Great post, and I agree totally it's about time all manufacturers started taking this seriously. I suppose a starting point is to contact them and make your/our opinions known. Let retailers know also.

Locally where I am we have plastics recycling, so it's also up to people to use thos facilities if they have them or, if not, then nag their local government to start taking the pollution issues seriously, even if they poopoo climate change you can't argue with the environment/plastic problem.

Indeed synthetic reeds may be small improvement - al;though they themselves are made from plastic they can last 10 - 20 times longer.

 

Yes, the Earth is choking on plastic. We are killing the oceans, & cannot simply continue producing more & more garbage. I suggest that you contact the manufacturers with your plea to package reeds (& everything else) more sustainably. If they ignore you or try to fob you off with corporate doublespeak, keep reiterating that this is actually important.

 

Worse is that these foolish little things can't be recycled. Same with plastic forks/knives/ straws..they are somehow problematic at sorting facilities. They are NOT recyclable. Maybe they would take them back for sanitizing cleaning and reuse! ... I won't hold my breath but that would be the best solution (short of just eliminating them)

I think Alexander reeds are in paper only, within a flashy metal and recyclable?..outer package. Which I have a stack of 20 empties for some reason. Would make a cool pieces of object art..

 

The Gonzalez reeds I just got come in small cardboard boxes with cardboard reed holders. I like their FOF clarinet reeds and just got some soprano, tenor, and baritone reeds to try.

 

AW Reeds (from Germany) come in old-fashioned cardboard & paper sleeves.

 

Very good point. The paper/cardboard sleeves worked just fine for how long? Plastic is so misused. It's actually a wonderful material and the fact that it lasts just about forever makes it one of the materials that should be used for permanent or reusable objects rather than disposable ones.

 

Vandoren is the worst. Every time I open a box of Vandoren reeds I have a huge pile of trash.

 

Shakusax, that's a very good point! I'll email Vandoren myself as suggested by sopsax since I like their blue box, thanks for the idea! As for another option besides the ones that were mentioned, I think Francois Louis comes in cardboard box also.

 

You are absolutely right about the plastic pollution going on and on. Individual complaints often don't change much, but actually the overall solution could be very simple if we would get a World wide pollution tax on all polluting products (or products packed in polluting materials). In that way people won't buy those (more expensive) products anymore and companies will change their products to more environmental friendly if they want to survive.

That this can work was recently proven in the UK, where the government did increase the tax on energy drinks with very high sugar content (the tax was applied above a certain percentage of sugar). Some of the producers immediately lowered the sugar percentage to below the limit to compensate for the lost sales. In this case that tax was more a health regulation tax, but this method could and probably will also work against environmental pollution. Big issue is to get all countries acting the same on this, which actually seems impossible in our current Word.

 

I agree the old paper sleeves worked just fine for 100 years. But more taxes? No! How about we humans quit dumping garbage in the oceans and put it in a landfill that can be sealed and properly engineered to protect ground water for 10,000 years? I've worked on the closure and sealing of several landfills, as a land surveyor, and it is very doable.

 

i did write to Rico 4 or 5 years ago (before the company was sold). i complained about all the plastic and said that boxes of 25 reeds wrapped in only paper served me well for many years without any problems. They thanked me for my letter, and said that most of their customers liked the plastic, and good-bye.

 

They thanked me for my letter, and said that most of their customers liked the plastic, and good-bye.

This is typical, and obviously not something they could back up, especially nowadays since Blue Planet. The consumer fight against wasteful packaging will not be easy. Markewting departments want their product to look elegant, impressive and attractive.

I notice that these days cucumbers come shrinkwrapped. It's so totally pointless.

 

Marcas used to be just paper, but I haven't bought them in a while. Are they still just in paper holders or are they using plastic now as well?

 

The last Marcas I bought--a couple of months ago--still used paper.

 

I recently switched to Rigotti gold, and these reeds don't have any plastic in the box. Just a piece of thin cardboard to hold the reeds (2 reeds to 1 piece of cardboard).
I think that is a good thing.

 

Is this recent? All my Rigotti Gold reeds are in plastic sleeves.

 

what about cheap saxophones?
there are all those components,alot of plastic in them,not just brass including cases/straps/mpcs/etc.these are all throw away too.
what about anything these days made for only 12months warranty,maybe lasting 2or3 years.
cars are full of plastic.
greed really, and it goes across the board on ALL PRODUCTS.

 

Another thing we can do when selling saxophones is to STOP USING THOSE POLYSTYRENE PEANUTS. Actually I think the green ones are compostrible, but the other sort are pure evil. Alternatives are rolled up or shredded paper /cardboard. If you receive something with loads of the little blighters, then keep them to re-use at least. (And apologise to the recipient in advance!)

