I actually wish they would use more cardboard boxes and less of the plastic envelopes.
The cardboard boxes are easily recyclable or compostable. the plastic generally cannot be recycled but will sit in a landfill forever (at best).
The cardboard boxes are easily recyclable or compostable. the plastic generally cannot be recycled but will sit in a landfill forever (at best).
I prefer cardboard but I wonder if I ought not.
Spending a lot of energy to transport the much heavier cardboard (and the energy to transport the materials needed to recycle it, plus the recycling process energy) is.
Recycling is, for the most part (aluminum cans excepted) a feel-good exercise that is much more wasteful than putting something nontoxic into a landfill.
Also, the plastic envelopes are a lot easier for me to dispose of into a large bag; the cardboard I have to break down first, and that consumes a much, much, much, much more precious and scarce resource than landfill space, and one that is entirely non renewable: my life-seconds.
The tape is probably the biggest issue, and more and more of that is becoming paper I think. I'd be interested to see packaging completely free of plastic.
Uncoated paper tends to disintegrate into safe mush, which allows you to dispose of it without much care, including by sticking it in a heap somewhere and forgetting about it. In a pinch, it also burns relatively cleanly, and doesn't gum up shredding/bundling equipment.