The Energon Pub

As an environment student currently studying the field at University, I thought I'd write something up that has been nagging me; Transformers Packaging.

Now I'm not here to say stop buying Transformers, because that's something we all like here. Nor am I going to say let's stop the production of such wasteful packaging, because there's nothing we can do about it. Transformers will continue to be produced, no matter what. At least packaging has changed over the years, and in all honesty it's gotten pretty decent now in days, the Bubbly over packaged plastic in Armada/Energon has started becoming smaller with the Movies/Animated. Regardless, there's one thing that all of us fans can do to help out the Environment.

And that is... Recycling. For those MISB collectors, this doesn't apply to you because you keep everything. For those who simply take the toy out of the package, and shove everything else into the garbage... I just find that unacceptable. I know a lot of people buy a load of Transformers, and everything ends up in the garbage right? How about changing things. With Deluxes, the plastic container obviously goes in the garbage, that can't be recycled. But when it comes to the card, the cardboard titles, and everything else that is recyclable, it should be either kept, which is what I do, or recycled. Voyagers, Leaders, and Box sets, it takes little time to cut the plastic out of the box, bag the plastic, and then recycle or keep the rest of the box.

Challenge yourself to do this, not only with Transformers, but with everything else that you use extensively in your daily life. I know it's easy to think, oh, well, it's just ME, what I do or not do shouldn't affect the world. Well no matter how introverted you are, that type of thinking isn't going to get anyone anywhere. When the environment goes down the shitter, you can look at yourself proudly and said you attempted to prevent it. And if the environment continues to prosper, live and grow, you can put arms around your children and tell them, 'Yeah, I recycled'. While we can't exactly go big here and make Hasbro cut down their excessive packaging, it is always good to start small.

And c'mon...

Karma?




Cheers,
Blurrz

I recycle my throw-away packages always, but I didn't know about cutting out the plastic part on the boxes.

I cut up the plastic parts of my Transformers packages that I throw away. I also throw them into the plastic recycling bin because it's required in the city I live in. Actually, recycling has been mandated for a few years now in my home province.

I keep the cards that are unique(have the character profile and such). For the generic ones, I keep one and throw away duplicates, again, it goes into the appropriate recycle bin. I keep my large boxes too. I take out the formed plastic parts and then use the boxes to store my Transformers figures I don't display(you can fit a bunch of figures in a Voyager or Leader class box! ). I actually do this partly for space consideration as well because using the packaging this way is more space efficient.

This is an opportunity for me to praise the Alternity packaging yet again because it's extremely efficient due to minimal space waste and serves as a great display container. Two birds with one stone.

Convotron wrote:I cut up the plastic parts of my Transformers packages that I throw away. I also throw them into the plastic recycling bin because it's required in the city I live in. Actually, recycling has been mandated for a few years now in my home province.

I keep the cards that are unique(have the character profile and such). For the generic ones, I keep one and throw away duplicates, again, it goes into the appropriate recycle bin. I keep my large boxes too. I take out the formed plastic parts and then use the boxes to store my Transformers figures I don't display(you can fit a bunch of figures in a Voyager or Leader class box! ). I actually do this partly for space consideration as well because using the packaging this way is more space efficient.

This is an opportunity for me to praise the Alternity packaging yet again because it's extremely efficient due to minimal space waste and serves as a great display container. Two birds with one stone.

Guess, Canada is more eco-friendly.

Probably not. I mean, the laws in certain provinces for recycling may make things look that way but people here still litter and waste too much.

Convotron wrote:Probably not. I mean, the laws in certain provinces for recycling may make things look that way but people here still litter and waste too much.

Litter is a big problem everywhere I think. I mean, a trash-can within a few walking distance seems too far for some lazy people; that they rather just throw the trash on the ground.

People sometimes won't change, even for the better, unless forced to. It's the small things too like litter. One person being too lazy to walk a little extra to put something in a trash can is one thing. A thousand people doing the same thing adds up.

Convotron wrote:People sometimes won't change, even for the better, unless forced to. It's the small things too like litter. One person being too lazy to walk a little extra to put something in a trash can is one thing. A thousand people doing the same thing adds up.

Right, it's not crime exactly, but it sure is hurting Earth.

Wait, the plastic bubble is not recyclable? Damn, it should be. I even remove the plastic window from envelopes so I can recycle the paper part so I hope this article encourages people to do more. It really doesn't take much effort to recycle. When it first started up in my area I didn't want to bother but it didn't take long to get in the habit.

Wow, I didn't know the plastic bubbles weren't recyclable. Oops.

I usually keep my card backs and inserts for deluxes, and just recycle the bubble and tray.

