Waste, waste, waste. That’s almost all you ever hear people talking about on the streets and in cafes. Whether it’s wanting to eliminate the use of plastic by replacing straws with pasta in Italy or coming up with new ways to recycle bottles, there are all sorts of small steps that we can take to make Planet Earth a cleaner, healthier, greener place to live on.

However, one area where some but not enough progress has been made is in the packaging of certain products. It is mind-boggling how much packaging can be used for even the tiniest things. All to make them look attractive and make us want to buy them. There’s so much packaging that you could almost build a fort out of the trash!

To show you just what we mean, Bored Panda has collected some of the most egregious examples of unnecessary packaging found in the dark corners of the internet. So scroll down and upvote the pics that make you fear for the future of the world. Send your pals the link to this list so that they realize what a big problem this is as well. And share any ideas for possible solutions to the waste crisis in the comments.

Bored Panda reached out to Greenpeace and interviewed Graham Forbes, the Global Project Leader for the Plastic-Free-Future.

“For years, companies have sold people on disability — the notion that we can use something once, for a few minutes, then simply throw it away,” Forbes explained. “The problem is, we know now that there is no such thing as ‘away.’ Less than 10 percent of the plastic ever made has actually been recycled, with the vast majority ending up in our oceans, landfills, or incinerated — polluting communities around the globe.” Scroll down for the full in-depth interview.

#1 I Love It That Stores Really Care About Making Sure Your Products Arrive In One Piece, However, I Ordered A Candle!

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#2 I Received A Large Package From Amazon Today

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#3 It May Look Like Our Designer Roo Is Hibernating, But This Is Just The Packaging Used To Protect The Eco-Friendly Light Bulbs

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Forbes from Greenpeace continued: “Companies are still stuck in this outdated business model that uses unnecessary packaging and puts the onus on the consumer to clean it up. It is up to all of us to demand accountability from these companies that continue to churn out throwaway plastic. It’s time to demand systems of reuse rather than polluting throwaway packaging.”

#4 Dear Amazon, Please Explain Why You Need All This Packaging To Send Us Little Label?

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#5 The Packaging Of Lol Dolls

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#6 Destroying The Planet One Apple At A Time

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Some British supermarkets take the packaging waste problem very seriously. For example, Waitrose has impressed its environmentally-conscious shoppers by offering them the possibility of buying food and drink without any packaging.

#7 My New Insurance Refuses To Pay For Meds I’ve Been On For Years. My Doc Gets Free Samples And Gives Them To Me. This Is The Packaging For 15 Days Of Pills

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#8 I Decided To Try Use Less Plastic So I Ordered 4 Re-Usable Straws, This Is The Amount Of Packaging They Came In

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#9 My Dell Order Of Six Ink Cartridges Arrived Today

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That means that customers can fill their own containers with a whole range of Waitrose products, such as rice, cleaning materials, wine, beer, etc. from various dispensers. This not only helps the environment but is good for your wallet as well because product prices drop by around a seventh as a result. Of course, this means that we won’t get to build any forts with all the unnecessary packaging. But some sacrifices must be made for the greater good.

#10 Gas Station Packaging For One Dose

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#11 2 Boxes Of Tea… 30+ Feet Of Bubble Wrap

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#12 Buddy Bought Two Mini Cast Irons From Amazon

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“By utilizing reusable bottles, bags, or containers, we can start to build the systems that we want to see from large companies. Ultimately, large-scale systemic change will depend on companies like Nestle, Coca-Cola, and PepsiCo changing their business models to reject throwaway plastic packaging. By rejecting throwaway culture, we can move them in a better direction quickly,” Forbes said, adding that those readers who want to learn more can read Greenpeace’s reports here and here.

#13 I Love Your Products, Dr. Perricone, But Please Sort Out The Wasteful Packaging

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#14 This Much Packaging For This Small Of An Eco Friendly Product No Less. This Is Just So Laughably Bad

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#15 Excessive Packaging For A Battery I Ordered Online

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Bored Panda also talked to Kara Pochiro of the Association of Plastic Recyclers about the topic. According to Pochiro, “packaging often has a variety of uses that the general consumer does not realize such as protection and preservation.”

“If consumers purchase products and packaging made with recycled content, this will encourage companies to use more recycled content, can boost demand for that material, and increase recycling rates,” Pochiro explained, suggesting that customers recycle and conserve to help the environment. “Consumers play a big role in the success of recycling programs. They need to recycle and buy products and packaging made with recycled content.”

Back in 2018, more than 40 British companies, including the UK’s largest supermarkets, Coca-Cola, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, and others, vowed to cut plastic use within 7 years.

