Pretty cool. I'd like to see this gain some momentum in the States with some of the big players. Its sickening how much packaging material the average American (myself included) goes thru per day. It would be nice to have a choice. http://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/totnes-shop-packaging-banned-devon-386164
With the way things are changing, Bezos could do this on a mass scale. Kinda like the days when milk was delivered in bottles. And not just food. If I am loyal to, and buy Tide Pods once a month, do I really need a new container that each time I purchase more winds up in the trash? And even with recycling... how much energy is expended in that process? Its wasteful no matter how you slice it. There are literally thousands of consumer products that fit this bill. Imagine a fulfillment center that had a variety of various size and shape reusable containers that you sent back; that could be washed (if needed), and sent back out with a simple label. "Tide Pods" for example. All automated of course. It would be a disruptive technology to the plastics and packaging industries for sure... but who cares. Thats the way things work. Would it make a difference for the world's environmental footprint? Sure. Will it matter? Who knows. It would certainly save the consumer money as so much of the purchase price of any product is in the packaging. Folks like Bezos and Musk think big and thats a great thing. Its a brave new world and anything can be done better, more efficiently, and with an eye on saving our planet for future generations; of that I'm sure.
Why do you want to kill the recycling industry? They're job creators! Having said that; I wholeheartedly agree. It annoys me more than anything wasting time on going though layers of packaging to get to a product, having said packaging take up all the space in the trash can, and then having to deal w/disposing of it all. I've said it here before, I go through two or 3 30 gallon trash bags of shredded (as in i pass it through a shredder) junk mail every 8 months or so. Anytime I go to a fast food joint it's the same deal. I get it, you're trying to impress me by making it look special w/your fancy wrappings and special burger boxes......but it's just not cute anymore. It's one thing I love about 3rd world countries, they're laughably efficient money pinchers when it comes to these things. Granted, it's a plastic soda bag, but it beats the bottle or can.
I've long realized that the majority of the trash I have is from the packaging of the stuff I buy, rather than any leftovers. It's everywhere and it's not biodegradable and there are very few other options.