Packaging, packaging, PACKAGING! Ugh, it gets on our nerves so much when companies use far too much packaging for their products. ‘Excessive’ doesn’t even cut it when you look at all the plastic, paper, and bubble wrap needed for a single tiny thing. Meanwhile, the Environment’s sitting in the corner, weeping, wondering what it did wrong to deserve this and why companies don’t change their outdated business models.

Some packaging is so horrifyingly unnecessary, it gets shamed on the r/EgregiousPackaging subreddit, a place that shows that excess is far from the positive thing that some customers are led to believe. Scroll down to see the very worst offenders and let us know in the comments what the very worst example was that you’ve seen with your own two eyes, Pandas.

When you’re done with this list, you can find more fuel for your outrage by reading these two Bored Panda articles about excessive packaging right here, as well as here.

#1 Plastic Packaging For A Cd Disk……but Without A Cd Disk In It

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

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#3 Just Why?

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The r/EgregiousPackaging online community is fairly new. Founded in early 2019, it will be celebrating its 3rd birthday on January 16, 2022. In that time, the group has grown to 16.3k. 

A while back, I spoke to four experts about packaging, plastic, business, and recycling. They went in-depth with Bored Panda about the reasons why companies actually focus on having more packaging than we might think is necessary, and highlighted what we as consumers can do to affect their decision-making process.

Graham Forbes, Greenpeace’s Global Project Leader for the Plastic-Free-Future, told Bored Panda that companies have convinced people that they can use something once, for a few minutes, and then simply throw it away. “The problem is, we know now that there is no such thing as ‘away,’” he said.

#4 Soda Cans Are Very Fragile

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#5 Peeled Avocados Wrapped In Plastic

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#6 I Bought A Nail File…

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“Less than 10 percent of the plastic waste ever made has actually been recycled, with the vast majority ending up in our oceans, landfills, or incinerated—polluting communities around the globe,” Forbes, from Greenpeace, warned.

“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,” he said.

#7 Chocolate Air

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#8 Ordered Biodegradable Bamboo Toothbrushes From A Zero Waste Store – Came In 100% Non-Degradable Bubble Wrap And Plastic Bags

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#9 Individually Wrapped Jellybeans

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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 explained to Bored Panda.

Meanwhile, Kara Pochiro from the Association of Plastic Recyclers noted that “packaging often has a variety of uses that the general consumer does not realize such as protection and preservation.” In short, there are clear reasons why companies add a lot of packaging that we might find egregiously excessive. However, this doesn’t mean that we can’t change how companies operate. By changing our spending habits, we can affect the business models that corporations go for.

#10 Matryoshka Allergy Relief

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#11 [screw] Drinking Straws – This Is The Kind Of Plastic Use We Should Be Protesting

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#12 Chipotle’s “Fruit Cup”

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“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 said.

“Consumers play a big role in the success of recycling programs. They need to recycle and buy products and packaging made with recycled content.”

#13 Disposable Phone Chargers

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#14 Individually Packaged Slice Of Bread

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#15 My Father Ordered 15 Fence Posts… Legends Tell Of A Second Truck, Out There Somewhere Going To Deliver The Last One

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The CEO of Plastics for Change, Andrew Almack highlighted the fact that getting rid of plastics in packaging would require a lot of effort on the part of companies.

“Removing unnecessary plastic requires companies to redefine their supply chain. They have to do RnD while keeping in mind challenges like the visual appeal of product packaging, the durability of alternatives, sustained supply of alternatives, costing, and manufacturing,” he told Bored Panda that this may be part of the reason why some companies don’t make the switch.

#16 Why Would You Even Do That

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#17 Individually Wrapped Vegetables In A Vietnamese Supermarket

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#18 Hi Y’all, Im A Designer At Tic-Tac. Hope You Enjoy Our Newest Optimized Design For Tic-Tacs!

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“It is important for customers to purchase and use products made by businesses that focus on sustainability. When people start buying from eco-friendly businesses, the demand for such goods would increase and ignite other players to cater to this trend which could be done by a simple change in current company policies,” Almack said that customers can be a force for change.

“Being more conscious about our throwaway culture is where one should surely start. Simple changes to eliminate single-use plastic go a long way: avoid gum and plasticware, reuse storage containers and use razors with replaceable blades,” Almack explained what we can do as individuals to help the environment. Every small bit of effort matters, even if it’s the large multinational companies who hold most of the power to affect change.

#19 So I Only Get This Much Actual Cream? Wtf

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#20 An Office Supply Company Bubble-Wrapped Their Bubble Wrap

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#21 Not Only Is It Egregious, But It’s Infuriating

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A spokesperson from the Alliance to End Plastic Waste stressed the fact that plastic waste is harming our environment and that change needs to happen.

“Everyone agrees: plastic waste does not belong in our oceans, or anywhere in the environment. And despite the many benefits of plastic to health, safety, sustainability, and convenience, plastic waste has become a challenge in parts of the world because it is not managed properly,” they said in an interview with Bored Panda.

#22 Really… Amazon…

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#23 Really Glad My Made From Recycled Materials & Biodegradable Sponges Came Wrapped Together And Individually In Plastic

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#24 Must Have Been Out Of Envelopes

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“To help address the challenge in a globally coordinated and transformative way, over 40 companies around the world, from across the plastics value chain—companies that make, use, sell, process, collect and recycle plastics—have joined together with a clear mission: to help end plastic waste in the environment,” they said that some companies do focus on helping the environment. Not everyone’s a villain when it comes to packaging—some choose to be superheroes.

