I don’t mean the pretty stuff that catches your eye in a Manhattan store window or at Target either. This is an observation and brief commentary of all of the packaging that comes into my space. Number one, there’s lots of it – for even the smallest tile samples ordered. Today I got bubble wrap so strong that I couldn’t even pop it jumping up and down! A little over a week ago I found empty boxes inside new furniture. Five days ago one tile sample came in a huge box with Styrofoam peanuts and then another box followed with 3 more samples and more peanuts. We’re aware of sustainability, so we only sample with needed, return samples to manufacturers and recycle everything we can – but what do you do with the bubble wrap when all of the bubbles have been popped? We can only hope that the localities we’re in recycle the foam peanuts, that the plastic is biodegradable and that the manufacturer we order samples from, like tile, have confidence in their product and it’s strong enough to not need all of that packaging for designers to have to dispose of.
