WHAT is up with the world of packaging? Don’t they listen to the news, read books? These days all we talk about is conservation, The Green Movement and any effort we might put in.

“Did you know that shutting off the water while brushing teeth saves X gallons of water and can save the lives of Y herds of gigunda elephants?”

“No! but just last week I saved some dolphins by only filling up my bathtub half way!”

I know I’m poking fun, but we have all gotten so terribly earnest and serious about “Greening” and, eh, if we go a bit overboard, it may not be such a bad thing because something needs to be done.

What I’d like to know is why hasn’t the word gotten out to package designers? Ever notice when you by a bottle of aspirin it will say 60 tablets but the bottle could probably hold 1oo and they stuff it with lots of cotton to boot. Now tell the truth, how many times have you thrown away that cotton? What a waste.

What about that bag of evilly delicious crunchy snack treats? The bag says X number of ounces, okay? but when you open it, and stick your paw in…all ready for that first crunch, it takes you about half a mile to reach the bottom of the bag where the evilly delicious is located. Most of the package is taken up by so much empty space filled with air. What a waste.

Not too long ago I went to the movies, where, even at a matinee, it cost me 10 bucks. But I digress and that’s another topic. My issue is with the movie candy packagers. I bought a huge box of Raisinettes and do you know that when I opened it up, inside was a plastic bag of candy that was only half the size of the huge box! Interestingly enough, a similar box of candy at the supermarket doesn’t have the plastic bag inside, just the candy, and it seems to me, to be more full. Try it out.

And y’know? I love eating popcorn at the movies…but, like, excuse me? Why did they ever do away with the popcorn buckets? I bet the buckets were too expensive a package. Those silly bags are fercockta and just plain messy. Plus you can never get the butter evenly spread, even if the popcorn person is kind enough to fill it half way and let you add butter before filling it the rest of the way. I have actually resorted to taking one of those black plastic doggy bag containers most restaurants seem to favor these days, pouring my bag of popcorn into it, then adding the butter. Close the lid and shake! All that buttery goodness gets evenly spread and doesn’t end up on my pants because it leaked through the fercockta bag. I ask you, why don’t they have plastic popcorn buckets that can be washed or recycled?

And people are not the only ones getting gypped, rooked and bamboozeled. Our poor furry friends are just as afflicted by the bad packaging people. A curious thing happened to the furry friends food biz awhile back. They started making “shredded”, “sliced” and “prime cuts in gravy” dinners [translation: anything labeled shredded, sliced or prime cuts = less meat, more gravy]. When savvy consumers started to catch on and bought the the more typical style dinner, the one without gravy, they started shrinking the amount of food in the can and filling in the space with, you guessed it, gravy. I know this issue has more to do with cheating food manufacturers than cheating package designers. But it still is a misleading package and it still gets my goat. Besides a cat cannot live by gravy alone (and neither can a dog!) and we need to say something before all that’s left in the can is gravy!

There are some products like Tic-Tacs that have no choice. It would look bad if they tried to use the old “some settling may have occurred” line. Hey, I wonder how come pasta makers are so honest. As far as I know, I have yet to open a box of pasta and find it has “settled during shipping” to the point that it’s only half full. Toothpaste is the same way…no half full tubes here. Hmmm.

On the bright side, there are some companies that are very good about packaging and even quite innovative. In an upcoming blog I will be listing some of them. (See page called Packaging Industry: Good vs Evil). You are welcome to add yours to my list of bad guys and good guys…maybe we can make a small dent in the waste or perhaps keep em’ a little more honest. Big business is betting “John Q” doesn’t see these things or if he does, doesn’t care about them, but I bet he does care and so do I.

Just a thought I caught flying by, what do you think?