Wasteful Packaging

Bit like the inkjet printer scenario. You buy the cartridges, the printer comes free :-)

I think that gimmick came into being back in February 1900 when Kodak introduced the Brownie camera.

AKA: Internal shrinkage

Not much is said about it, but "Internal shrinkage" has been a major problem at Home Depot for years.

Lew

The packaging may take up a good deal of volume due to air space, but how much actual material is in that plastic box? I suspect that if one were to compress it to a flat object (i.e., flatten, not compress the actual material), it's not all that outrageous.

Or when Gillette marketed their first safety razor.

The Gillette Safety Razor came shortly after the "Brownie" as the razor was patented in November 1904.

It may be more costly, but with more built they can eventually engineer some cost out or improve efficiency. At some point we will no longer have the luxury of digging holes and burying trash. Or it will be very costly to ship the trash to holes a long way away. Remember the NYC garbage barge?

The court of last resort.

Recycling is not only more efficient, but less costly.

Lew

The problem is that trash isn't consistent and contains many components that don't burn. There's no way that a trash-fueled plant will _ever_ be cost competitive with a conventional plant.

It will be a very long time before we run out out room for trash dumps. They really are very small in comparison to other land uses. For example how big is the average NFL stadium or MLB park. You could pack a lot of garbage and trash in one. No one complains about a football or baseball stadium. I wonder why that is?

I do agree about the packaging though. I have a hole in my hand from where the knife slipped when I was trying to open a plastic package. It still hurts.

Dave

As long as the price paid is high enough. Recycling is the perfect example of There being no such thing as a free lunch. The current economic down turn has pretty much sent the recycling programs to the dump.

Dave

"J. Clarke" wrote

And trash contains many toxic elements as well. I read of one proposal that would burn so hot, that little toxicity would remain. The catch?? It would require a lot of fuel to burn up the toxic components. Which may be a way to to take care of toxins, but a lousy way to generate power.

Yup.

And meanwhile, is the government doing anything about junk mail?

"J. Clarke" wrote

Using it to subsidize the regular mail. Which is a losing propositiion. Most of the mail that is used by the consumer is used to pay bills. And that function is rapidly being taken over by digital bill paying services that is offered by almost all banks now.

And meanwhile the landfills fill up with unrecyclable junk mail.

To get rid of the really nasty stuff, it gets sent to the cement plant.

Cement kilns operate at very high temps on a sustained basis.

Here in SoCal, have at least 6 cement plants, they all process waste.

Lew

Yep.. one of my long-standing "peeves".. Buy a kid a small toy and spend 10 minutes cutting away the packaging...

Buy a part and it comes in a cardboard box with packing material inside to protect a metal part in plastic armor.. What a waste.. Wrap the sucker in yesterdays newspaper and put it in a small box..

When we moved a couple of years ago, I sent about a dozen new, unused "blow molded" tool cases to the recyclers... Does anyone that uses the tools ever put them back in the case, unless they're using them out of the shop?

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Take a look at the prices of the ubiquitous 2-1/4 hp router kits with fixed and plunge bases, two collets, wrench(es), maybe even a starter set of 1/4" bits or other accessories, and of course a giant case to hold it all. Then price out just getting a replacement motor, which will cost more. Which just tells you the competition is keeping the margins down on the kits.

-Kevin

My town recycles it, window envelopes and all.