Not so green: eBay’s excess PR packaging

Okay we get the point, eBay customers can now buy their goods safe in the knowledge that by using PayPal Buyer Protection, they get up to £500 worth of cover for undelivered and unwanted goods bought on eBay.

But the Diary, and the environment, certainly had not counted on the excessive packaging that the online auction site would use to promote its service: two mail bags, two cardboard boxes, one e-mail and one hard-copy press release (containing card, paper, and plastic) and a small compass (apparently because that’s not what someone would be expecting to receive in a large box sent by an auction-hosting website).

Unnecessary packaging such as this is all too common. Mercifully, there may now be a solution. Environmental organisation Climate Counts is ranking companies by how well they minimise their carbon foot-prints on its website, www.climatecounts.org. EBay and Apple get a remarkably low score of two, while Amazon scores even lower with zero.

Companies such as these will have to change their ways if they want to keep their customers. Organisations such as Climate Counts are advising consumers to start basing their buying decisions on climate change policy. They’ll also have to reckon with the Diary’s “not so green” naming-and-shaming section, in which this is the inaugural entry.

Hopefully, for the sake of the environment, this won’t be a regular item. But that’s really up to you.