Here’s an alarming statistic. The EPA (Environment Protection Agency) has revealed that we throw away an eye-watering 70,000,000 tonnes of packaging each year and in fact the numbers keep rising year on year. Do you really need a pair of headphones vacumn-sealed in more plastic or an entire box with fold out wings to house a small USB key?

Probably not.

But it’s not down to the consumer to reduce waste, they’re just buying the product – it’s down to the designers, the creators of that packaging to start thinking smarter to help reduce that 70 million tonnes of landfill.

Graphic designer Aaron Mickelson was asked a simple yet poingnat question “Can we eliminate that waste entirely? “ He took that concept applying the functions of packaging to the product itself, we can create a package that has completely disappeared by the time you’re done using the product.

Here’s just a few of his ingenious solutions, you can see more via the http://www.disappearingpackage.com - we hope the brands he’s featured take notice!

Twinings Tea Bags

Currently: Twinings tea bags, as they’re sold now, are stapled to a paper handle at the end of a string, wrapped in a waxed paper folder, stacked with other folders in a heavy paperboard box and then sealed in plastic. The outermost layer of plastic is thrown away immediately, the box when all of the tea has been used.

Here’s his solution:

NIVEA SOAP

Currently: Though here NIVEA is used as an example, this is true of nearly all bar soaps: the bar is contained in what is usually a heavy paper carton that is rendered useless as soon as the soap bar is removed.

Here’s his solution:

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