Reuters notes that these companies promised to eliminate unnecessary single-use plastic packaging in the UK by 2025. There’s still a long way to go until then (unless you’re reading this in 2025, in which case, hello, future Pandas!) and this is just one country. But it’s a strong start.

#16 This Is How Our Shop Received 700 Disposable Screws. Individually Packaged, With Plastic Thread Protectors

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#17 “We Want Less Plastic” Plastic Straws Individually Wrapped In Plastic Then Put In A Plastic Bag

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#18 I Picked Up Three Months Worth Of Anxiety Medication

Each lot of 28 tablets came in it’s own little tub which came in an individual box each with a set of instructions. I emptied all the separate tubs into one tub and it’s not even full.

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Some British supermarkets take the packaging waste problem very seriously. For example, Waitrose has impressed its environmentally-conscious shoppers by offering them the possibility of buying food and drink without any packaging.

#19 I Ordered A Custom Eyeshadow Palette

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#20 Adorama Went Out Of Their Way To Ensure The Safety Of This Rosette Mini Arm And Zipgear

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#21 Light Fixture Install, Always A Mess

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That means that customers can fill their own containers with a whole range of Waitrose products, such as rice, cleaning materials, wine, beer, etc. from various dispensers. This not only helps the environment but is good for your wallet as well because product prices drop by around a seventh as a result. Of course, this means that we won’t get to build any forts with all the unnecessary packaging. But some sacrifices must be made for the greater good.

#22 I Ordered Three Pairs Of Drumsticks From Amazon. They All Showed Up Separately In Boxes Way Bigger Than Necessary

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#23 Packaging For A Card Holder I Got As A Gift

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#24 This Has To Stop. Too Much Packaging

One new shirt for work. It came in a plastic bag. Note it said wrinkle free and the no ironing symbol on the label but on the bag it tells you to steam iron. Three plastic labels, five pins and a paper label held on with a small plastic loop. The collar had a cardboard insert and a plastic ring ( telling me not to iron it again ) plus the small strip of plastic hooked over the top button. Inside the folded shirt was two pieces of tissue paper and this sheet of plastic. I do not know why it was there. It was the only item with a recyclable symbol on it. I forgot to mention that this piece of cardboard was inside the folded shirt too. That was from one shirt this is from three. To much unnecessary packaging and most of it not recyclable. The word has to get out to these companies that we do not need all this packaging to make the item look nice. It dose not protect the shirt (very wrinkled and full of pin holes) from damage, except for the outer bag which could have been made from a biodegradable plastic.

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#25 All This Non Recyclable Packaging Used To Send Copper Tubing. 20 Envelopes For 20 Pieces When All Could Easily Fit Into One

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#26 The Amount Of Packaging For A Tiny Refrigerator Piece

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#27 All This Packaging For This Little Item

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#28 Pills That Come In Packaging Like This

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#29 Ordered 5 Bottles Of Hair Spray At The Same Time. Came In 5 Separate Boxes On The Same Day All With It’s Own Wrapping

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#30 Delivery Of 5 Screwdrivers From Digi-Key

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#31 Today In Excessive Packaging

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#32 During Their Mating Season, The Masking Tape Must Be Separated To Avoid Unnecessary Violence

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#33 Amazon, I Don’t Think The Box Was Big Enough

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#34 Really, Walmart?

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#35 Oh Good! My Battery Arrived

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#36 What Happens When You Order Stamps From Amazon

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#37 Yes. That Huge Box Is For That Single Tube Bulb

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#38 The Amount Of Plastic In A Ceasar Salad Box

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#39 Amazon, Why You Do This?

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#40 This Might Be Amazon’s Most Unnecessary Packaging Yet

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#41 Did You Honestly Send Me Two Dog Toothbrushes And Paste In This Huge Box, Surrounded With Plastic Bubble Wrap?

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#42 Amazon… Really?!

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#43 Sephora At It Again For A .05oz Concealer

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#44 50 Feet Of Paper For 1 Bag Of Kitty Litter

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#45 We Ordered Baby Food Packages. They Normally Come In Boxes But This Time We Got 40 Individually Wrapped Containers

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#46 All This For A Mug

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#47 All This Packaging For One Eyeliner?

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#48 More Wasteful Packaging

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#49 Seriously, Amazon. Is This Really The Only Box You Had?

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#50 Packaging For A One Pound Box Of Chocolates

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#51 I Ordered A Jar Of The Most Local, Raw Honey I Could Find

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#52 Ordered A Bulk Order On Amazon From A Single Seller. They Sent Each Item In Their Own Individual Envelope With Their Own Individual Tracking Number – 50 Items In 50 Envelopes

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#53 Our New Chairs Were “Slightly” Overpackaged

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#54 Seriously?!

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Source: boredpanda.com