Kids toys are amazingly frustrating now - the joy of receiving soon disappears as the poor child gets totally fed up waiting for their parents to wrestle all the component parts free. Every last piece is wound onto the back card of the box with one of those bendy wire things, knotted up by a mad man, and the box itself needs a pair of scissors to cut round the plastic circumference as it is totally sealed - I am convinced that if you were stranded on a desert island without scissors and supplies turned up in these sealed plastic packs, you would die before being able to get to them. They are dangerous too - as you cut round it, the sharp edges you create are perfect for ripping open the piece of skin that spans from the base of your thumb to index finger.
And the waste - I recently bought one of those powerful little speakers for iphones/mp3 players - it is very impressive as it is so small - about the size of a golf ball when closed. But it comes in a box about the size of a standard box of After Eights. That isn't the real packaging waste though - it came delivered by Play.com in a box that it was almost lost in - one little After Eight sized box and masses of brown paper packing it out. The box was so big I think you could have got 14 of these boxes in it! I hope they have planted another tree to compensate for my order.