#25 My Friend Ordered Earrings From Fabfitfun. Just Earrings

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#26 If Only Shallots Had Natural Layers Of Protection From Their Environment. Thanks, Walmart And Suppliers

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#27 I Find This Disgusting, Lazy, And So Damn Harmful To Both The Environment And The Consumer’s Psyche…

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“The Alliance to End Plastic Waste has pledged 1.5 billion dollars over the next five years to develop, accelerate and bring to scale solutions to minimize and manage plastic waste, catalyze investment, engage communities and promote solutions including reducing, reusing, recovering, and recycling materials. Alliance efforts will be implemented in a coordinated way with support and resources from both the public and private sectors, facilitating comprehensive, meaningful, and lasting change that will help end plastic waste in the environment.”

#28 There Was Nothing In This Box But A Card And Packing Material

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#29 Not Sure If This Counts, But This Is For Only Three Things At CVS

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#30 Hopefully 2020 Brings Less Of This

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#31 Just… Why?

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#32 Ordered 27 Books From Amazon On A Single Order. Got 27 Boxes With 1 Book Each Delivered

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#33 This Tea That I Got For Christmas…

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#34 Buddy Bought Two Mini Cast Irons From Amazon

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#35 This 0.7 Ml Dogs’ Anti-Flea And Anti-Tick Drops Straight Out Of The Box

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#36 Hypocrites At Sobeys Grocery Store In Halifax Ns

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#37 Individually Wrapped Jelly Beans

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#38 Individually-Wrapped Bread Slices

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#39 Tiny Little Amount Of Eyeliner In A Huge Plastic Container

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#40 Technically Correct!

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#41 Thanks For Packaging The Spare Part, Gopro

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#42 My Workplace Has Four-Packs Of Tic-Tacs In The Snack Drawer

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#43 Guess Whole Foods Thought They Could Improve Upon The Corn Husk

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#44 Big Box For A Small Bottle With Only Enough Pills To Fill The Cap. Lame

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#45 I Received A Complimentary Bathtub With My Face Brush From Costco

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#46 When You Run Out Of Small Boxes At The Package Station But If You Go Get More You’re Pack Rate Percentage Will Go Into The Yellow

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#47 Because Mascara Is Fragile. Thanks Sephora!

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#48 Old Insurance Only Covered My Birth Control If I Went Through Mail-Order. Switching Back To Pick UPS With My New Insurance Was The Best Feeling. Product Is The Small Blue-Ish Thing Center Bottom

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#49 I Think Amazon Is Running Out Of Boxes…

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#50 For Crying Out Loud…

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#51 Ordered 150 Washers. This Is How They Were Packaged

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#52 Ordered A Tube Of Thermal Paste

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#53 Delivery Of 5 Screwdrivers From Digi-Key…

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#54 Bought A Bigger Pack Of Buenos. Only To Find Out It’s Only Two Smaller Packs Of Them. Only To Find Out They’re Then Individually Wrapped

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#55 How They Sell Bananas In Japan. Bonus: If You Don’t Explicitly Decline, The Cashier Will Give You Another Bag For The Banana

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#56 Individually Wrapped Peppers. Wtf

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#57 Individually Shrink Wrapped Apples

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#58 Thanks, Respro, For Safely Delivering My… Bandana

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#59 This Is Saddening

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#60 All Of This For A Keyboard, That For Some Reason Shipped Separately From The Laptop

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#61 I Work At A Starbucks Inside Target. These Are The Packages We Receive For Signage Updates- The Smaller Ones On The Bottom Are All We Actually Needed

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#62 It’s The Only Way To Ship A Yardstick

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#63 Not Only Do I Have To Open A Single Packet Everyday For My Meds, But They Know I Have A Disability Where My Joints Dislocate Very Easily…

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#64 First Time Seeing This For Myself. Can’t Believe People Out There Really Thought This Was A Good Idea

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#65 The Place I Work At Just Got Individually Wrapped Packages Of Individually Wrapped M&m’s

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#66 We Ordered 3 Mio Drink Flavors, They Came In 3 Packages Like This

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#67 I’m Glad There’s Not Filler But Our Cat’s Medicine Arrived In A Comically Large Box

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#68 Taking It To The Proper Place

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#69 Well, This Is A First For Me

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#70 All This To Ship That Small Little Plastic Bag On The Right

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#71 Sliced Onion In Plastic Packaging

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#72 I’m Here Trying To Be Better For The Earth, But These Vegan Patties Have This Egregious Plastic Tray

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#73 Three Layers…

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#74 Plastic Waste. Ordered 100 Sump Plug Washers And They All Came Individually Bagged In Bags That Are Far Bigger Than Is Necessary

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#75 Why Is There So Much Packaging For A Single Claritin? Isn’t This Wasteful?

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#76 Probably Been Posted, I’m New But This Packaging On What Is Normally Sold Loose

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#77 Amazon Packs My $300 Ssd In A Non-Padded Bag. My Weed Dude On The Other Hand…

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#78 Was Told To Cross Post This Here. Single Serving Ritz Found In One Of My Office’s Kitchen Cabinets

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#79 Would You Look At That

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#80 This Is How They Send My Contacts. Every. Year

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#81 The Hotel I’m Staying At Has Individual Plastic Packaging For Each Plastic Cup

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#82 Anyone Else Feel Like Our Packaging Is Wasteful For A Lot Of Our Products?

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#83 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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Source: boredpanda.com