Chicken plucker at large

I seem to have misplaced my portable USB drive. If anyone sees it around it's a 1GB USB drive on a key chain. It's white with yellow and red on it. Other than that it's fairly non-descript except that it's shaped like a chicken.
Also, I received what looks like some sort of ransom note that makes me think perhaps my chicken USB drive was not lost but.... MURDERED! I mean... STOLEN!
If you find it you can leave it on my desk, no questions asked. (Other than, "Why did you steal my chicken USB drive?" and "Can you wait here while I call the police?")
Thank you.



So... Mr. Big Man Editor, are you feeling like a big man this morning after PICKING ON WORLD VISION CANADA IN AN EDITORIAL...?

Excessive packaging has got to go… and not in the landfill

With Christmas shopping season about to kick into high gear it may be time for consumers to start thinking as much about the wrappings as they do about the goods they’re purchasing.
Packaging has gone from a simple protective wrap of paper, maybe cardboard, to a high-security, highly decorative art form that’s wasteful, annoying and sometimes dangerous. Many a wound has been opened by shards of plastic from the clamshell-style hard casing that seals everything from action figures to digital cameras. CBC Marketplace reports that 300,000 Americans visit hospital emergency departments each year due to packaging-related injuries, mainly because in attempting to get at their goodies they’ll stab and slash at the plastic covering with anything handy – scissors, screwdrivers, cleavers…
And it isn’t just toys, electronics or other consumer goods that come with too much baggage. Over-packaging has become almost unavoidable. The morning paper comes sheathed in plastic, rain or shine. Don’t subscribe? Your weekend flyers will still arrive, wrapped and ready, whether you want them or not.
In the grocery store, shelves are filled with unnecessary packages and wrappings. Colourful peppers come pre-packaged in clear plastic. Clamshell containers protect precious tomatoes and berries. In the dairy case, consumers face an array of choices – plastic jugs, waxed cartons or plastic bags?
A section of the Grassroots Recycling Network website deals with excessive packaging and asks readers to chime in about what they see as the worst offenders. And as much as we talk about trying to clean up our act to leave a better world for our children, it is products aimed at kids that are among the worst offenders. Reader after reader named kids ready-to-eat lunches as the worst offender because of its plastic tray, individually-wrapped food items all covered in a cardboard wrapping. A lunch pack that includes sauce packets can contain as many as four layers of packaging in one little container. And just as bad as the packaging itself is the message it imprints on young children – that this is how their food and other goods should be packaged. Fast food meal packs – also aimed at kids – are also packaging nightmares. And any parent who has spent Christmas morning trying to free a Barbie doll or Spider-Man figure from its plastic showcase knows how much plastic, wire and cardboard goes into each and every one of those toys.
Excess packaging can also come in surprising forms. A package arrived in the newsroom last week, unsolicited. Inside the almost-shoebox-sized cardboard box was a layer of bubble wrap and inside that was a plastic egg carton. Inside the egg carton are a glossy gift catalogue and a plastic keychain that doubles as a computer USB drive shaped like a chicken.
On opening, the first reaction is who is sending this box of garbage? Crack into the egg carton and you see the catalogue is from World Vision – an organization charged with the noble goal of helping children and families in developing countries. The plastic egg carton is supposed to illustrate that some of the gifts in the catalogue include livestock such as hens and roosters. But what it really illustrates is a blatant disregard for the average consumer’s distaste of waste and excess.
The egg carton is recyclable (where such recycling exists and only if it lands in the hands of someone who is a recycler). But why would an organization like World Vision want to burden the recycling system with such an utterly useless item in the first place.
It’s a gimmick and obviously someone in the brain trust felt it was needed to gain some attention. Unfortunately in some cases the old adage isn’t true and there is such a thing as bad publicity. The egg carton and plastic chicken computer drive project an image of too-smart-for-their-own-good marketing and of excess and extravagance, not of need. It’s a major turnoff for potential donors.
In the UK in 2007, more than 100 Members of Parliament backed a newspaper’s campaign to stop wasteful packaging. The Independent newspaper estimated the average family blows 17 per cent of its food budget on packaging, generating 4.6 million tones of garbage a year.
Here at home, we can help convince manufacturers that we don’t want all that packaging. We can stop buying goods that come in such ridiculous layers of packaging. We can pass our concerns along to manufacturers and store managers. We can ask our Members of Parliament to help put a limit on how much packaging is too much or to enact legislation forcing retailers to take back packaging if consumers return it to the store – at least then it’s the vendors and not the municipalities who are paying to dump the waste.
Over packaging is an issue the average person actually has some power to change. You may be only one person but you are holding the cheque book, credit card or billfold. And that’s power.


What’s your packaging pet peeve? E-mail editor@stcroixcourier.ca or visit SAINTCROIXCOURIER.BLOGSPOT.COM to find this article and comment on it.