Portland loves to reduce, reuse and, of course, recycle. But even here there are some things that just cannot be recycled. Take the plastic clamshell box, ubiquitous at grocery stores, full of ...

The scissors were on sale for $3. Suspended between two thick layers of tough plastic, they looked permanently imprisoned. Ingenuity, and no small amount of effort, would be needed to free my ...

How often have you struggled to open tamper-proof jars or medicine caps? Have you ever cut yourself while wrestling with shrink-wrap and hard, sharp plastic covers? Not only do product designs ...

For environmentalists, few quests would seem to make as much sense as the dream of biodegradable Styrofoam. As Greg Glenn, a USDA scientist who has worked on the problem for years, says, “If you’re ...

I’ve decided that clamshells are cool for clams but infuriating for the rest of us. Have you ever tried to sneak some leftover chow mein, a grocery-store cookie or fruit-topped slice of cheesecake at ...

Parents hate it and it's bad for the environment, so why are so many toys wrapped in layers of plastic wrap, twist ties, and clamshell boxes that practically take a chain saw to open? A packaging ...