This is absurd, no really.

While I'll probably be the first to suggest that many environmental movements are somewhat misguided or misinformed (read "Smelling Land" by David S. Scott and you'll find an interesting story about the "energy crisis" and turning off lights that will have you looking at a lot of things differently) I do make an effort to minimize my impact on my surroundings. I'm not perfect, and I'm sure I could do more, but I do try to visit the grocery store with my own bag on my back so I don't need to take away yet another plastic bag no matter how much less beautiful Sam Mendes's world gets as a result. I generally ride my bicycle everywhere, shop locally etc. Not everything that is recyclable ends up where it should in my house but more often than not I find the right receptacle for whatever consumable it is that I'm abusing and I'm always a little surprised at how much garbage the average bike build generates considering the environmental pluses these simple machines are supposed to embody. Which brings me to today's blog entry. Check out that svelte and appealing Selle Italia SLR saddle. Wow! Only 135 grams (claimed weight) and it looks good too. But what's with that packaging? I mean, I realize it's a high end saddle and that presentation of such an item isn't to be overlooked but this seat comes bolted to a hard plastic shell that doesn't even protect the saddle in question as the majority of the shell is formed to provide a convenient hook to hang the saddle on the wall by and a drawer, yes, an actual sliding bin, to hold a small catalogue in, though for the life of me I don't know why I would need a catalogue for saddles after having just bought a saddle. One would think my research into the world of saddle catalogues would be somewhat complete since the very vehicle to which was attached said catalogue carries within it a high end/high performance saddle.





Check this out, 495 grams of packaging and saddle.



And the packaging itself, 347 grams. Let's overlook that this makes this 135 gram saddle actually weigh 148 grams and focus on the fact that the packaging to deliver the product weighs more than twice as much as the product itself. As recently as a year ago this very same seat came in a cardboard box that allowed you to stack a number of these saddles conveniently on a shelf. The new custom formed packaging isn't nearly as stacking friendly nor is it easily recycled in comparison to the user friendly cardboard box the saddles used to come in.

I don't really know what the point of this blog entry is except that I was so blown away by the excessiveness of the backing for this saddle that I had to tell someone. I suppose fifteen years ago this kind of thing wouldn't even be noticed but today it just seems so out of place.