Less packaging means less waste. Designer Aaron Mickelson recreated how five brands might abandon packaging entirely in his thesis project. Glad trash bags are rolled and pulled from the center like they are in its box, but Mickelson just prints the branding on the outer bag, Oxo storage containers have ink that washes off, and Nivea's soap box dissolves in the shower.
In other news, Google launches note app Keep, and check out a 3D house that makes more 3D houses. See the headlines after the jump.
• What It Would Look Like If Tide, Glad, and Nivea Ditched Product Packaging | Co.Exist
• Google Launches Evernote Competitor Google Keep (For Real This Time) | Fast Company
• It’s Alive! This 3-D Printed House Builds More Houses | Co.Exist
(Image: Aaron Mickelson)
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I LOVE the idea of doing away with packaging for these types of products. Reducing waste is always a good idea in my opinion!
Cool!
That is awesome! So, if it is possible to do this and still be fully branded, these companies should surely do this! I know that I would be more apt to purchase these products if they were respectfully packaged in this way!
Of course, a lot of the most annoying packaging is to limit theft. Little things like flash drives or batteries or pens could easily be sold by the unit, with no packaging, but then they could easily be pocketed, too. And to prevent that, more people would have to be watching, so things would be more expensive (at least in stores. Maybe not online.)
Also, even the biodegradable packaging would need to be shelf stable. The plastic bags would need to STAY rolled and not slide around, etc.
I am totally supportive of reducing or eliminating packaging where we can, but there are usually reasons for what happens now -- it costs money to package things, they wouldn't do it if they didn't think the costs/benefit ration was positive. So those reasons need to be addressed.
I hate to break it to this poor student but in Belgium where I live, they already sell trash bags like this.
Water soluble ink would need to be able to withstand condensation and high humidity to be useful. If I had red ink smearing all over toilet paper/paper towels, I'd be pretty upset.
I like his thinking out of the box ideas! Yes, someone had to say it. Move on.
Many of the in-house brands of bags are sold in a plastic bag. The idea of pulling the bag out from the middle is intriguing, as it keeps the bag size readily available. The tea bag idea poses a problem: where is the tea bag? The water soluble ink on the OXO container will force me to wash it before I use it. Maybe.
While these packaging ideas are great, they underestimate the corporate world's obsession with putting out the brand. I see the Pods-on-a-sheet packed in a hard plastic clamshell, the Twinings still packed in a box. OXO may still need to put a piece of cardboard inside the container so you can read only one side of the container (they do that now with their products, but with printing on them).