 

I have a couple medium to large boxes full of packing peanuts. I've tried to at least reuse them for when I ship out things so at least they will get one extra use. I guess I haven't thought about apologizing to the next person about it, maybe I should start doing that.

 

Wow, good point.
I am horrified at our dependence on plastic.
My family and I are trying to stop our use of single use plastic things...
It's really hard though.
Alexanders were decent the one time I bought them.
I was playing the Rigotti Golds more at the time, but I will give Alexanders another look.
I've been very annoyed at the amount of plastic used in Vandoren and D'addario.
They should accept those plastic covers for cleaning and reuse... but seriously doubt it.

 

They should accept those plastic covers for cleaning and reuse... but seriously doubt it.

Part of the problem with that of course is who is going to pay the postage?

Edible reed holders?

Seriously though I hope thios latest surge of environmental awareness continues and gains momentum. There will hiopefully come a point when the marketing departments notice the boycotts, or rather notice the figures as people vote with their feet.

They will probably not take so mucjh notice of what they view as "loony" environmentalists, but this kind of thing does work it seems,

We're phasing out plastic straws...

We pride ourselves on listening to our customers, so when Ava, aged five, sent us a letter asking us to stop putting plastic straws in her drink because "they are very bad for animals.", it spurred us to make a change.

We're now phasing out single-use plastic straws from all our 470+ restaurants from this summer, and we'll be replacing them with biodegradable and recyclable paper versions.

Zoe Bowley, Managing Director at PizzaExpress said:

"At PizzaExpress we are very conscious of the detrimental impact of plastics on wildlife and the environment. We received a letter in 2017 from one of our customers, Ava, aged 5, highlighting this impact and it spurred us on to continue working hard to significantly reduce the amount of plastic waste through our restaurants. We have already taken the decision to stop using plastic straws in our 470+ UK restaurants and will move to a biodegradable paper straw by this summer.

 

I get a lot via mail order.

I save boxes and packing material and give it to a small, locally owned pack and ship store. She appreciates the boxes and packing and reuses them which is better than recycling.

I tend to avoid buying things in single use plastic if there is an alternative, but too often there is not. And I reuse or recycle what I can.

When going away from home I fill glass or stainless bottles with tap water, so I don't have to by tap water sold in single use plastic bottles. At the grocery store I bring my own canvas bags, and if picking up a few or single items I'll carry them out without a bag.

If there is an option, I get things shipped to me via US Mail because the truck is going to pass my home every day, and there is no need for another polluting vehicle to come to me.

I planted well over a dozen trees on my half acre lot, I chose species that do not need fertilizer or any water that mother nature does not provide, and I shred and compost all the office paper I use.

I drive my car using gradual acceleration and anticipate braking to coast as much as I can before applying the brakes and get 100 extra miles per tankful and still get to where I'm going at the same time.

And when I take long walks on the beach, I pick up discarded plastic and put it in the recycling bins.

If we all do a little, the result is a lot.

My last box of regular Rico reeds came in cardboard, and if the new one comes in plastic, I will complain -- in writing. If enough customers complain, perhaps they will change. If not, at least I gave it a try.

Insights and incites by Notes

 

I get a lot via mail order.

I save boxes and packing material and give it to a small, locally owned pack and ship store. She appreciates the boxes and packing and reuses them which is better than recycling.

I tend to avoid buying things in single use plastic if there is an alternative, but too often there is not. And I reuse or recycle what I can.

When going away from home I fill glass or stainless bottles with tap water, so I don't have to by tap water sold in single use plastic bottles. At the grocery store I bring my own canvas bags, and if picking up a few or single items I'll carry them out without a bag.

If there is an option, I get things shipped to me via US Mail because the truck is going to pass my home every day, and there is no need for another polluting vehicle to come to me.

I planted well over a dozen trees on my half acre lot, I chose species that do not need fertilizer or any water that mother nature does not provide, and I shred and compost all the office paper I use.

I drive my car using gradual acceleration and anticipate braking to coast as much as I can before applying the brakes and get 100 extra miles per tankful and still get to where I'm going at the same time.

And when I take long walks on the beach, I pick up discarded plastic and put it in the recycling bins.

If we all do a little, the result is a lot.

My last box of regular Rico reeds came in cardboard, and if the new one comes in plastic, I will complain -- in writing. If enough customers complain, perhaps they will change. If not, at least I gave it a try.

Insights and incites by Notes

sounds like you and i are on the same planet!
good on ya mate!

 

Excellent thread! A good reminder about things we can do, including asking reed-makers to give up the plastic holders, or find another reed supplier. Re: packing plastics and styrofoam, I'm often appalled at the amount of such materials that are used in shipping. A small thing I do is to return such materials to my local UPS store which is happy to take them. At least they are reused rather than going immediately to the land fill. Also, for any gardeners/plant people out there, I use and re-use packing peanuts in the bottom of flower pots ... works as well as stones or broken pottery and weighs a lot less.

