Portland loves to reduce, reuse and, of course, recycle. But even here there are some things that just cannot be recycled. Take the plastic clamshell box, ubiquitous at grocery stores, full of ...

The scissors were on sale for $3. Suspended between two thick layers of tough plastic, they looked permanently imprisoned. Ingenuity, and no small amount of effort, would be needed to free my ...

How often have you struggled to open tamper-proof jars or medicine caps? Have you ever cut yourself while wrestling with shrink-wrap and hard, sharp plastic covers? Not only do product designs ...

Parents hate it and it's bad for the environment, so why are so many toys wrapped in layers of plastic wrap, twist ties, and clamshell boxes that practically take a chain saw to open? A packaging ...

For environmentalists, few quests would seem to make as much sense as the dream of biodegradable Styrofoam. As Greg Glenn, a USDA scientist who has worked on the problem for years, says, “If you’re ...

In a world of boring boxes and impossible-to-open clamshell packaging, this simple, brilliant design for a headphones box by Panasonic stands out. It showcases the product. It's simple. It's clean. It ...