FRUSTRATION FREE PACKAGING LAUNCHED BY AMAZON

Who would have thought that one of the original web retailers would leaf the way in waste reduction? But it’s happening with Amazon in the USA introducting Frustration Free Packaging.

Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging supplies the item you are buying without the plastic clamshell casing, without the wire ties, plastic threading and other packaging.

Instead you receive the item in a cardboard box with the minimal of cardboard and plastic bag packaging inside. The cardboard Frustration-Free Packaging can then be recycled.

Amazon works directly with the manufacturer to box products in Frustration-Free Packages on the assembly line, so it also reduces packaging waste at the factory.

Many items can be posted to you without any additional packaging wrapped around the box, reducing your waste footprint even more.

This is only available in the States at the moment, Amazon say they will start running it out to other countries in 2009, and only on 19 products (from Fisher-Price, Microsoft, Transcend and Mattel). So, it is a small start but a potentially huge step that not only will greatly reduce the amount of waste generated but also transform the experience of unwrapping an item.

Amazon reports it is focusing first on two kinds of items: those enclosed in hard plastic cases known as "clamshells" and those secured with plastic-coated wire ties, often used in toy packaging. Amazon’s aim is to eventually offer their entire catalogue of products in Frustration-Free Packaging.

Amazon has a tongue-in-cheek side-by-side comparison of unwrapping the different kinds of packaging, you’ll find it here.

FRUSTRATION FREE PACKAGING LAUNCHED BY AMAZON

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