 

I am constantly appalled when I order some small part and it comes in a plastic bag inside another big plastic bag inside a box 20 times bigger than it needs to be filled with one or another form of packing that's also not needed. Someone is making a bunch of money by pushing a lot of un-needed waste. Really should be a movement against this. I guess we can each make a small effort toward that.

 

It would be nice if we could take the sleeves and give them back the supplier via the distributors. I'm a big dreamer.

 

Aren't Legere reeds made of plastic too? They don't last forever, and plastic takes 20,000 years to break down. Anyways, here's the deal with the great pacific garbage patch. It's not caused by responsible consumers of plastic, it's been caused by littering. When you throw plastic in the trash or recycle bin, it is either getting deposited in a landfill, or recycled. But when you throw it out your car window, like millions of a**holes do, it gets washed downstream and eventually into the ocean. Those plastic sleeves are usually made of polyethylene, same as milk jugs so they can easily be recycled. But if not, just throw them in the trash and they go out to a big hole in the desert and stay there. If you're so worried about the garbage patch, just don't throw them out your car window when you're done with them and they won't end up there. Oh and you might want to avoid products from China, since they are the ones most responsible for all that sea garbage. Go to the public beaches in china and you'll see what I mean. They don't throw their garbage in landfills over there, they throw it on the ground, where it gets eventually washed out to sea.

 

... China, since they are the ones most responsible for all that sea garbage. Go to the public beaches in china and you'll see what I mean. They don't throw their garbage in landfills over there, they throw it on the ground, where it gets eventually washed out to sea.

I'd be carefiul about blaming an entire country. People cause litter in every country in the world. Especially bad are cotton buds, cigarette ends, tampon dispensers, dental floss all going down the toilet.

 

The plastic in the seas is mostly massive fishing nets, which are abandoned when tangled or broken or whatever. the consumer plastic is just the frosting on the cake and really related to at-sea issues and illegal dumping, often by rouge actors based in developing or poorly regulated countries. I doubt your plastic is ending up in the ocean.

Oddly, when I tell people a plastic shopping bag, cradle to grave (recycled), uses 1/8 the carbon of paper one,,,they stare blankly. Of course the proverbial reuseable bag is the answer right. Uh, well, not really. Firstly it uses much more energy to make and likely is not from recycled sources, depending on its construction. Secondly, many of them are plastick-y and cheaply made, with handles reliably breaking after an average of 12.561, uses more or less. Then they cannot be recycled at all.

So, other than cloth reuseable bags that last for many years, I'll take plastic any day over paper for shopping .... but that's because I do recycle those thin annoying plastic bags, back at the market; they don't take them at curbside. Plastic recycles very nicely and with low energy, low losses. Paper does as well but much more energy intensive. But one plastic bag hung up in a tree will make all rationality go out the window.

Of course when commodity prices drop, it all becomes a pointless mess.

Yeah, I think Rigotti is now doing the stupid plastic thing.

But folks, if you look at waste / conservation at the industrial-commerce level, our concerns are really drops in the ocean.

 

The plastic in the seas is mostly massive fishing nets, which are abandoned when tangled or broken or whatever. the consumer plastic is just the frosting on the cake and really related to at-sea issues and illegal dumping, often by rouge actors based in developing or poorly regulated countries. I doubt your plastic is ending up in the ocean.

Oddly, when I tell people a plastic shopping bag, cradle to grave (recycled), uses 1/8 the carbon of paper one,,,they stare blankly. Of course the proverbial reuseable bag is the answer right. Uh, well, not really. Firstly it uses much more energy to make and likely is not from recycled sources, depending on its construction. Secondly, many of them are plastick-y and cheaply made, with handles reliably breaking after an average of 12.561, uses more or less. Then they cannot be recycled at all.

So, other than cloth reuseable bags that last for many years, I'll take plastic any day over paper for shopping .... but that's because I do recycle those thin annoying plastic bags, back at the market; they don't take them at curbside. Plastic recycles very nicely and with low energy, low losses. Paper does as well but much more energy intensive. But one plastic bag hung up in a tree will make all rationality go out the window.

Of course when commodity prices drop, it all becomes a pointless mess.

Yeah, I think Rigotti is now doing the stupid plastic thing.

But folks, if you look at waste / conservation at the industrial-commerce level, our concerns are really drops in the ocean.

I see what you are saying here. I've read and thought along these concerns.
And though I am not even close to an expert on this topic, here are some conclusions I've made.

