Dangerous Design: Overpackaging

While it is easy to understand certain products' need for complicated packaging (take raw meat - no one wants raw meat in flimsy wrappings that can rip, tear, or break at any minute.  No thank you), so often does one find excessive packaging that serves no purpose at all.  In such an environmentally aware society, one would hope that people turn this awareness into action, including designers.  Designs that do not consider, or flat out ignore, their negative impact on the environment ultimately are unsuccessful and dangerous.

A major culprit of excessive packaging is Honey Babies apples.  That is correct - apples.  Wait.  This isn't just excessive packaging, it is flat out unnecessary.  Why on earth would a fruit (namely one that is hard enough to withstand outside pressure, has its own skin for protection, and really stands no threat of significant damage in transport) need to be housed in cardboard and plastic wrap with a big sticker slapped in the front, informing the apparently oblivious shopper that yes, you are looking at 5 apples.  The simple answer is that no one needs their apples to be wrapped up like this.  Whoever decided that apples needed more protection from each other certainly designed a ridiculous way of ensuring their safety.  Perhaps the designer did solve the "problem" of apples touching each other outside of a hand-picked family of five, but when he or she failed to take the impact of such packaging on the environment into consideration (and ultimately decide the risk of apple-scuffing is worth keeping landfills a little less overcrowded) he or she designed a dangerous product.

I know that this post looks like an angry rant about some pet-project of mine or something like that.  But when it comes down to it, I do truly feel like design needs to consider its impact on the world from every viewpoint, not just the one which they are attempting to improve.  A designer must ask herself "yes, these apples might be extremely unblemished and delicious, but are they worth the negative impact that they have on the Earth?" Whether you consider yourself an environmentalist or not, I think the answer is pretty obvious.

Image credit goes to edkohler