I read with interest about the new EU packaging directive the other week — among other things, there’s stuff in there about using as little packaging as possible. That is, the box you ship stuff in shouldn’t be bigger than necessary, which I think most of us will like — I think we’ve all (at some point or another) received a 60x60x20cm box containing a 0.5×0.5x4cm USB stick, right?
Anyway, today I was rudely awoken by a UPS guy who gave me the box above. It’s about the same height as I am.
Guess what it contains.
Yes, exactly — a few yards of fabric.
But I mean — I do appreciate that there are no folds or anything, so I’m probably whining unwarrantedly. I read a German article about the directive (can’t find it now) about how the directive was going to ruin all smaller businesses who didn’t have the requisite machines to pack things minimally…
OK, I don’t have a point here. Sorry!
The main reason why all these businesses are complaining now isn’t “package minimally” but “you have to register a legal representative in every single destination country you want to send stuff to”, and of course, pay different fees in different ways for each destination country. This is just madness for someone who sends out a few parcels a week, and maybe “one per remote country per year”.
Wow, that’s insane! Such an elaborate system for managing who’s paying for recycling…