How can we maximize our packaging?

[SirSavesaLot]

So, today I finished up the last of some Chinese green tea that was given to me a couple years ago.  It was a very nice gift, and the tea tasted great, but the packaging seemed an exercise in purposeful waste.  It came in a nice rectangular box, packed with 10 smaller boxes, each containing 5 single-serve packets.  (These were also difficult to open, which led a couple to being completely wasted in a too-much-force-leads-contents-to-explode-everywhere way.  I learned to use scissors).  It was like they went out of their way to waste the earth's resources.  (Wouldn't a resealable pouch have served just as well?)

It reminded me of Fry's cookie press from Futurama, which I thought fellow Mustachians would enjoy:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxmP8IcoKtE

[AMandM]

Often the wasteful packaging is needed to make the item look more impressive.  A box of twenty tea bags from the grocery store is just groceries.  A large flat box whose lid lifts up to reveal a tray with five wells, each containing a little box of four tea bags, is a presentation gift.

From the tea point of view, the added packaging is unproductive and wasteful.  From the ceremonial point of view, it's not.

[TheAnonOne]

Often the wasteful packaging is needed to make the item look more impressive.  A box of twenty tea bags from the grocery store is just groceries.  A large flat box whose lid lifts up to reveal a tray with five wells, each containing a little box of four tea bags, is a presentation gift.

From the tea point of view, the added packaging is unproductive and wasteful.  From the ceremonial point of view, it's not.

Spot on-

Also, I don't think your tea box is going to end the world with it shear wastefulness. . .

Other than the plastic, it will all decompose within weeks.

[mlejw6]

Your tea gift sounds a bit better than my tea gift. I have a large box that fits a tower of five or six square metal tins, each with a different tea. Each tin comes with a tightly glued plastic bag filled with... about four bags of tea. The tea bags are the fancy triangular mesh bags. All that for less than thirty cups of tea. Or, pots if I have company.

[MgoSam]

My company's freight forwarder found out that I love tea and so when we met in Vegas a few years ago he brought me a few boxes of tea from China. Each box was wrapped a few times, and then inside of them were smaller boxes that were wrapped. Inside them were the actual tea in individual portions in a special bag. When you opened that bag, the tea was wrapped in a tight plastic wrap. Talk about packaging!

It was a very thoughtful gift for him and I enjoyed the tea. On thus plus side, I still have a little of it left and it tastes fine, likely because it hasn't been able to get touched much by the elements.

[JoRocka]

This is NOT the 'packaging' I was thinking of....

<whistles to self while leaving inconspicuously>

[TheGrimSqueaker]

This is NOT the 'packaging' I was thinking of....

<whistles to self while leaving inconspicuously>

I still get spam E-mails, occasionally, offering to do that for $29.99 plus shipping.

It doesn't make sense, because it seems to me that the optimal thing to do would be to try to maximize somebody else's packaging.