Yes, I think a lot of poorly regulated and rouge countries or companies are dumping trash including plastic into the oceans.
But I think a lot of the plastic products are made by first world countries like the US and China or the demand for these products in the 1st world countries drives the production. If the 1st world consumers want plastic cover reeds, then the rest of the world has to deal with standard.
So, I've decided that we in the 1st world countries have a lot of what happens in these rouge countries and/or companies.
We have to be trend setters.
We have to be the ones trying to change things.
We can try to change industry through our letters and our buying habits...

And I wished everyone was recycling plastic.
But I see tons of plastic being washed into the ocean in the LA river after rain.
I also read recently that some US cities were sending their plastic trash to China to be recycled. Those Chinese recycling companies no longer want our trash.
Trans-Pacific shipping for recycling... ***. What a waste of time, energy...

 

Thanks.

My canvas shopping bags are probably 20-25 years old now. That's a lot of plastic saved. It's a much better alternative and don't let anyone tell you any different.

100 miles extra per tankful (5mpg higher than the factory rating and a 20 gallon tank) make for a lot of carbon not put into the air. And at the price of gas, it saves money too. My last car went over 100,000 miles before it needed brake work and it went 200,000 miles without needing a quart of oil between changes.

Having a xeriscaped yard means I don't have to water or fertilize, and since most of what I plant is native vegetation, they have their own defenses against local bugs.

We all have to do what we think is right, and my way may not be the best way for everybody, but I feel the less I waste, the better it is for future generations of Nortons. It's not about saving the planet, it's about saving humanity.

Notes

 

I am really impressed by the thoughtfulness, civility and clarity of forum members who have replied.

I did write Rigotti when they made the switch to the hard plastic cases for each reed. Bringing it up on the forum was also in hopes of increasing the visibility of the issue.

I am also very mindful of the waste I produce. We compost, bring our own glasses, water bottle and plastic forks to restaurants when we eat out, etc. I am especially bothered by all the single use plastic items, so throwing away hard plastic reed sleeves does generate considerable cognitive dissonance in me. I take little comfort that the first stop maybe a landfill, given that it may take 100,000 years to for them to break down, which may just mean to turn into plastic micro particles. They may end up in the ocean yet - "The blue mountains are constantly walking" (Dogen).

So in my case Legere produces less plastic than the mountains of hard plastic sleeve I produce looking for that good cane reed I just order another signature for tenor one half strength harder. It may be I just need to work at it to figure out how to play it in a way that removes what I perceive to be the "plastic" quality to the sound. And, you gotta love the consistency of Legere reeds from day to day in all kinds of weather.

 

As mentioned earlier Gonzalez reeds come in card sleeves.

They only use organic fertilizers, if that means anything

I use the RC which are similar to Vandoren Blue box. They also do a Jazz reed 'Local 627' and a 'Classic'.
And they tend to be cheaper than most brands.

 

As mentioned earlier Gonzalez reeds come in card sleeves.

They only use organic fertilizers, if that means anything

I use the RC which are similar to Vandoren Blue box. They also do a Jazz reed 'Local 627' and a 'Classic'.
And they tend to be cheaper than most brands.

I will absolutely try Gonzalez reeds. Many Thanks!

 

What if.....We set a date in the near future. Say like after the summer.
Until that date we save all plastic and excess packaging from your reeds.
We all write a letter each explaining that we don’t want to pay for the excess plastic and are concerned about the environment. We put all the reed sleeves, packaging foil etc in a envelopes/bags/boxes and we send it back to the producers for re-use, together with our letters.

If we all did it it would certainly make some kind of impact. And we as consumers would let the producers know what we expect from their products.

We all would have to spend some money for shipping. But it might be worth it.

D'Addario & Co.
PO Box 290
Farmingdale, NY 11735

D'Addario Canada
1-170 Alden Rd.
Markham, ON L3R 4C1


D'Addario UK Ltd.
2 Greenfinch Way
Newburn Riverside
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE15 8NX
United Kingdom

D'Addario Australia
PO Box 141
Kilsyth, 3137
VIC, Australia


D'Addario Europe
(Germany, Austria, Netherlands, N Belgium)
Wilhelm Leuschner-Strasse 70
60329 Frankfurt am Main
Germany

Vandoren Ets
56 Rue Lepic, 75018 Paris, France

 

When I was a kid, you could buy reeds individually out of a box behind the counter. No plastic wrapper, no plastic sleeve. Just a bare reed--which is all anyone really needs.

 

Except the stores had all the same waste, they were just opening the box for you.

Not sure how it was when you were a kid, but I think Vandoren was already using their plastic holders when I started to play in the 90s. I could go and buy the reeds individually from the store, but they would just open a normal box and sell them to me individually. There was actually more waste, because if you got a Rico branded reed (Rico, Rico Royal, LaVoz, etc.), this is when they were still using the big boxes with tissue paper, they would take it out of that box and put it in a paper reed holder for you to take it home.