Don’t you find it irritating when you buy something small and it comes wrapped like a ‘pass the parcel’ prize in mountains of packaging!?

I mean I love a bit of a surprise but seriously we are all trying to do our bit for the environment and here you are selling me some nail clippers in a box big enough for shoes.

And it isn’t just over the counter; some companies post things in enough packaging to insulate my whole house.

Sure there have been some improvements – we don’t see much polystyrene anymore and a lot of the packaging used can be recycled (either in your bin or by your child or husband, finding hours of entertainment licking and sticking those fluffy starch-based sticks on to themselves and the family pet). Any of you whose blood is currently boiling at thoughts of the piles of waste left after you manage to get to your Easter eggs and kids toys can breath a sigh of relief.

Imagine mixing the Brain of Einstein with Ikea and you get an idea of just how clever and beautiful a new range of packaging, being developed in Sweden, is.

This Too Shall Pass was created by Hannah Billqvist and Anna Glansén of Tomorrow Machine and includes a juice box that is made from seaweed extract Agar, which is also used in vegetarian jelly.

It has no taste and is colourless so not only does it make a nifty drink carton that shrinks to a tiny size, once empty it is also really pretty – like a stained glass window lit up by your orange juice.

They have also got a dry goods packet for things like rice and pasta that is made of paper-thin beeswax moulded into an eye-catching blue pyramid.

To get to the booty inside you simply peel the wrapper like a piece of fruit. The item that I like the most is Tomorrow Machine’s oil container.

Made from a candy shell of caramelised sugar this shiny dome containing your olive oil can be cracked like an egg and then dissolved in warm water.

Tomorrow Machine isn’t the only company producing innovative enviro-packaging.

If you google “revolutionary packaging” you will be inundated with twisty, compostable, reusable and sustainable new packaging options. But it isn’t just about saving the environment.

Marks and Spencer introduced natural materials such as clay and a patented concoction of minerals into its strawberry packaging to increase the fridge life of the fruit by a few days. M&S was sold on the science when it was shown that ethylene (the chemical that causes ripening in fruit) was absorbed by the packaging, thus helping the strawberries stay in their “just-picked” state longer.

It is clearly important (and also quite good fun) for us to find and adopt new and improved packaging to help reduce waste, but that doesn’t solve my problem with excessively large packaging. Come on manufacturers – we aren’t stupid.

We know how big a Barbie is and packaging is certainly one case of bigger not being better.

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