Packaging

[Rhyd6]

Just spent ten minutes fighting my way into a small light bulb through plastic packaging designed to withstand a nuclear explosion. Why can't we buy things in paper bags? I end up attacking, hacking, cutting, slashing and damn near stamping on things just to get at whatever is inside. Don't get me started on blister packs, OH takes several different pills, statins, aspirin, this, that, the other all neatly packed in blister packs that require fingers of steel to push to damn things out. Sometimes I really hate so called progress.

R6

[orchard101]

couldn't agree more. I ruined a perfectly good capsule by spilling out the contents and, therefore, unable to use it.

As for food packaging, don't get me started. I am convinced that they don't want you to eat the darned things, some of them are almost impossible to open.

[Slarti]

Don't get me started on blister packs, OH takes several different pills, statins, aspirin, this, that, the other all neatly packed in blister packs that require fingers of steel to push to damn things out. Sometimes I really hate so called progress.

I to take 3 different types of tablet that come in blister packs and have discovered that, depending on which manufacturer's are supplied, one of 2 methods is to be used to avoid destroying the tablets.

Method 1. Ensure that you are pressing the edge of the tablet to the edge of the containment area so that a "point" breaks through.
Method 2. For one type where 1 does not pop them open, get my Stanley knife and run it carefully down the out edge of a row of tablets. Not to necessarily cut through the packaging, just to weaken it enough that method 1 works.

I spend an enjoyable 10 minutes, every other week decanting the tablets for the next 2 weeks into my dosset box. Originally so that I had less to carry when working away, now just to get it over and done with, with the minimum of time and effort.

Sorting the tablets is almost worse than having to take them

Slarti

[scotia]

Problems with packaging are not new - viz the pineapple tin from three men in a boat (not forgetting the dog)

We smiled at one another, and Harris got a spoon ready.

[bungeejumper]

Just for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrap_rage

They tell me that A&E departments spend tens of thousands of hours every year on treating blister and clamshell pack injuries. I use a substantial pair of kitchen scissors for warding off the inevitable, rather than a Stanley knife, because the kill ratio is lower. But then again, this isn't the place for helpful suggestions, is it?

Why don't manufacturers use paper bags and suchlike? Because you'd never buy their scruffy, scratched, non-perfect, bashed-about stuff, obviously. And because you'd have lost the screws and shims and stuff somewhere along the shipping route from China where it was made, and because there isn't a local hardware shop that will sell you five self-tapping arkwright screws with a smithson flange and a lacquered brass washer to complete the set.

And because it would mean that B&Q would have to spend more on staff who actually knew something about the products they sold. Rather than "it's all there in the packaging, sir, together with the instruction leaflet. Page 11 of which tells you how to open the effing packaging."

BJ

[quelquod]

Why don't manufacturers use paper bags and suchlike?

Paper bags eh?
When I were a lad (mind you that's a few years ago now!) our local ironmonger kept a few cut-up newspapers on his counter and he was a dab hand at knocking up a quick paper cone from a few sheets, pouring in your ounce or two of brads or whatever and crimping the package shut. Worked like a charm, minimal cost, eco-friendly-ish and you could even read the odd snippets on the wrapping afterwards. Wouldn't suit mass-production though I suppose. Hey-ho!