Everybody enjoys a Thanksgiving turkey, but packaging turkeys … not so much. Below we present to you seven particularly unappetizing packaging products that have come and gone over the years — or have come, stayed, and really need to go.
Packaging’s Champion Turkey – Polystyrene Flowables
This packaging turkey is so big it could feed a family of six for a year. Sad to say, expanded polystyrene flowables have been used for void-fill and light cushioning for decades. It’s a product that just won’t go away, despite being mediocre in functionality, ultra expensive to ship, extremely difficult to recycle, non-biodegradable, hazardous to wildlife, and a possible human carcinogen. As if that weren’t enough, consumers utterly despise these annoying tidbits of toxicity. They’re messy, hard to dispose of, and, when static electricity is in the air, cling to your sweater like a sprung bear trap. You’re also in constant danger of having the pellets get carried away by the wind on garbage day, in which case they will blow around your neighborhood like a horde of locusts, creating an unsightly, semi-permanent mess that will get you banned from block parties until the end of time.
Just to be clear, we don’t like them.
The Runners-Up
- Any Packaging Product Made with Styrene. See above.
- Asphaltic Box Sealing Tape. Decades ago, reinforced paper box sealing tape was sometimes made with a layer of asphalt in the middle to provide moisture resistance and strength. It was expensive and it smelled. Fortunately, the only way to buy it now is with a time machine.
- Corn Starch Flowables. Everybody was rooting for this eco-friendly concoction to succeed, given the universal unpopularity of polystyrene flowables (see above). However, nobody wanted to gobble up this vegetarian turkey after reports of rats, mice, squirrels, and other critters chewing their way into boxes during shipment for a little corn off the cob.
- Micro-perforated Shink Film. This attempt to market a one-size-fits-all shrink film had the stuffing knocked out of it in the field. You might as well try to market a once-size-fits-all wedding dress because, as any knowledgeable shrink film professional will tell you, air evacuation must be controlled application-by-application to accommodate variations in the product and film.
- Biodegradable Stretch Film. Biodegradable stretch film may be good for the environment, but unfortunately is not strong enough, affordable enough, or available enough for most applications. Advertising legend David Ogilvy said, “If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.” This well-intentioned turkey inspires us to say, “If it doesn’t work, it isn’t eco-friendly packaging.”
- Blister Packaging. Can a packaging product be too good? Blister packaging protects products from retail shelf tinkering as effectively as displaying them behind an electrified barbed wire fence. However, on the negative side, blister packs are as dangerous to open as carving a turkey on a roller coaster. Some enlightened sellers put perforations in the chipboard backing to overcome this dangerous drawback — but unfortunately most consumers fails to notice the perforations until after they slice open the packaging … and their finger.
This concludes our 2024 Packaging Turkey Awards.
What next year will bring? Since the packaging industry is incredibly innovative, chances are good we’ll have a whole new flock of turkeys for you in 2025.
In all seriousness, though — Happy Thanksgiving from the team at Salazar Packaging!
Related posts:
https://www.salazarpackaging.com/how-packaging-can-help-reduce-your-3pl-fulfillment-cost/
https://www.salazarpackaging.com/eco-obvious-ecommerce-packaging/
https://www.salazarpackaging.com/2-huge-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-custom-box-industry/
