Pollution

[bean fidhleir]

I just bought a seat for my summer bike that I'm just finishing building up. The "packaging" was a silkscreened slab of cast acrylic 2mm thick (4mm at the edge) that seems to weigh about as much as a new pad of lined paper. It's *heavy*.

It has the "recyclable" label on it, but obviously the maker didn't care very much -if at all- about the energy or raw material that went into making it in the first place, or the energy that would be spent recycling it. And since very little "recyclable" material actually gets recycled, I'm sure this slab of acrylic will end in the local landfill as a pollutant.

Since I had to buy it via mail, there was no need for any packaging at all, apart from perhaps a thin-pasteboard box. But the mfgr evidently doesn't see the need to economize that way.

How do we stop this kind of stupidity?

[PDJane]

1. Send it back to the manufacturer........

and explain why you are doing so.

There is a company that makes a very nice wafer. Won't buy them. They're packaged in a plastic clamshell, then bagged in a mylar bag. Overkill. Sent all the stuff back with a suggestion that they do something else!

[bean fidhleir]

2. I like that idea. My only objection is what I suspect will become a general problem

namely the lack of good alternatives. I need a wide seat, and this is the only one I've found that's wide enough, not made of leather, and light in weight (having to carry my bike back up to my 3rd fl. apt after every trip is good exercize, I'm sure, especially at my time of life, but it does make me unpleasantly aware of every extra pound).

[PDJane]

3. I wasn't clear..........

send the packaging back to the manufacturer. Let them deal with it!

[bean fidhleir]

4. aaAAAaaa the light dawneth! *Very* nice suggestion.

I think I will. Thanks!


Got any ideas on how we can stop the problem at the source?

[PDJane]

5. I don't..........

I figure if we just stripped off all the excess packaging at the cash register, and sent all this crap back to the manufacturer, it will get to them sooner rather than later...having to deal with all the excess packaging would smarten them up considerably.