Packaging and Technology

I was grousing this week about how much packaging Apple uses on its iMacs. You might not notice it so much if you only bought one, but when you have thirty-two to set up, as I did at work, it’s pretty obvious.

Here’s how the process went:

• Open outer cardboard box.
• Pull out small box containing keyboard, mouse, installation CD’s, and manuals.
• Remove plastic wrap from keyboard. Remove plastic tape from keyboard cord.
• Remove plastic wrap from mouse. Remove plastic tape from mouse cord.
• Recycle manuals and toss CDs. We have a master image that we install on all computers. I save one copy of the manuals and CDs, just in case.
• Recycle small cardboard box.
• Pull out big chunk of styrofoam.
• Remove iMac itself from box.
• Remove thin foam wrapper from iMac.
• Remove plastic wrap from iMac screen.
• Remove plastic wrap from back of iMac base.
• Remove power cord from styrofoam block in box. Pull plastic tape off.
• Hook up all the cords.
• Recycle the main box, and throw away styrofoam.

As you can imagine, there was a mountain of recyclables and trash by the time all thirty-two were done.  Could this be done differently? Maybe if Apple were willing to do special school packs, they could cut down on the waste a bit — for instance, school packs could include just one set of CDs and manuals for every 30 computers. And maybe the keyboards and mice could all be packed together instead of with each computer.

On a positive note, I also noticed this week that HP has changed the packaging for their ink cartridges. Single cartridges are now in boxes half the size they used to be. They’re also no longer including a return envelope for recycling, which makes sense since cartridge recycling programs are widely available now. Way to go, HP!

Photo by Robert Nelson from Flickr,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertnelson/ / CC BY 2.0