It could probably have fitted in just an envelope, but instead Amazon sent out a wall calendar complete with 45 feet of paper packaging.

Annie Gelly, who bought it, was quite confused to get an ordinary A2 Collins calendar wrapped up as if it were a priceless set of china when she thought it would come in a jiffy bag.

‘It’s such a waste, I couldn’t use the paper for anything else because it was all scrunched up and it completely filled the recycling bin,’ she said.

‘I think it’s bad for the environment and you would have thought Amazon of all people would be aware of that kind of thing and try to be more careful.’

‘The calendar arrived last Thursday and it has masses of paper in the box – there were nine lengths of screwed-up brown paper which measured about 45 feet in total,’ she said.

‘Amazon always package stuff this way – I’ve had things like this in the past and they’re particularly prone to it – but this really took the biscuit.’

Annie, from Herne Hill, said: ‘They could have fitted at least ten calendars in that box and I’d expected it to turn up in a cardboard envelope or a Jiffy bag.’

Ann and husband Dave, also in his 70s, say they have kept the box to store books but could not find a use for the huge length of paper.

The couple, who have one son and a grandson, added: ‘I think it’s a very shoddy and slap-hazard way of packing flat items like calendars.

‘It’s not a good advertisement for them at all and I’ll definitely be complaining about it.’

Another buyer (pictured), who asked not to be named, bought the same calendar and said: ‘I know that the paper they use is recycled, but I can’t help but think Amazon are still chopping down the rainforest.’

Amazon claimed that they are reducing the amount of packing material used and ‘ship products in their own packages’.

A spokesperson said: ‘We continue to pursue multi-year waste reduction initiatives – e-commerce ready packaging and Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging – to promote easy-to-open, 100 per cent recyclable packaging and to ship products in their own packages without additional shipping boxes.

‘These initiatives have grown to include more than 1.2 million products over time and have eliminated more than 36,000 tons of excess packaging just in 2015.

‘If executed well, our innovations will also help us to reduce prep, packing material and shipping supplies and reduce our operational costs by increasing the use of recycled materials.

‘They will also increase the overall density of the packages we ship – good for transportation savings and less waste for our customers – and reduce the things that get damaged in transit and eliminate wasted packaging.’

Source:
courtesy of METRO

by Jen Mills

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