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'Ridiculous' Amazon delivers tiny pack of straws in three separate boxes

Pub owner Beverley Parker-Stubbs has accused Amazon of being wasteful. (SWNS)
Pub owner Beverley Parker-Stubbs has accused Amazon of being wasteful. (SWNS)

A pub owner has accused Amazon of being wasteful after delivering a tiny pack of drinking straws in three separate boxes.

Beverley Parker-Stubbs, 51, ordered a single box of straws for the Queen's Jubilee celebrations for her pub, the Wheatsheaf Inn in Lincolnshire.

But the grandmother was frustrated when she ended up with a 1x1 metre large box containing another smaller box inside and another one inside that.

A picture of the 'Russian dolls' boxes showed the packing method, forcing her to recycle at least four times more cardboard than was necessary, she said.

Parker-Stubbs said: "We'd literally just ordered some straws for the pub.

"But in the end this huge box came, and inside that box was another box, and inside that box was another."

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The 'Russian doll' cardboard boxes were used by Amazon to deliver some drinking straws. (SWNS)
The 'Russian doll' cardboard boxes were used by Amazon to deliver some drinking straws. (SWNS)

She said inside those boxes was another smaller box, which itself had six boxes of 200 straws each.

Parker-Stubbs added: "It's just ridiculous. We have so much cardboard to recycle anyway. I just don't understand it. It's crazy."

The pub owner said they get many deliveries every morning and it creates a lot of recycling.

She added it's bad for business and the environment because they can't get it picked up as easy anymore.

The pub recycles and burns packaging and waste, but she said it's a shame companies don't remove it anymore.

Parker-Stubbs said: "Amazon are definitely the worst. I think we'll try and order straws from elsewhere now.”

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The Wheatsheaf Inn in Waddington, Lincolnshire. (SWNS)
The Wheatsheaf Inn in Waddington, Lincolnshire. (SWNS)
Beverley Parker-Stubbs received a box of straws inside multiple other boxes from Amazon. (SWNS)
Beverley Parker-Stubbs received a box of straws inside multiple other boxes from Amazon. (SWNS)

Last year an investigation at one of Amazon’s Scottish warehouses suggested the online retail giant was destroying millions of items every year.

ITV News found items, including smart TVs, laptops, drones, hairdryers and thousands of sealed face masks, were sorted into boxes marked “destroy” at the Amazon Fulfilment Centre in Dunfermline, Fife.

An ex-employee at the site, one of 24 such warehouses across the UK, said their “target was to generally destroy 130,000 items a week”.

During the pandemic, the company’s plastic waste surged by 29% from 211 million in 2019 to 272 million kg, according to analysis by conservation group Oceana.

An Amazon spokesperson said: “Amazon is committed to reducing packaging waste and using less packaging material.

"Initiatives like the Frustration-Free Packaging Programmes encourage manufacturers to package their products in easy-to-open packaging that is 100% recyclable and ready to ship to customers without Amazon boxes.

"Since 2015, Amazon has reduced the weight of outbound packaging per shipment by more than 36%, and eliminated more than one million tonnes of packaging material, the equivalent of two billion shipping boxes.”