Razorclaw0000 wrote:Wow, I didn't know the plastic bubbles weren't recyclable. Oops.

I usually keep my card backs and inserts for deluxes, and just recycle the bubble and tray.

Nah, Bubble is recycle >_> . Back in Alberta I remember it was only paper or something in 'blue bags' or whatever.

Blurrz wrote:

Razorclaw0000 wrote:Wow, I didn't know the plastic bubbles weren't recyclable. Oops.

I usually keep my card backs and inserts for deluxes, and just recycle the bubble and tray.

Nah, Bubble is recycle >_> . Back in Alberta I remember it was only paper or something in 'blue bags' or whatever.

Does the bubble have the little recyle symbol on it? Otherwise our recycling company won't take it...

Blurrz wrote:

Razorclaw0000 wrote:Wow, I didn't know the plastic bubbles weren't recyclable. Oops.

I usually keep my card backs and inserts for deluxes, and just recycle the bubble and tray.

Nah, Bubble is recycle >_> . Back in Alberta I remember it was only paper or something in 'blue bags' or whatever.

So are they recyclable in the States or not? So confused now.

We are given two cans. One regular and one for ALL recyclables. Cans, glass, paper, plastic - it all goes in one can. This makes recycling easy because I do not have to do any sorting. We recycle almost everything. It is not rare for us to only have one bag of real garbage (sometimes none) yet our recycle can is filled to the top.

All my TF packaging gets recycled, unless it is a rare G1 item.

Lapse Of Reason wrote:We are given two cans. One regular and one for ALL recyclables. Cans, glass, paper, plastic - it all goes in one can. This makes recycling easy because I do not have to do any sorting. We recycle almost everything. It is not rare for us to only have one bag of real garbage (sometimes none) yet our recycle can is filled to the top.

All my TF packaging gets recycled, unless it is a rare G1 item.

Me too, which is why I thought plastics goes in the recycle.

The recycling companies in my area take almost all plastics. Of course I live in Portland, a city visited and studied by officials from other states and other countries for their green policies and habits.

I'm just really bummed when an eBay seller sends me a box stuffed with styrofoam. You have to have a specific and very expensive-to-build facility to recycle that crap, and so I literally have no choice but to throw it away. I took to asking sellers if they used the stuff, or if they could use something else for my order, before I commit to a purchase.

I've been saving the styrofoam and bubblewrap that is used for packing material in the items I've purchased online. The boxes too. Some of it I've set aside to be used for my eventual move back to school. The rest is going to be delegated to the communal storage room for anyone to use if they need to mail parcels.

I remeber back in the 80's to the early 90's when the japanese packaging used the oh so environmentally styro foam. Heck my recent vintage Sky Garry was packaged in one, none of the evil twisties......

Oh, man, I despise the twisty ties. Even moreso after experiencing the better packaging methods like those used by the Alternators and Alternity lines. I really like the HA packaging style too. My HA came with two twisty ties but they were reasonably used to secure BB in alt mode. Not like the craziness I've recently experienced with Scout Rollbar, which had four or so twisty ties and two clear elastic bands. All for a single Scout figure!

Convotron wrote:Oh, man, I despise the twisty ties. Even moreso after experiencing the better packaging methods like those used by the Alternators and Alternity lines. I really like the HA packaging style too. My HA came with two twisty ties but they were reasonably used to secure BB in alt mode. Not like the craziness I've recently experienced with Scout Rollbar, which had four or so twisty ties and two clear elastic bands. All for a single Scout figure!

WTB G1 packaging back again, or are those more production costs.

I would be happy with a brand new figure that was wrapped in bubblewrap and enclosed in a container just slightly bigger than the figure.

Convotron wrote:I would be happy with a brand new figure that was wrapped in bubblewrap and enclosed in a container just slightly bigger than the figure.

are bubblewrap cheaper than twisty ties?

shonenfan4 wrote:

Convotron wrote:I would be happy with a brand new figure that was wrapped in bubblewrap and enclosed in a container just slightly bigger than the figure.

are bubblewrap cheaper than twisty ties?

I have no idea but I would prefer that as an option for securing and protecting a Transformer.

I much prefer the two clear plastic pieces, clamshelled together, ala Takara; it's one of the reasons I really enjoy the Encore releases. I despise all the twisty ties Habro insists on using.

magnusalpha wrote:I much prefer the two clear plastic pieces, clamshelled together, ala Takara; it's one of the reasons I really enjoy the Encore releases. I despise all the twisty ties Habro insists on using.

I was so happy that G3 trailer used that style, too. It was pretty sweet. I wish Hasbro would take note. But I guess the twist ties are cheaper than a second molded shell.