My first online delivery in a long time: disgusting, sickening waste
I try to avoid shopping online. Actually, I try to avoid shopping. I buy food and a couple pieces of clothing a year. Recently I bought some piping when my kitchen pipes had rusted through.
But as I wrote in I love where I live but it’s being destroyed, part 2: Online delivery, “Amazon: save pennies, ruin your community.”
Still, I’m like everyone. I balance values to make things work. That’s how I can keep my garbage to one load since 2019. I can’t afford to be extreme like most Americans, filling landfills, practicing imperialism and colonialism by dumping waste on others’ land, effectively appropriating it.
Case in point: my computer uses a track point: little joystick in the middle of the keyboard instead of a mouse pad. Over time it wears out. To replace mine, I checked every store around me, looked for months on Craigslist and Offerup. Nothing.
I looked on ebay, which had many, but not used. They were off-brands shipping from overseas. They might wear out faster than from Lenovo, the company that makes the computer. In the end, I couldn’t think of an option beyond buying them from Lenovo, which meant ordering them.
Here’s what I bought. They only sold packs of ten, but can you see how small it is? It’s about the size of a pea.
Now look at all the packaging it shipped in. They could have stuck all ten in a regular paper envelope. They have no moving parts. They would have been fine.
This packaging is disgusting, and I paid for it. It’s literally sickening.
As disgusting as I find it, I know that many people buy things online daily, even multiple items per day daily. My building’s lobby is filled with packages daily. My doormen remark the few times per year that I receive deliveries. I’m apparently the only resident in the roughly 100 unit building who doesn’t receive packages weekly or so (or order takeout, don’t get me started).
As I wrote, it’s sickening. In how many ways? I can think of at least three:
- Manufacturing the packaging pollutes, which is sickening.
- Disposing of the packaging releases poisons, especially the plastic.
- Just looking at it makes me feel sick
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