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If you do end up with mountains of packaging materials, don't throw them out: some places accept them for recycling and there are always people on Freecycle who need them.

I don't see why people can't just go to stores themselves if they're so concerned about recycling. It's one thing if it's a rare book that's only available online but Pyrex cups? They're everywhere!

And if you don't order something together, of course it'll arrive separately in separate boxes. Everything is automated and these companies deal with tons of orders a day so it's not that obvious to them that they have a double order for the same residence.

I'm going to beg to differ with you, jems. Pyrex isn't everywhere. For those of us who grew up (and currently live in) the middle of nowhere, the nearest Pyrex cup is at least 45 miles away. Is it worse to waste the gas (and add to pollution) by driving the 90 miles round trip or order it online and let the pollution/gas be divided up amongst numerous people?

Also, I frequently shop Target online and they are very careful about their packing. They stuff as much as possible into one box and use cardboard and tissue paper for buffers. Very happy with the T.

Unfortunately, this over-packaging seems completely reasonable to me, at least from Amazon's viewpoint. They probably spend about 2 extra cents for what we consider excessive packaging materials, but they are almost guaranteed that the product will get there intact. Otherwise, they skimp on that 2 cents worth of material and they risk paying x amount of dollars to replace something that broke in the box.

You know if CindyW had received a bowl that was broken when it was being delivered, that post would be a rant about shoddy, cheap packaging... It wouldn't be a post like "Even though my item was broken, I'm glad they used less materials to make the delivery a bit more 'green'"

I'm going to beg to differ with you, jems. Pyrex isn't everywhere. For those of us who grew up (and currently live in) the middle of nowhere, the nearest Pyrex cup is at least 45 miles away.

Ditto! I lived at the Oregon coast for nine years. Just getting something basic like plumbers tape often meant driving to three hardware stores. We called it the Hardware Boogie.

I found that ordering online became a godsend. I typically reused my Amazon boxes, and many shippers (technology companies in particular) used biodegradable packing peanuts. I recycle my styrofoam packing peanuts for my own storage and packing. When I used to order frequently from Amazon, I always selected the "group my shipment" option so that things would arrive in the same box, if possible.

Even though I now live in a larger city, I still order online occasionally since I think that's more efficient than the gasoline used while chasing around to two to three stores looking for what I need. When possible, as with Powells Books, I request local pickup for my orders. Unfortunately, that's not always an option. The cupboard knobs that I ordered from Rejuvenation (because they weren't in stock in the local store) will be shipped to my house because that's their only option. I'll report back on how ecofriendly their packaging was.

Jems, I didn't see it mentioned that the four Pyrex cups were ordered separately. It seems unlikely to me that someone would place four separate orders for the same bowl.

I know that Amazon has frequently shipped my orders piecemeal - three items, three separate boxes, even though I ordered them all at one time.

I read somewhere a comparison of the environmental costs of ordering products online from a place like Amazon versus going to the store, and Amazon won. I can't find the piece right now, and if I recall correctly it was more looking at fuel and emissions than packaging. I thought it was interesting, though, and surprising. I think the gist was that it's better for the environment for products to be shipped out from central warehouses in big batches than to have people make a ton of individual trips, especially when some of those could be significant distances!

That seems like a lot of packaging in the picture, but I like those air-filled packing bag things, I reuse them or I pop them and recycle them with my plastic bags. They're way more reusable than packing peanuts. Too bad the box was about 4x as big as needed.

It surprises me that ordering online has a smaller footprint than going to a bricks and mortar store. Maybe they're assuming a long roundtrip drive to the store or something? Because to me it seems like it would be far more efficient for a shop to get one weekly shipment of hundreds of items than everyone ordering each item individually and having it delivered right to their door.