YULE BE SORRY
Fury at 18ft packaging for tea mug
Inflated pouches with the mug FOR an item the size of a cup of tea, this excessive amount of packaging really does take the biscuit.
One shopper was shocked when his mug from Debenhams arrived encased in 18ft of wrapping and surrounded by 41 air-filled plastic pockets.
Ashley Moran, 27, of Bristol, said of the £8 item: “I couldn’t believe it. I thought they must have made a mistake with my order.
“When I opened the box, I realised it was pretty much all padding and wrapping. It was shocking.”
But Debenhams is not the only culprit.
Customers regularly complain about the excessive use of packaging in deliveries. One said that electronics retailer GAME posted a T-shirt surrounded by plastic pouches inside a large box.
And fashion chain Zara sent a gift card in a box encased in a thick plastic bag, inside an envelope. Online giant Amazon sent one customer a two-litre glass jar in
a “box big enough for me to sit in”. The vast amount of waste we produce will result in our landfill space filling up by 2022 if action is not taken.
This Christmas, more than 103,000 tonnes of plastic packaging, 3,600 tonnes of aluminium foil, 106 sq km of wrapping paper and 300,000 tonnes of card packaging will go to landfill, according to the Wildlife and Countryside Link.
The Tories this week announced plans to charge manufacturers for the disposal of plastic packaging from 2023.
Samantha Harding, of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: “Our countryside and environment will ultimately pay the price. We need manufacturers to take full responsibility for the damage that they cause. However, the best way to tackle the environmental devastation caused by waste is by reducing the amount we produce.”
■ We want to hear your stories of pointless packaging to shame manufacturers and retailers into taking action. BIG MISTAKE Two-litre jar in box DRINKERS will on average be hung over for three days in December and 25% will call in sick to work, a Meat Advisory Panel poll found.