Packaging you hate

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The tab is so small that the only way to open the pack is by stabbing it with a knife

Those silly little one-portion packs of butter, jam etc drive me mad They have a little tab which you supposedly pull to tear the lid off. In reality it is virtually impossible to get hold of the tab as,it's,s

Gabrielle56

Ermal Fraze invented ring pull cans in 1959.
I have to say, I prefer his idea to that of the idiot who invented the stupid corned beef tins - Peter Durnad in 1810.
They definitely need revising!!

Redhead56

My pet hate is ordering say an eye pencil from Amazon as the make I buy is no longer in the shops. When it arrives it’s in a massive cardboard envelope what a total waste of materials. Also it’s too big to go through the front door totally ridiculous.

They do that a lot, then complain of cardboard shortages!
I add pics to Fb with 'Guess what came in this package?'
Nail varnish, lipstick...
Oh and the actual boxes, they come with large puffy bags to protect what's inside. Once you get past them it's quite a disappointment to find a pack of filters for the OHs cigarette thingy that could have fit in an ordinary sized envelope with a bit of padding!

People with arthritic hands - like me, really really struggle! I have virtually every gadget known, but still risk life and limb getting things open! One of the worst are the ready meals where the "peel back film" never peels! It either rips, or I have to cut it, meaning I can't recover it! I've stopped buying some products because I simply can't get at the contents! One shining star is Wiltshire Farm Foods - minimum packaging, nice large print for us oldies, and - the film lid does actually peel off! If they can do it, why not others? ?

I work as a supermarket cashier. I hate that so many of our banana range is bagged. We sell loose bananas, but the 'small' and organic range are bagged.

I hate that cauliflowers are either fully shrink-wrapped (the organic range) or the non-organic ones are in an open bag with a barcode - they're sold per cauliflower, not by weight - yet the broccoli is similarly shrink-wrapped if organic, but loose and sold by weight if non-organic. It's the messiest thing to come through the checkout and sheds bits everywhere, then the customer (who couldn't think of putting it in, for example, the paper bags by the mushrooms, or in a compostable fruit-and-veg bag, or, here's a thought, bring their own washable weightless bag as sold in many other stores). Especially frustrating when that customer bought bagged bananas but still put loose broccoli on the checkout belt... along with bunched carrots with the tops out, dropping bits of fronds everywhere, fresh bread and pastries in open bags instead of folding the end over to keep the crumbs contained, dirty plant pots loaded onto the belt instead of passing them to me one at a time to scan... the same people who roll their eyes and sigh and tut when I'm cleaning up the mess they've made of my till...

This might be a good place to remind people that those open cauliflower bags (not shrink-wrap) can be recycled in the bin outside the store that is labelled for carrier bags from any store, can also take bread bags, the bags that carrots, potatoes, apples and pears come in (but not the 'compostable' bags from the organic bananas).

Take your own bags, please.

Theoddbird how lucky you are to "not to do stress"!!!

I wouldn't do it either if it were possible.

Agree with all of the posts especially toothbrushes and child proof lids. I do have a gadget for ring pull cans and another to pop the lids on jars and these nearly always do the job.

Most modern packaging is designed to facilitate the processing journey the product has to endure from manufacture to delivery. Once money has been spent on the machines that make them they will persist, only to be replaced by ones that can spit them out faster and cheaper (for them) Barely any attention is payed to the end user; the customer, and their needs.

Theoddbird

Hate is a very strong word... I don't like the habit Amazon has of putting small items in very large boxes when they pack for delivery. Other than that I accept however things are packaged. No point in stressing over minor things that you cannot change.

The dictionary definition of the word hate is to feel intense dislike for. So I would say the word hate is being used correctly in this instance.
If people don't make a point of expressing their dislike of packaging nothing will change. It's not a minor issue. It's important for the planet that we stop using all this unnecessary plastic. It's also quite dangerous having to use knives and scissors to remove stubborn packaging.

