An Amazon shopper was left stunned when a small pack of vitamins he ordered was delivered in a box the size of a TV.
The 3ins-tall plastic tub of health supplements, as well as a packet of barbecue skewers, were wrapped up with 10ft of paper stuffed inside the 3ft by 2ft package - the size of a small TV.
Buyer Mark Reid, 55, said: “It was like a magician’s endless handkerchief trick before I finally got to the bottom of the box and found the vitamins and skewers.
“I couldn’t believe they’d used such a lot of packaging for two very small items.
“The box and the paper probably weighed more than the pills and skewers themselves.”
Secondary school teacher Mark ordered 120 vitamin D3 pills, which cost £7.95, along with a set of 12 meat skewers for £7.49.
They arrived at his home in Alnwick, in Northumberland, on July 15.
The dad-of-two added: “I thought at first I’d got the wrong parcel and asked the neighbours but they said they hadn’t ordered anything.
“I opened the box and it was stuffed full of paper.
“It did seem like an awful waste of paper for two relatively small and lightweight items.
“I recycled the box and paper but it’s not the point. These large companies should be setting an example.”
An Amazon spokesperson said: "We continue to pursue multi-year waste reduction initiatives - e-commerce ready packaging and Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging - to promote easy-to-open, 100% recyclable packaging and to ship products in their own packages without additional shipping boxes.
"Such efforts also seek to eliminate hard plastic 'clamshell' cases and the plastic-coated wire ties commonly used in toy packaging.
"These initiatives have grown to include more than 1.2 million products over time and have eliminated more than 36,000 tons of excess packaging just in 2015."
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