LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — With Halloween decorations already in stores and the smell of pumpkin spice in the air, holiday shopping will soon be in full swing — that means a surge in shipping activity.
We're already on the lookout for package thieves, but one Las Vegas woman tells 13 Investigates the packaging itself is also problematic.
We've all had the same experience: opening a big box only to find it filled mostly with air and whatever small item we ordered. Why so much space for something so small?
A local woman's consumer concern is turning into a call for good corporate citizenship.
Consumers increasingly want conservation. Amazon knows it. In fact, the online shopping and shipping giant advertises its efforts to reduce wasteful packaging on the packages themselves. But not everyone is following that lead.
"I first posted this on January 7th," said Brenda Weems, who took to social media to share her puzzling shopping experience with family and friends. "And I got so many comments from people."
Through their health insurance company, Humana, and its subsidiary CenterWell, Brenda and her husband often have items shipped to their home. But earlier this year, they noticed a change.
"We thought it was a fluke at first," she says.
But it kept happening. And she wasn't the only one bothered.
"People were just outraged with it when I posted it," Brenda says. And she read us some of the comments. "Utterly wasteful" and "Isn't it ridiculous? I get the same thing. A small item in a big box. Talk about waste."
She says the prescriptions are properly packaged.
"All of the prescription medication comes in small — the small silver plastic envelopes. And they are all conducive to what's in them," Brenda explains. But not so much for over-the-counter items, like vitamins, pain relievers, and, "My husband ordered some socks that came in a box like this."
He received two pairs of anti-slip ankle socks in a box big enough to ship a toaster.
"We were like, this isn't funny. Look at all the waste!" Brenda says. "I received eye drops in the same size box. A tiny little bottle, and this is the box here."
Some larger companies are trying to do their part. Amazon boxes proclaim how they're "made to fit your order" or "made with less material."
They've even started including QR codes on some boxes. When you scan them, it takes you here for more information about what they call "Packaging Innovation."
The site says, "Our customers want right-sized, recyclable packaging that minimizes waste...," noting their ongoing work toward "eliminating unnecessary packaging altogether."
Whenever possible, Amazon says it uses paper-padded recyclable mailers instead of boxes which is a big part of reducing the company's carbon footprint.
"The space that it takes, even the trucks that deliver these," Brenda sighs.
More trucks on the road filled with big boxes means more traffic and more pollution.
"There are a whole lot of interconnected parts," says Professor Shashi Nambisan, Director of the Transportation Research Center at UNLV's College of Engineering.
He says the growing expectation for home delivery raises many concerns.
Including one you might not know. He explains that neighborhood streets were designed "for one garbage truck a week, one recycling truck a week. These are the heaviest loads and perhaps one or two smaller delivery vehicles a week."
Extra use drives up repair costs for homeowners and taxpayers as the functional life of our roads ends sooner than expected.
"Roads that we have designed to last 20 years, perhaps in 10 years we do an overlay, now are experiencing the same traffic loading in four, five, six years," Professor Nambisan explains.
"It trickles down to us, and we pay more for everything," Brenda said.
Medline Industries is the company name on Brenda's deliveries.
We reached out to them multiple times to ask why the waste, but they never returned our emails or phone calls.
Humana provided the following statement:
CenterWell Pharmacy, formerly known as Humana Pharmacy, provides our members with a safe and secure mail-delivery service for prescription drugs. CenterWell Pharmacy meets nationally endorsed standards of privacy, safety and security practices when it comes to delivering prescriptions and providing meaningful guidance to providers and customers. As a company, Humana is committed to the ESG goals outlined in our latest Impact Report, including reducing the amount of paper and packaging materials we send to our customers, and we work closely with our OTC suppliers to more efficiently ship their products to our members.
The report can be found here.
Brenda says she shared her concerns with a manager at Humana's office, "And she said, 'Oh, I had no idea. That's nothing to do with me. However, all the big bosses are coming in tomorrow, and I'll be certain to bring it to their attention.'"
She never got a response and says the wasteful packaging keeps on coming.
Professor Nambisan says corporate change doesn't come quickly, and customers like Brenda must continue speaking up, "... saying, hey, we need to reduce our environmental footprint or energy footprint' and ask that of the suppliers of the providers of the insurance companies."
We, as customers, can do our part too. For example, scheduling multiple packages to be delivered on the same day is something to keep in mind as holiday shopping kicks into high gear.
