I have ordered a number of things over the past few months. I have noticed an increasing tendency for the items I ordered to be packed in boxes created by taping random pieces of cardboard together. In some cases, this worked fine. The edges were all tightly sealed, and the contents were shrink-wrapped. However, some of these packages could barely considered that.
For example, I ordered a round fluorescent bulb for my magnifier lamp, and the container it came in was barely more than an envelope. The cardboard was thin, and the seams were completely sealed. The was in a box inside this container, but that was also fabricated from pieces of cardboard.
Another example is a roll of fabric my wife ordered. When the UPS driver delivered it, she asked “did it arrive to the truck like this?” The box was composed of no less than six pieces of cardboard, all taped together with wide masking tape covered by shipping tape. The seams were not completely sealed. Inside the huge box was no less than eighteen feet of that inflated bubble packing that comes in foot long segments. Fortunately, the item was in a proper box that had been shrink-wrapped by the manufacturer.
Is this environmentally friendly cost-effectiveness, or just laziness?