stuff was 30 years old.
The hot dog they dug up looked fresher than many I see available to buy. There was pretty much NO decay happening (I think this was a very wet area, which may be a contributing factor).
I suspect the science has improved a bit since then, but canât say for sure.
