HP Bags Wal-Mart's Reduced Packaging Award With Laptop In A Bag

It's at least a bit ironic that Wal-Mart drove HP to come up with some seemingly significant packaging reductions for its Pavilion dv6929. After all, Wal-Mart IS still the place where you can leave the store with a 1-to-1 plastic bag-to-purchase ratio.

Consumer packaging reduction of 97 percentStill, reduced packaging is a beloved theme here at TreeHugger, and both HP and Wal-Mart deserve a little respect. Wal-Mart offered the Home Entertainment Design Challenge - HP responded by cutting conventional packaging on the dv6929 an unbelievable 97 percent. Gone are the styrofoam inserts and enveloping cardboard. What's left are couple of plastic bags as the throwaway items, and the computer itself nestled in a reusable bag from 100 percent recycled fabric. Perhaps even cooler is the fact that HP can put three of the computers in one shipping box, which translates to a lot fewer pallets and fewer truck miles - HP says the supply chain packaging reduction is 65 percent due to the fact that it uses so-called SmartWay transport (photo of the laptops in their shipping box after the jump).

HP says that anyone purchasing the EPEAT silver-rated $798 laptop at a Sam's Club or a Wal-Mart can also "recycle" one old computer free of charge at the stores. Via ::PlanetArtHP and Wal-Mart on packagingNew Over-Packaging Record? 17 Boxes for 32 PagesWal-Mart Introduces Packaging ScorecardWal-Mart: The Next Steps Toward Sustainability