Amazon Dumps Plastic Packaging

Amazon is finally doing something about the worst invention in modern product packaging, the hard plastic clamshells.

At one point or another, we’ve brought home a shiny new toy only to discover that it’s protected by some custom shaped force field that prevents us into easily freeing our purchased good as quickly (and sometimes safely) as we’d like.

Amazon today is fighting back against such senseless packaging with its just launched “Frustration-Free Packaging” store, which as the name suggests, sells products that don’t come encased in the horrid packing method.

"I think we’ve all experienced the frustration that sometimes occurs when you try to get a new toy or electronics product out of its package," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. "It will take many years, but our vision is to offer our entire catalog of products in Frustration-Free Packaging. We’d like to thank Fisher-Price, Mattel, Microsoft and Transcend for working with us in this effort - we truly appreciate it."

With only four the above mentioned companies on board so far, there are only 19 products that currently offered in the new section.

Besides being better for the customer, the environment is less affected with Amazon’s “Frustration-Free Packaging.” Exceptionally small products such as memory cards come in plastic clamshells many times its size (to deter shoplifting), and consumers who order online are then shipped the memory cards inside larger cardboard boxes. This leads to an unnecessarily larger carbon footprint.

Transcend now provides Amazon with just the flash memory card, the plastic case, and required documentation. The cards will now ship inside recyclable cardboard envelopes which use less material, and Amazon says it is working to shrink the envelope size even further.

The project will expand across Amazon’s international sites beginning in 2009. Check out Amazon’s new “Frustration-Free Packaging” storefront here.