Resealable bags are either impossible to open or impossible to close..I’ve just been struggling with bags in a Covid lateral flow test kit.
Washing pods are covered with warnings to keep away from children….why do they make them in such attractive colours?l

All excessive packaging really annoys me, but trying to get into a new brush for my electric toothbrush is the worst. Also, why is black plastic even manufactured as apparently it’s the one colour that can’t be recycled.

Today , my birthday , I opened a box approximately 12”x 10” absolutely stuffed with bubble wrap and shredded paper, protecting a teeny tiny jar of truffles in oil. At a guess I would say the jar is 2”:high and about 2” circumference. I’m certain the contents will be delicious but the packaging is utterly ridiculous.

Yammy

Ring pull cans like tomatoes where the ring pull comes off before the can is open.
Also, all the paper and card used by online sales, someone I know lives in the States and her area they have an Amazon box day where they come for all the card and paper so much is used.

And the ring pulls full stop! The last bit flicks(usually bright red and oily) contents all over me/kitchen/sink/window/ dishcloth.... Need I say more! We don't need them.we don't want them. Which stupid bloke designed them?!?!

Agree with all the above

Scissors where I need a pair of scissors to open them

The avocado that came with my online order was given more care than a first born child- plastic tray, then cardboard tray , then foam and then netting!!!! Was gobsmacked !!!

My friend ended up in A&E trying to open a packet with a knife in it, with a knife. Had to have surgery to repair the tendon, plastic surgery for the scar and quite a lot of physio to regain most of the use of her thumb.

Any excess veg or fruit i Blanche and freeze as I hate waste !!!

‘Tesco has been doing this for at least 18 months’

A few months ago, I tried to take advantage of their ‘four for a discount’ offer, only to be told when I added four to the basket that it was a maximum of three of these items only!! ?

All of these. My scissors are my most used kitchen gadget, but as someone said, I needed another pair of scissors to open them! Why do manufacturers not try things out on their families before producing them for the public?

Harmonypuss

@Maggiemaybe

Four tins shrink-wrapped together to give us 20p or so off the cost. Just let us pick up four and take the discount off at the checkout, for goodness’ sake!

Tesco has been doing this for at least 18 months

I’ve just checked out the Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons, Asda and Waitrose websites, and Tesco are definitely getting my business in future. They all have, as an example, Branston baked beans at 4 for £2. Every one but Tesco has the 4 cans lashed together by plastic wrap. Good on Tesco, but I wonder why and how they are packaged differently for other supermarkets?

Thanks for the information, Harmonypuss.

Plastic ring pulls on milk cartons that break off so that I have to get a scalpel to open the carton.

'Reasealable' packs eg bacon that do not reseal once opened.

Price labels that can't be removed without damaging the surface of the product.

Amazon's excessive packaging. This week I bought three reels of thread (normal size) and six packs of needles, they arrived in the corner of a box 18 inches x 13 inches stuffed with a lot of brown paper. Completely OTT.

Shrink wrap plastic on meat products, it just looks horrible!

And probably numerous others that I can't think of right now.

Harmonypuss

@Maggiemaybe

Four tins shrink-wrapped together to give us 20p or so off the cost. Just let us pick up four and take the discount off at the checkout, for goodness’ sake!

Tesco has been doing this for at least 18 months

Good to hear. Perhaps it’s time for me to change supermarket then.

Here things like bleach and other substances that would be harmful if ingested are sold in bottles with child-proof lids, as is all medicine.

The trouble is, of course, that few women of my age (nearly 70) can open the blasted things.

When child-proof lids came in, they were sold seperately and households that needed them bought them and replaced the normal screw-on -lids, but that is no longer good enough.

The sad thing about it is that many children can get these "child-proof " lids off! It is just the rest of us who can't!

@Maggiemaybe

Four tins shrink-wrapped together to give us 20p or so off the cost. Just let us pick up four and take the discount off at the checkout, for goodness’ sake!

Tesco has been doing this for at least 18 months