Food Packaging Downsizing

[ghostrider]

Just wondering, do people in the US have to pay for the amount of waste they produce or is there a fixed tax on waste disposal? If the former is true, like it is in many European countries, than that extra packaging has a cost for the consumer, and not only an ecological one.

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I'm not sure if it is like this all over the US, but here there is no charge for more waste. Actually, I have never lived anywhere where there was _any_ cost for waste disposal, or at least not one listed as such (I imagine that it is rolled into my apartment rent at the moment, but that is for all I can trash ;) ).

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Waste disposal charge schemes vary between communities across the U.S. In some towns (like my mother's in Missouri) it comes to you on a separate bill & the disposal company tracks how much they pick up from you, so you pay directly for the trash you generate.

In others (like mine), it's lumped in as part of your quarterly property tax bill. You have to read the Mayor's Annual Letter to Residents to figure out exactly how much you're paying.

Edited January 6, 2005 by ghostrider (log)

[Cusina]

In many places in the U.S. garbage cost is hidden. Unless you live in a very high density or very green aware area or strangely, way out in the country and have to haul it to the dump yourself, you have no idea what you pay for garbage. I was completely appauled at the amount of waste we created at the holidays this year. I definitely attribute some of it to increased food packaging. There are some products I just won't buy because of it. I understand some things need protection during shipping, but it gets extreme.

[Hest88]

In one of the few times I've heard Andy Rooney (the 60 Minutes guy) he was doing an "expose" of packaging downsizing and ranting at how it was a sneaky way for companies to start overcharging us without our knowledge. His example was some brand of coffee, as I recall.

[phaelon56]

I get the impression that people don't pay much attention to the "unit price" signs on grocery store shelves but perhaps they're not mandated by law everywhere as they are here in NY state. I rarely remember the overall retail price of specific items I buy regularly to the penny but for some reason I have a recollection of the unit price.

I do agree that it's sneaky but in some cases I'd rather pay the same overall price and get a slightly smaller package rather than have go up dramatically for a package. Edie's ice cream went ot a smaller package - I think it's about 1.75 qts in the container that used ot be a half gallon (2 quarts) but for some reason they now run them on sale 2 for $5 at my local store whereas before the smaller size it rarely went under $2.99 each (thus my unit price is about the same because I buy on sale).

As for coffee prices.... buy from a local/regional microroasters and in most cases you'll buy a "pound" and get a real pound. Not to mention that you'll usually get far better coffee than you can find in a grocery store.

[ludja]

First it started with the Coke bottles going from 2.0L to 1.5L.

Now I notice that somewhat surreptitiously, Breyers Ice Cream has changed their packaging from 64oz to 56oz.

Has anyone else noticed a lot of big brands are doing this? And they aren't charging any less for the smaller packaging, either.

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Yup, just noticed this at Thanksgiving--ever since I can remember it has been 2 quarts of ice cream; I was very angry when I saw this.

Also at T-day I was shopping for Jimmy Dean sausage for stuffing--and they decreased the pkg from 16 oz to 12 oz. It was very easy to notice just by looking at the packaging. I bought the supermarket brand which was still 16 oz.

[momlovestocook]

It's not only the food products in the grocery store that have decreased in size. One of the worst ones is toilet paper. I think(with three females in the house) that we go through a roll a day! They have decreased the number of sheets per roll and charge the same.

Tampax lost a lot of customers about 10 years ago when they made the boxes smaller but charged the same amount. There were a lot of upset women out there.

I know every now and then I notice that a prduct has been downsized but guess what-I'm paying the same or more for it. Off the top of my head, one is potato chips-the bags just keep getting more air in them and less chips. I guess as long as the companies keep getting away with it, nothing will change.

Sandra

[ghostrider]

First it started with the Coke bottles going from 2.0L to 1.5L.

Now I notice that somewhat surreptitiously, Breyers Ice Cream has changed their packaging from 64oz to 56oz.

Has anyone else noticed a lot of big brands are doing this? And they aren't charging any less for the smaller packaging, either.

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Now that I think about it, the Breyers change happened sometime last year, at least in Jersey. I have a 1.75 quart package in my freezer from early October - I know it's that old becuase that's when my doc scared me into swearing off the stuff. I seem to recall noticing the changeover some months before that.

Oddly, the corporate website doesn't mention anything about this.

Not that the details much matter, it's the principle of the thing.

[Moopheus]

This has been going on for some time now, though personally I haven't noticed it too much in my own shopping. When I buy ice cream, it's usually by the pint (single-serving containers!), which is still usually a pint. I only buy a half-pound of coffee at a time.

As for the Hershey bar, there's a wonderful little essay by Stephen Jay Gould, "Phyletic Size Decrease in Hershey Bars," in the book Junk Food:

"As a paleontologist used to interpreting evelolutionary sequences, I spy two prevalent phenomena: a gradual phyletic size decrease within each price lineage; and occasional sudden mutation to larger size (and price) following previous decline to dangerous levels. I am mostly innocent of economics, the dismal science. But I think I finally understand what an evolutionist would call the 'adaptive significance' of inflation. Inflation is a necessary spin-off, or by-product, of a lineage's successful struggle for existence. For this radical explanation of inflation, you need grant me only one premis--that the manufactured products of culture, as fundamentally unnatural, tend to follow life's course in reverse. If organic lineages obey Cope's rule and increase in size, then manufactured lineages have an equally strong propensity for a decrease."

[MarketStEl]

It's not only the food products in the grocery store that have decreased in size.  One of the worst ones is toilet paper.  I think(with three females in the house) that we go through a roll a day!  They have decreased the number of sheets per roll and charge the same.

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Those big rolls of one-ply toilet tissue -- Scott Tissue (two words ever since the demise of Scott Paper as an independent company), Marcal regular and their store-brand cousins -- are still 1000 sheets per roll, as they have always been. They have also gotten softer over the years, though they are still not as soft as those puffy 2-ply brands whose roll sizes are shrinking. (Hmmm, hadn't noticed this in the paper products aisle. Maybe that's because all the major brands now have "double roll" and "triple roll" packs that cushion the blow somewhat.)